South Slavs

(Dis)United

Goce Delcev, the early 20th century revolutionary, could easily be a historical figure to unite Bulgarians and Macedonians. Unfortunately, he seems to be becoming a bone of contention between the governments in Skopje and Sofia.

Dolamic expressed frustration at the continuing delay to the repatriation of the remaining Bosnians from the Middle East.

"Why can't they deport around a hundred women and children from Syria?" she asked, suggesting that the problem lies in the fact that they are "labelled as terrorists".

However, this analysis misses the broader strategic picture - that the external scaffolding supporting the Bosnian state has all but collapsed, creating circumstances in which the RS can break away from Bosnia.

Battle of wills that began at Dayton:

Signing the Dayton Agreement. Photo: Wikimedia commons/NATO

Bosniak leaders on Wednesday accused Bosnian Serb officials - who have stopped work on deciding any state-level matters, pending adoption of a new law on the Constitutional Court - of breaking the law.

The assembly of the Serb-led entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska, is likely to adopt a "Declaration on the Situation of the Serbian People in Montenegro" at its next session, following the popular protests over a new religion law, led by the Serbian Orthodox Church, that have been going on in Montenegro for weeks.

Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA and a member of the upper house of Bosnia's parliament, said on Tuesday that the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs will ultimately see the security value in joining NATO.

Ahmetspahic, however, is unique; he is the only repatriated Bosnian fighter to be medically certified in court as 'deradicalised'.

Experts say his case offers hope for state efforts to 'deradicalise' returning fighters, but caution against over-optimism, saying that the process of radicalisation and deradicalisation are complex and unique to each individual.

A controversial law on religions in Montenegro has entered into force, but the Serbian Orthodox Church has legal avenues to oppose it.

Hector Gullan, a former member of British peacekeeping forces, has sent an open letter to the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, asking them to call on new Croatian President Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to address the issue of Zagreb's non-extradition of war crime indictees to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

When we embarked on a diplomatic offensive, 117 countries recognized Kosovo. Now that number is at 97, Dacic said on TV Happy's talk show "Cyrillic" last night, stressing that it was a bad thing that we did not have diplomatic relations with some countries.