Balkan News

An expert witness told the Hague trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that the Serbian State Security Service, which they ran, was able to deploy paramilitary boss Arkan’s forces - a claim rejected by the defence.

We look at hopes that some old disputes in the region could be resolved as the odd gust of fresh thinking blows in different corners of the region, as well as reflecting on issues of good governance and peoples power. 

After Malcolm Simmons quit as president of the judges of the EU's rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, saying it had become too politicised, EULEX has said the judge himself was the subject of serious investigations.

After his arrest, Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic told his lawyers not to waste time defending him, but instead to defend the “Serb army and people”, defence team member Miodrag Stojanovic told BIRN.

Alleged letter to Bulgarian authorities, leaked to BIRN, expresses European Commission’s concerns about the Balkan country’s treatment of refugees, Afghan nationals in particular.

Twenty-six years after the Croatian town of Vukovar fell, Predrag Matic, who fought to defend it, was captured and imprisoned, and later became a government minister, recalls how the reality of war was a horrific surprise.

The case of an obstinate Romanian shepherd – who refuses to demolish a sheepfold that keeps triggering the alarms at a US military base – is creating a headache for the Romanian government.

A draft strategy developed by the government says fighters coming back from the Middle East, as Islamic State collapses, pose the next major challenge to the country's security.

During 16 years on the run, Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic was aided by Serbian officers, his Bosnian comrades and his family - but Serbia seems determined to keep the facts secret.

In a club beneath the surface of the grey capital of the Soviet-style breakaway region, a new generation is speaking out and having fun at the same time.

The Bosnian Serb bloc in the state government has dismissed calls to quit both the government and other state institutions over suggestions that Bosnia may recognise the independence of Kosovo.

While Bulgaria and Romania have chosen to welcome the latest European Commission reports on their judicial reforms and moves to combat corruption, the reports contain much criticisms of the results the two countries achieved in 2017. 

Ten current and former officials from the property registry office and local government have been arrested after Albanian police uncovered a devious scam to appropriate public land along the coast.

The authorities from Chișinau and the separatist capital of Tiraspol will resume talks on the intractable conflict in November in Vienna.

At the trial of Zoran Vukotic, a Serb ex-policeman charged with war crimes in 1999, two Kosovo Albanian witnesses testified about the defendant’s alleged brutality against civilian prisoners.

01 Nov 17 Bosnia Arrests Man with Missing Copy of Dayton Agreement The Bosnian Serb police arrested a man in the town of Pale after they searched his apartment and found an original copy of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian war. Mladen Lakic BIRN Sarajevo The signing of the Dayton Agreement in 1995. Photo: Central Intelligence Agency/Flickr. Officers from the Republika Srpska interior ministry’s Directorate for Organised and Serious Crimes arrested the suspect in Pale on Tuesday in possession of one of the four original copies of the peace agreement that ended the war. The copy had been missing since at least 2008. “I can confirm […]

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci joined a discussion on the potential creation of a regular army in Kosovo, saying Serbian fears about such a development needed addressing.

The former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic’s defence asked the Hague Tribunal to postpone his verdict, which is due on November 22, until Serbian doctors confirm he is not seriously ill.

The president of the UN war crimes court told Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic that Belgrade’s decision to allow freed war criminal Vladimir Lazarevic to lecture at the Serbian Military Academy was “unacceptable”.

World Bank's latest global business ranking holds cheering news for some Western Balkan countries, such as Macedonia and Kosovo, but not for Bosnia, Croatia and Albania, which did not make it into the top 50.