Balkans

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Friday upheld the verdict convicting Milomir Davidovic of raping a Bosniak woman in Foca during the war in July 1992 and sentencing him to seven years in prison.

Last year, 228,000 citizens of the Western Balkans moved to European Union countries. This is shown by data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), Macedonian news agency Makfax reports.

It was a long and arduous road to recovery for Pervanic, but now, in 2019, he's the founder and main driving force behind Most Mira (Bridge of Peace), an international organisation currently focused on peace-building in Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically among young people.

"Not only is Bulgaria continuing to fight for Volkswagen to build its next plant in our country, but we also have our chances of this happening. We have found ways to optimize our bid. Meetings between representatives of the automotive cluster and the Ministry of Economy continue.

Breakthrough?

In a move that surprised many, Bosnia's three most powerful political leaders - Bakir Izetbegovic, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Covic - announced a landmark deal to form a government at the central state level. The announcement comes ten months after elections were held.

BRUSSELS - According to the newest Eurobarometer Survey, conducted in June this year and published this month, Serbia is the only Western Balkan country whose citizens have more trust in the national government (41%) than in the European Union (33%).

Former prisoners will lay flowers at a ceremony on Sunday to commemorate the suffering of Bosniak civilians held by Bosnian Croat forces at the Kostana Hospital in Stolac in 1993, an event organised by the Association of Camp Prisoners of Stolac.

"I'm still looking for my father's remains, 27 years after he was killed. The last time I talked to him was over the phone on June 24, 1992. Two days later I called again. No one answered the phone," Milan Mandic, a pre-war resident of Sarajevo, told BIRN.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, on a three-day visit to Israel, on Wednesday denied calling neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina an unstable country taken over by militant Islam and connected to Iran - remarks reported in a Jerusalem Post article that sparked hostile reactions in Bosnia and Herzegovina - and which the newspaper has since deleted.

But he did not have to choose the two-day Balkan summit to resign, and his no-show at the meeting, some said, spoke volumes about his seeming indifference to a region in which Britain was once an influential player.