Balkaninsight.com

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.

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.

The apparent decision of a Latin American state to revoke its recognition of Kosovo shows the diplomatic struggle over Serbia’s former province is far from over.

The Kosovo Special Prosecution announced that there is no evidence to support allegations that Serb minister Nenad Rikalo tortured ethnic Albanians during the war.

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.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network has published an e-book about the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, aiming to increase understanding about the newly-established court that will try ex-guerrillas for crimes during and after the war.

Serbia is doing nothing to stop its citizens from fighting in East Ukraine while Moscow is ‘using Serbia’ for its battles elsewhere, Ukraine’s ambassador, Oleksandr Aleksandrovych, told BIRN in an interview.

Bosnia’s Federation MPs has approved a deal with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, EBRD, that aims to resolve water supply issues in the Bosnian capital, which have left Sarajevans without continuous running water for a least a decade.