Current Articles

A European Awakening Against Islamic Fascism?
By Victor Davis Hanson
February 6, 2006
Over the last four years Americans have played a sort of parlor game wondering when—or if—the Europeans might awake to the danger of Islamic fascism and choose a more muscular role in the war on terrorism.

Gotovina`s defense team claims CIA planned 'Operation Storm'
By John C.K. Daly
Jan 16, 2006, 19:00 GMT
The Zagreb Croatian Journal Globus is reporting that in August 1995 the Central Intelligence Agency secretly planned the 'Operation Storm' military campaign to drive more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia.

CROATS FROM BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN DIASPORA
STATEMENT ON THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Whereas, the 1995 Dayton Agreement has rewarded aggression and genocide by
imposing an illegal and unjust division of the internationally recognized state
of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina into two “entities”: Bosniac-Croat
Federation and Serb Republic, plus an autonomous Brcko District,

Firm Hired by Sanader To Create The Croatian Lobby Goes Out of Business Amid Massive Abramoff Scandal in DC
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 10, 2006; A01
One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.

Sweet Charity
December 24, 2005
Page A8 Wall Street Journal
Americans are "stingy." This was the accusation hurled at the U.S. almost exactly one year ago today by Jan England, United Nations Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, immediately after the Asian tsunami disaster.

ICTY Cooperation and Gotovina Capture Gets Croatia NATO Recommendation.
U.S. Senate Adopts Resolution Recommending That Croatia Join NATO As Soon As Possible
The U.S. Senate has adopted a resolution recommending that Croatia be admitted to NATO as soon as possible and praising Zagreb's fulfillment of the NATO membership criteria, strengthening of democracy and cooperation with the Hague-based UN tribunal.
The "S. Res 342" resolution acknowledges Croatia's progress in meeting the political, economic and military requirements for NATO membership, and recommends Croatia's admission to NATO at the earliest possible date.

Serbs on trial for filmed deaths of Bosnian Muslims
20/12/2005 - 14:19:09
The landmark trial of five Serb militiamen charged with the videotaped murders of six young Bosnian Muslims in 1995 opened in Belgrade today.

Chief Prosecutor Thanks Croatia For Bringing Fugitive General To Hague Tribunal
2005-12-16
Hague war crimes tribunal (ICTY) chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte has thanked the Croatian government for bringing fugitive general Ante Gotovina to The Hague, and said that Croatian authorities provided information on Gotovina's whereabouts.

German Schwartz-Schilling New Int. High Representative To Bosnia
Turkish Weekly 12.14.05
German politician Christian Schwartz-Schilling on Wednesday was appointed new international community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Bosnian federal television reported.

Croatia’s Gotovina pleads not guilty to war crimes
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Monday, 12 December: 16.03 CET) - Wartime Croatian General Ante Gotovina pleaded not guilty on Monday to war crimes charges against him at the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Serbia asked to give more autonomy to Vojvodina
15/12/2005
(Novi Sad, DTT-NET.COM) - Beside Kosovo and Montenegro seeking independence, Serbian leadership could be faced with third burden at the same time as Ethnic Hungarians have stepped up calls for more political rights for Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina.

HUNGARIANS PUSH FOR AUTONOMY
Belgrade, 15 Dec. (AKI) - Leaders of three ethnic Hungarian parties in Serbia’s northern Vojvodina province have stepped up a drive for the autonomy of some 340.000 of their co-nationals living in Serbia. In an open letter to Serbian president Boris Tadic and prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, the leaders said talks on the status of ethnic Hungarians should be held in parallel with the negotiations on the final status of Kosovo province, where majority Albanians demand independence.

Massive rally for Croatia suspect
BBC 12.11.05
Many Croats are proud of Gotovina's war record. Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a rally in support of Croatian war crimes suspect Gen Ante Gotovina.

Croatian Serb rebel leader goes on trial
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
December 13, 2005
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A war crimes trial opened Tuesday for Milan Martic, a leader of Croatia's breakaway minority Serbs, with prosecutors accusing the former policeman of hundreds of murders, while he said he had been defending his people against Croatian atrocities.

Fourteen convicted for war crimes
December 13, 2005
SERBIA has convicted 14 former Serb militia members of the massacre of nearly 200 Croatian prisoners of war and wounded during the battle of Vukovar in November 1991.

Black day for Croatia
Commentary by Jeffrey Kuhner
Insight on the News
Issue Date: December 5-11, 2005
Fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina was captured in Spain on Thursday. It is a dark day for the general and for all those who fought and died for Croatia’s independence from Yugoslavia. In fact, his arrest and extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is the most calamitous event in the region since the end of the Balkan wars.

UN prosecutor urges Serbia to follow example of Croatia
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-09 04:25:59
BELGRADE, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, urged on Thursday the Serbian authorities to follow the example of Croatia in tracking down a top war crimes suspect.

CROATIAN PRIME MINISTER CONFIRMS FUGITIVE GENERAL'S ARREST - EXTENDED HNA
ZAGREB, Dec 8 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has confirmed that fugitive general Ante Gotovina has been arrested and that he has been informed of his arrest by Hague tribunal chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte.

War crimes fugitive caught as he dines in style on holiday isle
By Anthony Browne
The Times
December 09, 2005
ONE of the world’s most wanted alleged war criminals, is expected to be flown under police escort to The Hague today to stand trial after his arrest in a Tenerife holiday resort ended four years on the run.

Croatia’s war crime suspect arrested in Spain
December 8, 2005
(Belgrade/Brussels, DTT-NET.COM)- After four years of being at large Croatian former general Ante Gotovina, indicted for war crimes by International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was arrested Wednesday evening in Spain, the chief prosecutor of the ICTY announced on Thursday.

War veterans say Zagreb behaving 'cowardly' over Gotovina
Agence France Presse -- English
December 8, 2005 Thursday 2:26 PM GMT
SPLIT, Croatia - Croatian war veterans on Thursday accused the government of 'cowardly' behaviour towards former general Ante Gotovina after the war crimes fugitive was arrested in Spain.

"It is sad that the Croatian government has behaved so cowardly towards Ante Gotovina," said Zeljko Strize, the head of the local branch of Croatia's veteran's association in the southern town of Kastela.

United States Suggests Interim U.N. Budget Ambassador Bolton says 2006-2007 budget must reflect reform effort
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
06 December 2005
United Nations -- The United States is urging the U.N. General Assembly to adopt a three-month interim budget to give member states more time to act on a comprehensive reform package before committing to a biennial budget.

Reform, U.N.-Style
December 6, 2005; Page A20 Wall Street Journal
Front and center on the United Nations Web site is a link titled "Renewing the U.N." Click on it and you'll find a photo of Secretary General Kofi Annan next to a statement that reads, in part, "We must reshape the Organization in ways not previously imagined and with a boldness and speed not previously shown.

A new constitution for Bosnia
By SWANEE HUNT
Scripps Howard News Service
07-DEC-05
Ten years ago last month, warriors and diplomats met in Dayton, Ohio, for talks that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The three-and-a-half year rampage, initiated by Serb radicals supported by Slobodan Milosevic, left 200,000 dead.

Turkish Trade
Turkish Weekly
12.6.05
President Mesic Meets His Turkish Counterpart Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who arrived in Ankara on Tuesday morning for a two-day official visit, met his host, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Using trade agreements to help bind the Balkans
Financial Times
By Eric Jansson in Belgrade and Kerin Hope in Athens
December 6, 2005
Recent moves have raised hopes that the Balkan region may one day join the European Union. Accession negotiations have been launched with Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro is in talks on a "stabilisation and association agreement" and Brussels decided this month to start talks with Bosnia.

An Islamist state in Europe?
Commentary by Jeffrey Kuhner
11/28/2005
The Bush administration has decided to get involved in another dangerous nation-building project,this time in the volatile Balkans. More ominously, the effects of this intervention will be to lay the groundwork for an Islamist state in the heart of Europe.

In Russia We Trust?
November 28, 2005; Page A16 Wall Street Journal
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported last week that Iran possesses detailed drawings showing ways to "cast and machine enriched natural and depleted uranium into hemispherical forms," which is another way of saying the inner core of a nuclear bomb.

Solana: Time to move beyond Dayton Accord in Bosnia
Brussels, Nov 26, IRNA
European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana has admitted that Europe's failure to stop the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina cost thousands of lives and displaced two million people, mainly Muslims.

Terrorist Cells Find Foothold in Balkans Arrests Point to Attacks Within Europe
By Rade Maroevic and Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 1, 2005; Page A16
SARAJEVO, Bosnia -- The raid netted explosives, rifles, other arms and a videotape pledging vengeance for the "brothers" killed fighting Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police found the cache in an apartment occupied by an underground group that was aiming to blow up the British Embassy in Sarajevo, Western intelligence officials said.

A progress of sorts is being made in Bosnia
By Gwynne Dyer
Salt Lake Tribune
11.27.05
Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs during their 1992-95 attempt to cleanse the areas where they were a majority of all other ethnic groups, destroy Bosnia and unite with Serbia, is a rotten poet, but his recently published volume of poetry shows that, after 10 years as a fugitive, he is still filled with rage and hate. Unfortunately, so is the Bosnian state he tried to destroy.

Maximum sentence urged in Serb-Croat case
DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press
November 25, 2005
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - War crimes prosecutors demanded the maximum punishment Friday for Serb paramilitary troops who refuse to confess to the slaughter of 192 Croat prisoners, one of the worst POW massacres of the Balkan wars.

Bosnia: Haven for Islamic radicals?
By Nicholas Wood International Herald Tribune
SARAJEVO A police raid last month on an apartment near this city's airport uncovered evidence of an imminent suicide bombing, intensifying the fears of Western security services that Bosnia is becoming a haven for Islamic radicals.

EU’s Solana says Kosovo talks can not affect Bosnia borders
25/11/2005
(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM)- Top officials of European Union said that current external borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) can not be affected, in whatever the outcome of the UN led talks on the future status of Kosovo would be.

China, Croatia vow to expand military cooperation
Source: Xinhua
11.29.05
China is ready to make joint efforts with Croatia to expand and enrich the cooperation between the two armed forces, said Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan Monday. He made the remarks at a meeting here with Josip Lucic, chief of general staff of the Croatian armed forces.

NATO vs. Islamist Terror
By JOSE MARIA AZNAR
WSJ, November 28, 2005; Page A16
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 in order to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of Western nations. It was built upon the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, and as such is equally vital today. The alliance was able to protect our freedom from the Soviet threat. Now it is imperative to defend us against the threat of Islamist terror.

Serbia and Montenegro: Stop attacks on human rights activists
Amnesty International Press release, 11/29/2005
Human rights activists and independent journalists in Serbia are increasingly threatened and even physically attacked in an attempt to silence debate about past atrocities, Amnesty International said today in a new report. Their premises are covered with offensive graffiti and they are threatened with legal action or the opening of what appear to be malicious prosecutions.

Today's Bosnia: a dependent, stifled, apartheid regime
Author: Jonathan Steele
Uploaded: Tuesday, 29 November, 2005
Comment in The Guardian (London) argues that the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton agreement provides Europe with a chance to reinvigorate a recovery in the Balkans

U.S. pressures Balkan state to 'modernize'
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 22, 2005
The United States yesterday predicted a bleak future for Bosnia-Herzegovina if it does not change its constitution to "modernize" the decade-old Dayton Accords that ended the war in the former Yugoslav republic.

Serbia, Croatia: Serbian and Croatian PMs Advance Regional Stability
17:46 - 23 November 2005 - Serbian and Croatian Prime Ministers Vojislav Kostunica and Ivo Sanader respectively said in Zagreb that the increasingly improving relations between Serbia and Croatia will add to the stability in the region and help to solve all open issues.

MUSLIM EX-ARMY CHIEF ACQUITTED OF WAR CRIMES
The Hague, 16 Nov. (AKI) - A former Bosnian Muslim army commander has been acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague of charges relating to the 1993 massacres of Croatian civilians. Sefer Halilovic, 53, ex-chief of staff of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army, is the most senior Muslim indictee to be judged by the court. The three-judge panel said prosecutors had failed to prove Halilovic had been in charge of troops who carried out the killings in the villages of Grabovica and Uzdol.

Bosnian Police Arrest Serb Suspected over War Crimes in Croatia
20 November 2005 | 20:02 | FOCUS News Agency
Banja Luka. Bosnian police announced Sunday it had arrested a Serb, who had
been wanted by Croatia over war crimes he committed during the
Serbian-Croatian war (1991-1995), AFP reported.

EU approves SAA talks with Bosnia
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Monday, 21 November: 16.24 CET) - The EU on Monday agreed to begin Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first step towards EU membership for Western Balkan countries.

France's Chirac Backs Croatia's EU Membership Bid
By VOA News
15 November 2005
French President Jacques Chirac has offered his support for Croatia's aspirations for European Union membership.

Secessionist Kosovo, Montenegro Test Serbia's Politics
By Barry Wood
16 November 2005
With the status of Serbia's relationship with Kosovo and Montenegro soon to come under discussion, Serbian politics may be entering a new and unpredictable phase. In Serbia, the reformist coalition of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica clings to power because it has the informal support of the Socialist Party of indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. But the government will soon face critical tests as it grapples with Serbia's evolving relationship with Kosovo and Montenegro.

Vizjak Says Slovenia May Adopt Harder Line on Croatia's EU Bid
Economics Minister Andrej Vizjak has suggested that Slovenia may adopt a harder line to Croatia's efforts to join the EU in response to the arbitration motion that Croatia filed against Slovenia over undelivered electricity from the Nuclear Power Plant Krsko (NEK) Economics Minister Andrej Vizjak has suggested that Slovenia may adopt a harder line to Croatia's efforts to join the EU in response to the arbitration motion that Croatia filed against Slovenia over undelivered electricity from the Nuclear Power Plant Krsko (NEK).

NFCA and Croatian Caucus Back Mesic / Senader Plan to Trade Gotovina for NATO Membership!
The Mesic/Senader founded Croatian Caucus is trying to introduce a bill in the House International Relations Committee Subcommitte on Europe, that would recommend NATO membership for Croatia in exchange for turning in "the indictee."

Bosnia leaders slowly moving toward deal on constitutional changes
14/11/2005
(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM) – Leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina three ethnicities (Muslims, Serbs and Croats) have made a step forward to an agreement on changing the constitution, as they ended the three day meeting held in Belgium with optimism to strengthen central institutions and overcome ethnic divisions originating from 1995 Dayton Accords.

BOSNIA: NO AGREEMENT ON NEW CONSTITUTION
Brussels, 14 Nov. (AKI) - The leaders of eight Bosnian political parties have failed to come to an agreement on the country’s new constitution, after a three-day meeting in Brussels, sponsored by the European Union and the United States. The representatives of Bosnia’s three nationalities, Bosniacs (Muslims), Serbs and Croats, agreed to disagree and to continue negotiations next week in Washington.

Bosnia constitution talks begin with deep divisions
12/11/2005
(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM) – No deal on sight on “upgrading” the 1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Dayton Agreement during the first out of three-day of the US sponsored conference which started Saturday morning in Belgian capital of Brussels, between the leaders of three ethnic communities of the Balkan country.

Revealed: US plans for Bosnian constitution
Ian Traynor in Sarajevo
Thursday November 10, 2005
The Guardian
Crunch date looms over democracy ambitions · Lure of EU entry is driving reconciliation process
The Americans have written a new constitution transforming Bosnia into a centrally governed parliamentary democracy for the first time, and are pushing strongly - with European backing - to have the blueprint agreed by Bosnia's rival nationalist leaders within the next fortnight.

BOMB BLAST IN KOSOVAN CAPITAL
Pristina/Belgrade, 9 Nov. (AKI) - An explosion shook the capital of Muslim-majority Kosovo, Pristina early on Wednesday, destroying a car parked near the offices of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

EU Calls On Bosnia To Reform Constitution
12 November 2005 -- The European Union today called on Bosnian leaders to simplify the country's postwar constitution before Bosnia opens EU entry talks. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters in Brussels after meeting with Bosnian officials that "constitutional evolution" was extremely important for Bosnia to make progress in its aim of joining the EU.

President Mesic vs. VECERNJI LIST
FERAL TRIBUNE
A 'silent war' has reportedly been going on for months between President Mesic and the new editorial board of VECERNJI LIST, headed by Miljenko Manjkas.

No Joint Statement on Dayton Agreement
Ivana Stevanovic
oneworld.net
07 November 2005
Presidents of Serbian and Montenegro and Croatia, as well as the Members of B&H Presidency, refused to sign the joint statement in which they express agreement on the necessity to change the Dayton Agreement, as proposed by the organizers of the Igman Initaitives.

Farewell, Sarajevo
Wednesday November 2, 2005
The Guardian
As he steps down as the de facto ruler of Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown tells Ed Vulliamy that it has been 'frightening to have so much power'
Lord Jeremy "Paddy" Ashdown has not yet packed his bags, and has still to find a buyer for his beloved lakeside house. But in his heart, he is ready to go now. The international community's high representative to Bosnia Herzegovina - whose powers have been likened to those of a colonial governor of yore - is moving on. His successor is about to be announced; he has promised to bring his wife, Jane, home to Britain in time for Christmas.

Embassy Row
By James Morrison
November 3, 2005
Washington Times
Mistakes in Bosnia
Former Ambassador Swanee Hunt is worried that the Bush administration might make the same mistakes in Iraq as the Clinton administration did in Bosnia.

Mrs. Hunt said U.S. diplomats only created more instability when they negotiated the 1995 peace accords in Dayton, Ohio, that ended the civil war in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was involved in Bosnian peace efforts as President Clinton's ambassador to Austria from 1993 to 1997.

U.N. Court Faces Fairness Issue at Milosevic Trial
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: November 4, 2005 New York Times
THE HAGUE, Oct. 31 - Judges trying Slobodan Milosevic are facing a new test of the credibility of the international court: either they allow the former Yugoslav strongman to overhaul his defense schedule, or they risk accusations of an unfair trial.

Statement By Former U.S. Ambassador Swanee Hunt on the 10th Anniversary of Dayton Accords
Tuesday November 1, 11:54 am ET
Warns of Repeating Mistakes In Iraq
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Swanee Hunt, U.S. Ambassador to Austria from 1993-1997, was one of the first American diplomats on the ground in Bosnia before the NATO intervention. During the war, her work included organizing symposia to focus efforts on securing peace. She also hosted negotiations that led to the creation of the Bosnian-Croat Federation -- the foundation for later peacemaking efforts, including one year later at Dayton.

Senior CPC official meets Croatian SDP delegation
www.chinaview.cn
2005-11-03 19:26:12
BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) attaches importance to relations with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of Croatia, said a senior CPC official here Thursday.

Kofi Annan appoints President Ahtisaari to lead Kosovo talks
Helsigin Sanomat
11.2.05
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed officially on Tuesday that former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari would be his representative in talks on the final status of Serbia's province of Kosovo.

German Police Tracing Former Head of Croatia’s Subdivision of Yugoslavian Secret Services
29 October 2005
FOCUS News Agency
Zagreb. Croatian President Stipe Mesic said he does not dispose of any information on the case with the former Head of Croatia’s subdivision of the Yugoslavian Secret Services UDBA Josip Perkovic and still has no official information on the fact that a prosecution has been launched against Perkovic and he is required to surrender, the Croatian agency HINA announced.

EU Proposes Cuts in Tariffs Protecting Farmers
By SCOTT MILLER and JULIANE VON REPPERT-BISMARCK in Brussels, and GREG HITT in Washington
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 29, 2005; Page A4
Global trade talks gained some momentum after the European Union proposed a package of tariff cuts that would expose highly protected European farmers to greater foreign competition.

UN TRIBUNAL TRANSFERS ADEMI AND NORAC CASE TO CROATIA
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 1 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has announced that the case of the two retired Croatian generals, Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac, was transferred to Croatia.

Two mass graves uncovered in Bosnia in a single month
Budapest Times
10.31.05
Forensic scientists last Monday began exhuming bodies from the latest mass grave found in Bosnia, a spokesman for the Commission on Missing Persons said.

Tito's Parrot Quarantined over Bird Flu Fears
World in Brief: 29 October 2005, Saturday.
Sofia News Agency
The parrot Koki of the former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito has been put under quarantine as a precautionary measure following the bird flu cases reported in Croatia, DPA reported.

Another U.N. miscue?
By Jeffrey Kuhner
Published October 23, 2005
The United Nations is involved in another scandal. This time, however, it threatens to implicate numerous officials in the U.S. State Department.

Recent revelations of massive corruption in the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, as well as accusations of rampant sex abuse by peacekeepers in places such as Cambodia and Kosovo, have finally compelled the Bush administration to demand greater accountability and reform of the world body.

Defining Capitalism Up
October 28, 2005; Wall Street Journal
In his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell famously lamented that our language "becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." He was writing about his native tongue, but today a group of young free-marketeers in Central and Eastern Europe have discovered the same thing -- discussions of economics in their countries are being poisoned by a vocabulary inherited from their communist past.

Volcker 5.0
October 28, 2005; Wall Street Journal
The publication yesterday of Paul Volcker's fifth and final report on the U.N.'s Oil for Food program tells us little we didn't know about the broad outlines of the $100 billion scandal. But, oh, are the details ever instructive.

The American Way
By MARK VAILE
October 28, 2005; Wall Street Journal
CANBERRA -- The Doha round of world trade negotiations presents a historical opportunity to lift millions of people out of poverty.

Bush gets it right about independence for Kosovo
HAROON SIDDIQUI
Oct. 27, 2005. 02:33 AM
The world is still cleaning up the stains of Slobodan Milosevic's bloody ethnic cleansing. On Monday, the Security Council gave the green light to Kosovo, a United Nations protectorate since 1999, to begin negotiating an end to the legal fiction that it is still a province of Serbia and Montenegro, the successor state of the former Yugoslavia.

DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL FROM CROATIA VISITS THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF BiH
27.10.2005 (14:03)
SARAJEVO, October 27 (FENA) - Lazo Pajic, Deputy Attorney General from Croatia, arrived today for two days official visit to the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That visit is based on the Protocol on Official Cooperation between State Prosecutor’s Office of Croatia and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Prosecutor’s Office of BiH said.

Bosnian Croat Pleads Guilty to War Crimes
VOA News
26 October 2005
A former Bosnian Croat paramilitary leader has pleaded guilty to four counts of war crimes for leading an attack on a Muslim village in central Bosnia-Herzegovina in which at least 16 civilians were killed.

CROATIA'S SANADER TAKES PART IN INFORMAL EU MEETING
HAMPTON COURT, Oct 27 (Hina) - Croatia and the European Union share the same problems regarding globalisation, which is an inevitable process but which also has 'collateral victims' on the social front, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said at Hampton Court on Thursday.

Business as Usual
By CLAUDIA ROSETT
October 27, 2005; Page A20 Wall Street Journal
Few outside U.N. circles have heard of IHC Services, a private company that for years was one of hundreds of firms selling goods and services to the U.N. As a rule, the U.N. keeps secret most details of these deals. But scandals involving IHC have begun lifting the lid on how the U.N. handles taxpayers' money.

I Can See Clearly Now
October 26, 2005 Wall Street Journal
The debate over the European Union budget and its profligate farm subsidies will be reopened when Tony Blair addresses the European Parliament today in Strasbourg and hosts the other 24 EU leaders for a summit in Britain tomorrow.

US dislikes Mesic’s foreign Policy
Nacional
10.19.05
The US pressure on Croatia to apprehend Gen. Gotovina will end and Croatia will get US support for NATO only if and when President Mesic and Prime Minister Sanader start publicly supporting the US action in Iraq, change their views on the importance of UN in resolving of world crises, and recognize the role of NATO instead.

JUDGES GRANT LEAVE TO AMEND OPERATION STORM INDICTMENT
Sense News Agency
21 October 2005
The amended indictment against Croatian Army generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac will be submitted to the Chamber by 10 November 2005, with new allegations about the "colonization of Krajina" and a plan to "psychologically intimidate" the Serbs. The issue of the legality of Operation Storm is "irrelevant" for the case of the two accused generals, in the judges' view

U.S. to train Balkan troops
Associated Press
October 25, 2005
TIRANA, Albania — The United States will train special army units from Albania, Macedonia and Croatia to take part in international operations, the U.S. Embassy in Tirana said Tuesday.

Bosnia arrests would-be bombers
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Bosnia announced Monday the arrest of three men accused of plotting a suicide bombing attack in Sarajevo.

EU bans imports of certain poultry products from Croatia
25 Oct 2005
Source: just-food.com
A European Commission decision to ban imports of live birds including poultry, wild feathered game meat and unprocessed feathers from Croatia was adopted on 24 October, and is being reviewed by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.

U.S. Attorney Charges Three In Oil-for-Food Investigation
By CHAD BRAY
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
October 21, 2005 7:44 p.m. wall street journal
NEW YORK -- A Texas businessman and two Swiss executives, as well as three companies, are facing conspiracy, wire fraud and other charges in connection with an alleged scheme to pay kickbacks to obtain oil under the United Nation's defunct oil-for-food program, according to a newly unsealed indictment in Manhattan.

Croatia Finds Bird Flu
Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Croatia has detected bird flu in samples taken from dead wild swans, said the European Union, which is planning to ban poultry imports from the former Yugoslav republic.

CROATIAN, CHILEAN PRESIDENTS MEET IN SANTIAGO
October 22, 2005
SANTIAGO, Oct 20 (Hina) - Croatia and Chile enjoy good cooperation on all fronts but it needs to be expanded, presidents Stjepan Mesic and Ricardo Lagos Escobar told the press in Santiago on Thursday.

Danas: Will Serbia Import Chinese Workers?
19 October 2005 14:47 FOCUS News Agency
Belgrade.
Serbian Minister of Labor and Social Policy Slobodan Lalovic reproved on Monday some firms in the country that instead of Serbian workers they employ Chinese ones as well, criticizing the way unemployed people in Serbia think, Serbian newspaper Danas reports today.

How to Become a Princess in Serbia
October 19, 2005
A man can be handsome, wealthy and royal these days but that may not be enough to guarantee a flood of admirers. The Serbian royal family has resorted to personal ads, headlined “Princess Wanted” to attract would-be wives for its three bachelor princes. Prince Peter, 25, and his twin brothers Philip and Alexander, 23, hope they can attract three local girls to become the loves of their lives.

Bosnia passes key police bill
Euractive.com 19.10.05
The approval by the parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina of a key law on police reform may lead to the start of EU association talks before the end of the year.

Poverty still rife in Serbia
2:19 October 18
BELGRADE -- Tuesday – According to official data from the Labour Ministry, twenty per cent of Serbian citizens are living below the poverty line.

We Must Win the Battle of Ideas
By ALEXANDER DOWNER
October 18, 2005 Wall Street Journal
Despite many arrests, successful prosecutions and an unprecedented level of regional cooperation, the threat from transnational terrorism remains a real and present danger. This was made chillingly clear when suicide bombers murdered 20 innocent people at restaurants in Bali on the evening of Oct. 1.

Trade Makes the World Go Round
By PER STIG MOLLER and THOMAS OSTROS
October 18, 2005 Wall Street Journal
Today the foreign and trade ministers of the European Union will meet in Luxembourg to discuss the World Trade Organization's Doha Round of global trade talks. The discussion is very timely: Globalization is ever present, and all of our economies must face the challenges of the future -- not least those in international trade.

Remains of Srebrenica massacre victims found
BRENDAN O'BRIEN
Scotsman.com
10.17.05
FORENSIC experts believe they have uncovered the remains of 482 victims of the Srebrenica massacre in a mass grave in north-eastern Bosnia.
Mura Hurtic, leader of the forensic team, said that the condition of the remains indicated that they had been moved to the grave in the village of Liplje in an attempt to hide them. Of the hundreds of sets of remains uncovered only eight skeletons were intact, he said.

Pack redefines Bosnia-Herzegovina
Written by Brussels journalist David Ferguson,
Euro-Reporters
Thursday, 13 October 2005
Ten years after the Dayton Agreement that ended civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, politicians in the former Yugoslav republic still need to create a functioning state argues Doris Pack, Chair of the European Parliament's delegation to South-Eastern Europe.

e-Meddling
October 17, 2005;
Page A18 wall street journal
International bureaucrats and assorted countries are struggling to wrest control of "Internet governance" from that old unilateralist bogeyman, the United States. There's one big problem with this picture: Cyberspace isn't "governed" by the U.S. or anyone else, and that's the beauty of it. But if the United Nations gets its way in the coming month, the Web will end up under its control. Uh-oh is about right.

The United Nation's takes one step closer to world governance
By William John Hagan
October 14, 2005
The Houston Home Journal
United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has been a questionable entity since its inception. On the surface one would find it hard not to support an international court based on the Nuremburg Tribunal which tried Nazi Leaders after World War II.

Montenegro PM says no delaying independence vote
14 Oct 2005 14:21:46 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ljubinka Cagorovic
PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said he will not postpone a referendum on independence despite pressure from the European Union which fears it could upset regional stability.

Bosnia Borders
Financial Times (London, England)
By Eric Jansson
October 13, 2005
Motors roaring, two police boats skip over the surface of the river Sava, speeding along one of south-east Europe's most porous frontiers, where Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia meet.

CROATS STEP UP DRIVE FOR OWN REPUBLIC
Sarajevo, 14 Oct. (AKI) - Bosnian Croats, who make about 17 per cent of the population, have stepped up a drive for their own republic, demanding changes in the constitution defined by the Dayton peace agreement that ended civil war in Bosnia in 1995

CROATIAN JOURNALIST CHARGED WITH CONTEMPT OF HAGUE TRIBUNAL RELEASED FROM DETENTION
SPLIT, Oct 13 (Hina) - Croatian journalist Josip Jovic was released from the District Prison in the southern coastal city of Split shortly before 1700hours on Thursday following an order from investigating judge Neven Cambi

Another UNESCO Fiasco
October 14, 2005; Page W13
Next week, during Unesco's "General Conference" jamboree in Paris, an international treaty is expected to be adopted that will "protect" the planet's "cultural diversity." Who could oppose something that sounds so noble? Not much diversity on that point: 190 governments love the idea, leaving only one -- dubbed "arrogant," "misinformed," "obstructionist" -- in dissent. No prize for guessing to whom we're referring.

US urges Bosnians to strengthen common state
Wed Oct 12, 2005
By Nedim Dervisbegovic
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The United States urged Bosnia's Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders on Wednesday to replace the three-man, inter-ethnic presidency with a single president to create a stronger, more cohesive state.

Croatia gives 7% of oil firm INA to war veterans
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 04:02:00 PM
Croatia has approved on Wednesday the distribution of 7% of state-controlled oil concern INA, co-owned by Hungary's MOL, to veterans of the country's 1991-95 war of independence, Reuters reported.

Article 141 – a Stumbling Block to EU Membership?
JUTARNJI LIST
10.12.05
All the work invested into the process of EU accession could go to waste over a single Constitutional provision, Article 141, which dictates that any move towards association with another state must be approved in a referendum by more than 50 percent of all registered voters. The experts explain why such a high percentage is practically unattainable.

A Not So Grand Coalition
October 11, 2005 Wall Street Journal
Three long weeks after the Germans went to the polls, Europe's largest economy will finally get a Chancellor. The Christian Democratic Union's Angela Merkel will become Germany's first female leader. Little else can be said with certainty about the next government.

Dutchman top candidate to succeed Ashdown in Bosnia
10.10.2005 - 09:58 CET | By Mark Beunderman
Dutch carreer diplomat Michiel Patijn has a good chance to succeed Paddy Ashdown as the EU’s special representative in Bosnia, according to Dutch media.

Bosnia Names 17,000 For War Crimes
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Oct. 4, 2005
(AP) A Bosnian Serb commission said Tuesday it has identified more than 17,000 participants in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst slaughter of civilians since World War II.

Journalist arrested at home on the order of the
international criminal court for ex-Yugoslavia
7 October 2005
Reporters Without Borders called for the release on bail of journalist Josip
Jovic, arrested at his Split home on the order of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on a charge of contempt of court.

The World Is Flat
October 7, 2005 Wall Street Journal
Sooner or later it had to happen: The mainstream press is finally discovering the flat-tax movement that has been sweeping Europe. It must be painful to credit an idea associated with the likes of Milton Friedman and Steve Forbes, but reality can't be ignored forever.

Bosnian Serbs Give In On Police
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Oct. 5, 2005
(AP) The Bosnian Serb parliament on Wednesday accepted the EU's demand for reform of Bosnia's ethnically divided police force, fulfilling the European Union's last condition for an agreement bringing the country closer to membership.

Archive: New Phase in Milosevic Trial
By Mirko Klarin in The Hague.
(TU No.281, 16-21 September, 2002)
The Milosevic trial, yesterday, September 26, enters a new phase with the prosecution attempting to establish a connection between the defendant and war crimes committed in Croatia and Bosnia in the first half of the 1990s.

Serbia Fails to Curb Violence Against Minorities
10 Oct 2005 11:50:21 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch
(New York, October 10, 2005) The Serbian government is failing to tackle a rising tide of violence against the country's ethnic and religious minorities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today as the European Union enlargement commissioner visits Belgrade.

Officers let Vukovar killings go ahead-prosecutor
11 Oct 2005 13:48:04 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Nicola Leske
THE HAGUE, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Three former Yugoslav army officers knowingly allowed soldiers under their command to commit mass murder in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991, prosecutors said at the start of their trial on Tuesday.

The Wealth of Nations
By LESZEK BALCEROWICZ
October 6, 2005; Page A14 Wall Street Journal
WARSAW -- The failure of various forms of statism in the Third World, the bankruptcy of communism in the former Soviet bloc and China, and the high long-term unemployment and relative stagnation in Western European countries with overregulated economies has forced a revision of the development paradigm in favor of the market and private property -- in short, a more limited state. But the battle over ideas and policies is far from over.

Serbia warned as Brussels starts talks on EU links
By Eric Jansson in Belgrade
Published: October 11 2005 03:00 Financial Times
Olli Rehn, the European Union's enlargement commissioner, yesterday warned Serbia-Montenegro it would be closely watched as he launched the country's negotiations to bring it closer to the EU.

Journalist arrested; facing extradition to UN war crimes tribunal
Date: 07 October 2005
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
New York, October 7, 2005 - A Croatian journalist was arrested Thursday and faces extradition to the Hague-based United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after being accused of identifying a protected witness and failing to appear at a hearing on a contempt of court charge.

Try Gotovina in Zagreb
By LUKA S. MISETIC
Wall Street Journal
October 3, 2005
European Union foreign ministers today will decide whether to launch membership talks with Croatia. Those negotiations have been stalled since March after the EU concluded that Croatia was not doing enough to track down Ante Gotovina, a Croat general indicted by the U.N.'s international war crimes tribunal at The Hague in 2001. The EU will look to the tribunal's prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, to present her assessment of Croatia's progress in finding Gen. Gotovina before deciding whether to start accession talks.

Croatia's Entry Talks with EU Officially Launched
LUXEMBOURG, Oct 4 (Hina) - The bilateral inter-governmental EU-Croatia conference, which will mark the official start of Croatia's membership talks, began in Luxembourg in the early hours of Tuesday.

Washington encourages Bosnians to modify country's constitution
Agence France Presse
September 24, 2005
The United States encouraged Bosnians to consider changes to the constitution of their ethnically divided country, in force since a peace agreement ended the 1992-95 war.

A two-day test of nerves for the EU
From Anthony Browne in Luxembourg
The Times October 04, 2005
IT WAS to have been a grand celebration with flagwaving, backslapping, champagne and, for Turkey's strictly Muslim Foreign Minister, orange juice. The British Government was hoping that the beginning of Turkey's accession talks with the European Union would be the crowning achievement of its troubled EU
presidency.