RFE/RL BALKAN REPORT
10/27/2011 6:25:05 PM
A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the western Balkans. For more stories on the Balkans, please visit and bookmark our Balkans page . |
 Serbian Nationalists Protest RFE/RL Use Of Serbia, Kosovo Maps A Serbian ultranationalist organization has protested RFE/RL's Balkan Service's use of maps on its website depicting Serbia's former province of Kosovo as an independent country. More  Balkan Supporters Remain Loyal To Qaddafi After His Death In death as in life, Libya's former ruler Muammar Qaddafi brought together his disparate Balkan supporters, who paid respect to the "Desert Lion" in statements, newspaper memorial notices, and Internet forums in the days after his violent death. More  Serb Nationalist Flyers Decry KFOR 'Occupation,' 'Killings' In a land of high tensions, short fuses, and long memories, one Serbian nationalist group seems bent on throwing another log on the fire. The extreme-nationalist, pro-Russian organization Nasi has begun distributing leaflets in German and Serbian targeting German troops serving in the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) contingent in Kosovo. More  Kosovo Serbs Keep Up NATO Challenge Hundreds of Kosovo Serbs have prevented NATO troops in Kosovo from removing roadblocks hindering access to three contested border crossings between the country's volatile north and Serbia. More  Podcast: What Lee Harvey Oswald Really Did In Minsk The Blender this week has an interview about a new book about Lee Harvey Oswald's time in Minsk, a discussion with the granddaughter of Josip Broz Tito about his legacy and her efforts to heal ethnic divisions in the former Yugoslavia, and a feature on the first outdoor rock festival in Afghanistan in 35 years. More  KFOR Dismantles Kosovo Roadblocks NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo confronted angry ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo as they began dismantling barricades erected near one of the disputed border crossings with Serbia. More  Bosnia's Escalating War Of Words Threats of secession and war and derogatory remarks about other peoples have been a staple of political rhetoric in the Balkans for the past 2 1/2 decades. Yet the fallout from an interview Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik gave RFE/RL sounds ominously familiar to the build-up to the 1992-95 war that claimed 100,000 lives. More  Bosnia Hopes To Become World Energy Player Hopes are running high in Bosnia that a soon-to-start search will confirm long-suspected reserves of oil and natural gas and put the country on the world's energy map. More  Tito's Granddaughter Says Sarajevo 'Has Kept Its Spirit' Svetlana Broz, the granddaughter of former Yugoslav leader Josip Tito, has been has been battling ethnic intolerance for two decades. A cardiologist and a native of Belgrade, she came to Bosnia during the 1992-95 war to do humanitarian work. Broz runs the NGO Gariwo, which facilitates ethnic tolerance. Her 2002 book "Good People In An Evil Time" chronicled acts of good will by Bosnians of all ethnic backgrounds during the war. More  Serbs Defy NATO Kosovo Convoy A convoy of troops from the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force (KFOR) has been turned away at a roadblock in northern Kosovo set up by ethnic Serbs near a border crossing with Serbia. More  Komnenic Case A Major Test For Montenegro’s Judiciary The Komnenic case should be seen as a major test for Montenegro. The country’s authorities must show a genuine commitment to freedom of the press and demonstrate that they had not merely flattered to deceive, despite apparently impressing Brussels. More  FC Kosova Schaerbeek: A Small Brussels Soccer Club With Big Dreams They might still be an amateur club, but FC Kosova Schaerbeek is already creating quite a buzz in the Albanian community in Brussels. The soccer team tops its regional league and is doing it with style. It has become much more than just a sports club for its followers who hope that it someday will reach the dizzy heights of the Belgian league system. More  How Do You Say 'Bosnian' In 'Moldovan'? Back in the "good, old days" of communism, the linguistic situation in the Balkans was a lot simpler. Most everyone in the Yugoslavia region spoke a language generally called Serbo-Croatian. More  Republika Srpska's Dodik Says He's 'Only Supporting The Constitution' Milorad Dodik, who has headed the ethnic-Serb entity of Bosnia as Republika Srpska's president since November 2010, accuses Bosnian Muslims of trying to "impose their will" on the country's ethnic Serbs and Croats, and blames the "constant meddling" of Western powers for the country's political problems. More  Podcast: Quick! Who's The President of Ubeki-beki-beki-stan? Kosovo's president stands firm on Serbia. Plus, when pronunciations go bad, and an interview with Luke Harding, author of the new book about Russia, "Mafia State." More |
