Istočno Sarajevo

PALE - At a ceremony attended by Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina officials, Serbian FM Ivica Dacic on Friday opened a honorary consulate of the Republic of Serbia at Pale, East Sarajevo.

The honorary consulate will focus on further development of cooperation in the economy, culture and sports.

The Bosnian state court said on Thursday that a prosecution appeal against the verdict acquitting former fighters Edhem Godinjak, Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza, who had been accused of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, has been rejected as "unfounded".

After a marathon six-year trial, the Bosnian state court on Thursday found former fighters Edhem Godinjak, Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza not guilty of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war.

In closing statements at the Bosnian state court on Thursday, defence lawyers for Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza called for them to be found not guilty of participating in a joint criminal enterprise that aimed to detain and kill Serb civilians in villages in the Trnovo area, and of unlawfully detaining, killing and inhumanely treating captured Bosnian Serb Army soldiers from May 1992 to July 1

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the skiing season opened as planned in mid-December, with the two main ski centres in Bjelasnica and Jahorina on the mountains that overlook Sarajevo relying on artificial snow to keep the skiers happy and maintain the influx of tourists.

The Bosnian prosecution said on Monday that the incomplete remains of a war victim have been exhumed by investigators in Trnovo in the Sekovici municipality.

"The exhumation of the terrain at the Trnovo site, in the municipality of Sekovici, has been completed and the incomplete remains of one person have been found," the prosecution said in a statement.

Jahorina, Bjelasnica and Igman, Bosnia's three "Olympic" mountains, have officially welcomed visitors for some time now, although the relatively mild weather is not promising for ski enthusiasts.

The official ski season started on Jahorina, near Sarajevo, on December 3 and on Bjelasnica, another well-known skiing mountain, on December 16.

Hundreds of visitors from all over Bosnia descended at the weekend on Mount Jahorina, one of the country's three 'Olympic mountains', to enjoy the early winter sunshine and mark the official opening of a new ski season.

Local officials and rock bands from Sarajevo and Belgrade also arrived for the opening ceremony, but the main ingredient was still missing - snow. 

Bosnia's mountain ski resorts at Jahorina, Bjelasnica and Vlasic are having a good season as a result of the large number of visitors who have come to spend New Year's Eve there and enjoy the thick snow.

After last year's poor snowfall in the winter season left tourist operators struggling, heavy snow at the end of December this year has brought joy to skiiers and hoteliers.

Three former fighters are accused of participating in the killings, arrests and imprisonment of Serbs and the burning of their homes in villages in Trnovo near Sarajevo in 1992.