Latest News from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia Parties Strike Landmark Deal on Governing Mostar
Bosnia's main Bosniak and Croat parties have finally struck a breakthrough deal on how to rule the ethnically-divided southwestern city of Mostar, paving the way for the first local elections to be held there since 2008.
Thousands Quarantined in Serbian Town for Refuelling Over Border
Several thousand residents of a small border town in Serbia had to spend almost a month in self-isolation because they had bought petrol over the border in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and so were classed as having re-entered the country from abroad.
Arriving in Bulgaria From the Netherlands Without Mendatory Quarantine
People arriving in Bulgaria from the Netherlands will no longer be subject to the mandatory fourteen-day quarantine as of June 15 (Monday), a new regulation issued by Bulgaria's Minister of Health Kiril Ananiev reads.
Minister of Health Kiril Ananiev: Four New Orders in Epidemic Situation from June 15 to 30
The Minister of Health Kiril Ananiev issued four orders in connection with the extension of the emergency epidemic situation from June 15 to June 30 this year.
The fourth order concerns the mandatory isolation and / or hospital treatment in confirmed cases of COVID-19, as well as the quarantine of contact persons.
Serbian Court Urged to Convict Bosnian War Prison Commander
Serbia's war crimes prosecutor said in his closing statement to Belgrade Higher Court on Thursday that all the evidence showed that Husein Mujanovic was guilty of abusing Serbs held at a wartime prison that he commanded in Hrasnica.
Prosecutor Mioljub Vitorovic said the evidence "indisputably established that Husein Mujanovic committed the criminal act with which he is charged".
Amnesty Accuses Croatia of Torturing Asylum-Seekers on Border
The international rights watchdog Amnesty International on Thursday described "a horrifying escalation of police human rights violations at the Croatian border with Bosnia", when it said that "a group of migrants and asylum seekers was recently bound, brutally beaten and tortured by officers who mocked their injuries and smeared food on their bleeding heads to humiliate them".
EU proposes opening of external borders from July
The European Commission has proposed to gradually lift travel ban from July 1 for non-EU citizens coming from countries where the epidemiological situation is the same or better than that in the EU.
The detailed list will be announced later, Ylva Johansson, EU commissioner for home affairs, told reporters on June 11.
BIRN Wins European Press Prize for Justice Reporting
BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina was given the European Press Prize Special Award for 2020 on Thursday for its groundbreaking work in covering transitional justice topics.
Exhibition Commemorates Suffering of Yugoslav ‘Barren Island’ Prisoners
An exhibition of new images from Goli Otok go on display at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade on Thursday evening gives a contemporary view of the former prison camp, which photographer Milomir Kovacevic described as "the biggest 'stain' on Yugoslavia, communism, the [Communist] Party and [Josip Broz] Tito".
Pan-European Decision: If Borders are Opened to Third Countries, it Wouldn’t be Before 1 July
The government extended the emergency epidemic situation by 15 days, until the end of June.
Good Neighbours: How Three Serbs Saved Bosniaks in Wartime Vlasenica
When Fikret Dzodzaljevic returns to his hometown of Vlasenica in eastern Bosnia, he always lights a candle at the grave of his former Serb neighbour, a young man called Miodrag Vrzina, who he only knew by his nickname Miki.
Ratko Mladic’s Final Verdict Postponed to 2021
The president of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Carmel Agius, told the UN Security Council on Monday evening that the final verdict in the Ratko Mladic trial will be delivered nine months after appeals hearings are finally held.
Computer Virus Stops Sarajevo Municipality Issuing Birth Certificates
A Sarajevo municipality has temporarily stopped issuing birth certificates due to a computer virus that locks documents in its database for the second time in some two weeks.
Art Based on Ratko Mladic’s War Diary Exhibited in Belgrade
Four hundred pages of former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic's war diary, painstaking redrawn by Serbian artist Vladimir Miladinovic, are going on display in Belgrade on Saturday at an exhibition entitled 'Notebook'.
NGO Charges Croatian Police With ‘Inhumane Treatment of Refugees’
A human rights NGO, the Center for Peace Studies, filed a criminal complaint on Friday to the Croatian State Attorney's Office against "unknown perpetrators" from the police, "based on a reasonable doubt of degrading treatment and torture of 33 people and their violent, illegal expulsion from the territory of the Republic of Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina".