The story of the 16 people who were killed when NATO bombed Serbia’s national broadcaster RTS 20 years ago is the latest report in BIRN’s Last Despatches series about journalists and media workers killed during and after the Yugoslav wars.
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After a judge appointed by the Hague-based Specialist Chambers was seen dining with a Kosovo lawyer whose clients have been summoned for questioning, the war crimes court was urged to take more care to demonstrate impartiality.
Judges at the Hague-based Specialist Chambers, which will try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters for wartime and post-war crimes, should be careful who they meet in order to maintain the confidence of everyone involved in investigations and trials, the Humanitarian Law Centre in Kosovo said.
Opposition parties in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia rejected European Commission spokesperson Maja Kocijancic’s appeal to end their boycotts and return to their parliaments.
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A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.
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In an interview with a BIRN Kosovo TV programme, former NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea reflected on the tensest moment of the alliance’s air campaign against Serbia – when Russian forces suddenly showed up in Kosovo.
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The capitals of Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Bulgaria have been encased in heavy smog in recent days, with air pollution reaching dangerously high levels in parts of the region. The winter months bring the worst air quality, due to excessive use of coal, excessive traffic, poor spatial planning and the use of solid fuels for heating homes.
A report by the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees said that many people who were displaced from Kosovo following the 1990s conflict have no income or adequate housing.
The Serbian Commissariat for Refugees on Monday presented a report on the living conditions of refugees from Kosovo in Serbia which said that some 68,500 out of almost 200,000 are socially vulnerable.
Deputy commissioner Svetlana Velimirovic told media in Belgrade that these refugees are considered to be “in need”, meaning they struggle with poor housing and unemployment or have little to no income.
Kosovo Liberation Army ex-fighters protested in Pristina, telling the prosecution to withdraw an indictment that alleges there are thousands of fake war veterans, or face potentially violent protests.
Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA veterans from the guerrilla force’s wartime Dukagjini Zone protested on Wednesday at the Palace of Justice in Pristina against the recently-filed indictment alleging that thousands of people have been falsely registered as veterans.
While Kosovo’s president wants to talk ‘border corrections’ in Brussels, the prime minister has ordered that work begin on demarcating Kosovo’s frontier with Serbia as it currently stands.
The publication of a list of over 20,000 alleged fake war veterans and the indictment of officials who verified them has infuriated Kosovo Liberation Army ex-guerrillas - particularly those who found their names on the list.