Lawyers for members of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s ‘Drenica Group’ cell, accused of assaulting prisoners during the late 1990s war, told a court hearing that their clients were not guilty. Edona Peci, Behar Mustafa BIRN Pristina, Mitrovica Sylejman Selimi. The defence lawyer for Sylejman Selimi, Pristina’s ambassador to Tirana and Kosovo’s former security forces commander, who is on trial for war crimes alongside six other ex-guerrillas, told the court in Mitrovica on Thursday that his client did not abuse civilian prisoners held at a KLA detention centre in June 1998. “None of the allegat

If Kosovo is serious about its European future, whoever forms the next government faces a big job to improve its justice system and human rights record. Lydia Gall Budapest Kosovo took another step toward this European future on June 8, with its second general election since declaring independence. The OSCE mission in Kosovo and the UN secretary general commended Pristina on a successful election, in which Serbs living in northern Kosovo participated for the first time in national polls organised by the authorities in Pristina.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his main rival, Ramush Haradinaj, remain in deadock over who has the right to form a new government following inconclusive general elections. Pristina

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo claimed victory in parliamentary polls to secure a third term in office despite a low turnout at Sunday’s vote. Pristina Thaci said after polls closed that his Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, had won the elections, although the Central Election Commission reported a turnout of only 43.2 per cent. “As of tomorrow morning we will continue to fulfil our duties.

With elections approaching on Sunday, authorities in Pristina have increased measures in order to prevent poll fraud. Pristina

Serbian experts will examine the site of another suspected mass grave near the town of Raska, where the bodies of 37 Kosovo Albanians killed during wartime have already been found. Marija Ristic BIRN Belgrade The Serbian war crimes prosecution on Thursday ordered the examination of an additional site near the Rudnica quarry in southern Serbia, where a mass grave containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians killed during the 1990s war was found in December. Veljko Odalovic, the head of Serbian commission for missing persons, said that the remains of 37 bodies had already been exhumed from the g

After days of uncertainty, the Srpska Lista has opted at the 11th hour to take part in the election campaign. Valerie Hopkins BIRN Mitrovica The southern half of Mitrovica is full of election billboards promising “new turns,” “new directions” and claiming that the country’s current leaders deserve “new missions.” Campaign leaflets are littered around the streets. But, across the bridge and past the barricade, in the northern part of town, where mostly Serbs live, the only visible campaign paraphernalia are faded and frayed posters from last November’s local elections - the first local races

While voters have a range of parties to choose from on June 8, the ideological differences between most of them appear slim. Arijeta Lajka, Edona Peci BIRN Pristina Kosovo’s nearly 1.8 registered voters have 30 parties to choose from in the June 8 elections, but when it comes to ideologies, their choices are more limited. Four of the five largest political parties are campaigning with strikingly similar programs. The Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the New Kosovo Alliance, AKR, all promise free-market bas

Kosovo leaders will be competing aggressively for votes in the last few days of the election campaign, partly because the outcome is unusually unpredictable. Pristina

The North City Jazz and Blues festival, held near Mitrovica in Kosovo, is seeking to change the image of a town known nowadays mostly for ethnic conflict. Birn Mitrovica Two days of jazz and blues music provided a welcome break for the people of Zvecan, a mostly Serbian town in the north of Kosovo.