Balkaninsight.com

Defence lawyers for former Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic denied a Zagreb official’s claim that all the people who went missing during the Croatian war were civilians.

Kurt Volker, US special representative on Ukraine, will meet his Russian counterpart in the Serbian capital as disagreements continue about the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers.

Corruption allegations at local level are exposing conflicts within Bulgaria's ruling GERB party – but they are unlikely to threaten its rule for now, as the country held an election only recently, in March.

Serbian media outlets and NGOs that recently blacked out websites or went off air in protest against what they see as assaults on media freedom are meeting in Belgrade on Thursday to chart a new campaign.

The Spanish region’s bid for independence has reverberated across the Balkans, which has a history of separatism and where some regions harbour similar ambitions.

Violently sharp peaks, azure lakes and the odd bear make Montenegro’s wild Prokletije mountains one of the Balkans hikers’ best-kept secrets. 

Seventeen years on from October 5, 2000, when energy-packed protests overthrew the Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, those at the heart of those stirring events recall them fondly.

As the state management of Agrokor prepares to reveal the results of an in-depth financial study on Thursday, many fear that it will reveal new, previously hidden, company debts.

Ahead of his war crimes verdict, Naser Oric, a wartime defender of Srebrenica who once worked as Slobodan Milosevic’s bodyguard, says he is “loved” by Bosniaks - but is also despised by many Serbs.

A Croatian official told the trial of former Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that Zagreb is still searching for people who disappeared as a result of Serb forces’ attacks in 1991.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals launched an online multimedia exhibition giving insights into the suffering of children during the former Yugoslav wars and the Rwanda genocide.

Croatia’s Defence Minister admitted the US military is using its infrastructure following BIRN’s revelation that a small island airport had become a Pentagon hub.

The first trial in Serbia for the mass killings of Bosniaks from Srebrenica will continue, after an appeals court overturned a previous ruling that required the prosecutor to file new charges.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has indefinitely postponed his announced visit to Zagreb, following a recent worsening in Croatia-Serbia relations.

A record 23 candidates in Macedonia are bidding for the vacant post of chief prosecutor – who faces a tough task in restoring faith in this important but discredited institution.

Human rights and LGBT activist Goran Miletic talks about being openly gay in a homophobic society, and how the prime minister attending this year’s Belgrade Pride was a positive signal.

Boge, a mountain resort village in western Kosovo set in a picturesque landscape, attracts visitors in winter for its skiing but also in other seasons for hiking, mountaineering, paragliding and traditional Albanian food.

A number of Balkan states may have been rebellious provinces within recent memory – but don’t expect them to stick up for anyone else’s fight for self-determination.

With higher benefit payments to 1990s war veterans, the purchase of military jets and debt settlements in the health sector, the Croatian government again risks inflating its budget deficit.

In an unexpected development, Macedonia’s provisional chief prosecutor advised the Supreme Court to scrap life sentences given to six alleged ethnic Albanian Muslim extremists for the killings of five ethnic Macedonians.