News archive of November 2019

The proposed new Law on the Use of National Symbols was submitted to the Montenegrin parliament on Friday after controversy caused by fines imposed on people for flying the Albanian flag.

Former serviceman Predrag Vukovic, alias Madzo, who was arrested in Montenegro last year, appeared for the first time at Belgrade Higher Court on Friday at the trial of Yugoslav Army ex-soldiers for war crimes in Kosovo in May 1999.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Sarajevo on Friday, demanding that that children be better protected at the care home for children with special needs in the village of Pazaric near the Bosnian capital, and calling for the alleged abusers to be prosecuted.

North Macedonia's President Stevo Pendarovski is on a two-day official visit to our country. In front of the Palace of Serbia, he was greeted by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, with national honors, a guard and the intonation of the anthems of Serbia and North Macedonia.

The exposure of an apparent Russian spy operation in Serbia has raised fresh questions about the sustainability of the Russian-Serbian 'special relationship' as Belgrade pursues further integration with the West.

Ulsi Manja (left) and Klotilda Bushka (right) at the parliamentary law committee hearing on Friday. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

"Civil society organisations call upon the government to withdraw the proposed laws. If the government refuses to do so, we also call upon the parliament of Albania to reject these laws at once," the statement said.

The Bosnian state court on Thursday partially upheld an appeal from former policeman Kahro Vejzovic and cut his sentence from six years in prison to four years.

Vejzovic was convicted of torturing captured Serb civilians in the village of Stupari during wartime between June and September 1992.

The commemorations bring mixed emotions. For some, they are a celebration of freedom and democracy. Others feel nostalgia for more certain times. And as the nation looks back, parties are looking forward to a general election early next year.

Celebrating freedom

Five years ago, four female activists in Croatia decided something was missing from the protests they took part in defence of fundamental human rights: noise.

"He is the first, because the notion of whistleblower did not exist in the Strasbourg Court's vocabulary until then," Vitalie Zama, one of the lawyers in Guja's case, told BIRN.

"And the first question that was asked was whether or not to protect the whistleblowers; whether freedom of expression exists for them or not."

'I suffered the consequences'