Yugoslavia

June 21, is the 20th anniversary of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Thessaloniki, Greece. At this historic event, the European Union and the acceding and potential candidate countries from the Western Balkans at that time committed themselves to each other.

Dejan, then 20, had been nearing the end of his military service in Kosovo, then a southern province of Serbia, when NATO launched air strikes to halt a brutal Serbian counter-insurgency war. At the time, Serbia and Montenegro were all that was left of Yugoslavia, still joined together after the other four republics - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia - had seceded.

Petr Bystron, who is also a member of the Bundestag, stated in an interview for Russia Today Balkan that the bombing of the FR Yugoslavia in 1999 was a violation of international law and a sin, as well as that this illegal war led to the violent secession of a part of the sovereign country, the former Yugoslavia.

On Thursday, Croats gathered on the 1,600-metre mountain, some 15 kilometres from the small town that carries the same name, to commemorate the attack on what was the 20th 'convoy of life' bringing aid to the Lasva river basin, split at the time between government and Croat forces called HVO.

The question of rehabilitation and reintegration of war criminals has not attracted much attention either in the countries of the former Yugoslavia or internationally. This is somewhat odd considering that 59 of 91 individuals sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY have already been released from prison after serving sentences for grave crimes.

As reported by Kosovo Online, he must be removed from power, because otherwise he will cause immeasurable damage to the so-called Kosovo, writes the newspaper Tema.
He stated that his biggest concern is the re-establishment of "free Kosovo" with the help of the USA and the West, and he called the help of NATO troops in achieving that aspiration "blessed".

A year on, Abazovic has his deal with the Church and can point to a string of high-profile organized crime arrests. But while the work of the Constitutional Court has been unblocked, little progress has been made on reforming the judiciary, a key condition of Montenegro's EU accession process.

However, in what is seen as an attempt to make the proceedings more efficient and limit costs, because hundreds of victims are expected to participate in the trials at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the court has not given the victims the right to choose their own legal representatives.

Controversial Venture

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban (L) and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. EPA-EFE/Szilard Koszticsak

In an interview for Kosovo Online, Bystron assessed as inappropriate the attempt of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to portray Serbs as "vassals of Russia" and Albanians as victims, adding that his "ethnocentric chauvinism" should not be tolerated in Europe.