Balkan News

Romania’s former PM is staging a political comeback after being cleared of graft charges – and as his new party lures away Social Democrat MPs, the ruling party's leadership is worried. 

Proposals to establish a remembrance museum at the Spac jail, where Albania’s Communist regime used political detainees as forced labour, have been frustrated by the lack of funds - while the derelict prison continues to crumble.

The main opposition parties in Albania hold a mass rally on Saturday, accusing the government of having links to drug dealers and demanding resignation of the Albanian Prime Minister.

Eleven former Croatian Defence Council fighters went on trial for the torture, beating and sexual abuse of Bosniak civilian detainees in Mostar in 1992 and 1993.

Former Bosnian Army serviceman Edhem Zilic was convicted of war crimes against civilian prisoners in Konjic in 1993 but his sentence was reduced on appeal from nine to six years.

Montenegrin rights groups urged the authorities to punish the perpetrators of the forced deportations of Bosniak refugees 26 years ago and build a memorial to the victims.

A new economy minister, Darko Horvat, has been appointed in Croatia to deal with the country's crisis-hit retail giant Agrokor.

Kosovo's biggest landfill is a disaster waiting to happen, experts told BIRN TV show Jeta ne Kosove on Thursday – despite which the government is taking no action.

The main opposition parties in Albania are preparing for a major protest on Saturday, accusing the government of having links to drug dealers, despite being called 'traitors' to Albania by the Prime Minister.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has refused to appoint an ethnic Serb nominee to the Constitutional Court over claims that he has a criminal conviction in Serbia for smuggling.

Zoran Vukotic, a Serb former policeman in Kosovo, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years for for the mistreatment and torture of ethnic Albanian civilian prisoners at a jail in 1999.

At a fresh round of UN-mediated talks that resumes on Friday in New York, Greece and Macedonia will try to bring their stances closer to a compromise on their long-standing bilateral name dispute.

A report by Impunity Watch says the “highly troubled” state of transitional justice must be addressed urgently in the Balkans, where war crimes prosecutions are declining and nationalist rhetoric persists.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said he will use his attendance at the Economic Forum in St Petersburg to warn Russia's President of the huge sums allegedly being spent in Bosnia on anti-Russian campaigns.

Croatia's parliament is expected to adopt a special law to speed up construction of the floating LNG terminal on the island of Krk, which some see as controversial and as a threat to the environment.

The massacre of 71 young people in Tuzla on May 25, 1995 was one of the most deadly crimes against civilians of the Bosnian war - but the only person to be convicted is still free.

Thirty years have passed since Yugoslavia’s last Youth Day ‘slet’, an annual event which was designed to make nations work out their differences.

Ever-shifting hurdles, large and small, mountable and seemingly insurmountable, seem to be the common theme of some of our articles this week, interspersed with the region’s rising and falling stars. 

The defence at the war crimes trial of former Serbian State Security official Franko Simatovic insisted he was not in command of the Red Berets unit in 1995 when it allegedly committed crimes.

Moldova's President met the wealthy Russian businessman Igor Chaika in St Petersburg on Thursday – prompting speculation that their talks touched on Chaika's interest in 'mining' bitcoin in Moldova's breakaway 'crypto-friendly' region.