Serb gunmen battle police in Kosovo monastery siege; four dead
North Mitrovica, KosovoReuters Ethnic Serb gunmen in armoured vehicles stormed a village in north Kosovo on Sunday, battling police and barricading themselves in a monastery in a resurgence of violence in the restive north that killed four people. The siege centred on a Serbian Orthodox monastery near the village of Banjska in the Serb-majority region […]
NATO ready to act to save Kosovo’s peace, calls for de-escalation
Pristina, Kosovo Reuters NATO forces in Kosovo are ready to face any situation if acts of violence similar to recent encounters threaten the peace, the NATO commander in Pristina said late on Monday. Some 30 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo were injured in clashes with Serb protesters late on May. […]
Serbs dismantle barricades as Kosovo standoff eases
Rudare, Kosovo Reuters Serbs started dismantling barricades in northern Kosovo on Thursday, hours after Kosovo reopened its main border crossing with Serbia, easing a surge in tensions that has alarmed world powers. Serbia also ended a three-day-old state of alert for its troops, Tanjug news agency reported, as the sides showed signs of bowing to […]
Kosovo asks NATO to airlift a Serb detainee as tensions rise
Pristina, KosovoReuters Kosovo has asked NATO troops to airlift a former Serb policeman who was detained two weeks ago but could not be transferred elsewhere because local Serbs demanding his release set up barricades to prevent him being moved. Dejan Pantic was arrested on 10th December on charges of assaulting serving police officers during a […]
Serbs in Kosovo clash with police as ethnic tensions flare
Mitrovica, Kosovo Reuters Serb protesters in northern Kosovo blocked main roads for a second day on Sunday following a nighttime exchange of fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman, amid rising tensions between authorities and Kosovo’s Serb minority. In recent weeks Serbs in northern Kosovo – which they believe to be […]
Kosovo’s ethnic Serb police, lawmakers resign en masse
Pristina, Kosovo AP Representatives of the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo on Saturday resigned from their posts in protest over the dismissal of a police officer who did not follow the government’s decision on vehicle licence plates. Earlier this week Pristina authorities dismissed a senior Serb police officer in northern Kosovo, where most of the […]
Peace envoy steps in to try to ensure functioning government after Bosnians vote
Sarajevo, Bosnia and HerzegovinaReuters Bosnia’s polls closed on Sunday after voters turned out to choose the country’s new collective presidency and lawmakers at national, regional and local levels, in a contest between entrenched nationalists and economy-focused reformists. The first official results are expected at midnight, but political parties are expected to come out with their […]
Bosnian Croats say may push for own region unless election law changes
Sarajevo, Bosnia and HerzegoviaReuters Bosnian Croat nationalists said on Saturday they could launch a political process to form their own region in Bosnia unless an election law is changed in a way that bolsters their representation in national institutions. The Croatian National Parliament (HNS), a body representing Bosnian Croat political parties and led by the […]
Nine Serbs indicted for killing around 100 Muslims during Bosnian war
Sarajevo, Bosnia and HerzegovinaReuters A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor has indicted nine Bosnian Serbs for the killing of around 100 Muslim Bosniaks, including seven entire families, early in the 1992-95 war, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday. Twenty-six years after the end of its devastating war between Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and […]
Montenegrins protest inauguration of new Serbian church head
Cetinje, Montenegro AP Several thousand people demonstrated Sunday in Montenegro over the planned inauguration of the new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the small Balkan state. Ethic tensions have soared over the scheduled ceremony for Metropolitan Bishop Joanikije II. The protesters in Montenegro’s former capital, Cetinje, where the 5th September inauguration is to […]