Balkans

Kosovo offers welfare payments to survivors of sexual violence during the 1998-99 war – but some women are afraid to register in case their relatives or neighbours find out and they are ostracised because of the enduring stigma.

The White House’s envoy for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue hoped to rush both countries’ leaders into a deal and score a win for Donald Trump – but the announcement of Hashim Thaci’s war crimes indictment exposed the problem with Washington’s strategy.

Former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters say they will demonstrate against the pending war crimes indictment of President Hashim Thaci and other former guerrilla chiefs, calling the charges an insult to their struggle for independence.

The indictment filed by the Specialist Prosecutor charging Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was a long-awaited move that follows two decades of investigations into alleged wartime wrongdoings.

The only ones benefitting from the failures of Brussels and Washington in Kosovo are the autocrat Vucic and his friends in Moscow and Beijing.

U.S.-mediated talks scheduled for Saturday between Serbian and Kosovo leaders aimed at normalising relations were cancelled after a special prosecutor indicted Kosovo’s President Thaçi on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to Kosovo’s 1998-9 conflict. Crisis Group expert Marko Prelec says the indictment could usher in seismic …

Corruption, populism, nationalism and disinformation have eroded faith in liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a new Globsec report – which says many people would trade in some of their freedoms for greater security and traditional values.

Plans to convert the famous 6th-century building in Istanbul back into a mosque, after being a museum since 1935, have further tested relations with Greece – already damaged by over other regional and international disputes.

The Trump administration is pushing for a quick deal between Pristina and Belgrade after the European Union failed to restart the dialogue – but the rift between the US and the EU is bad news for Kosovo itself.While there have rarely been more envoys and special representatives mandated to help …

Arguments over statues and the teaching of history may be gripping the UK and US – but they are nothing new to North Macedonia, where they are being settled through diplomacy.