Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia The government plans to ask the IMF to increase the budget deficit envisioned in its agreement with the institution, due to the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic told Tanjug on Sunday (July 5th). When IMF representatives visit Belgrade next month, authorities will request that the limit …

members of a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement to more than 60 years combined in prison after they were found guilty of planning terrorist activities and illegal weapons possession. The alleged leader of the group, Senad Ramovic, was sentenced to 13 years, while another ten members received from six months to …

Milorad Dodik, prime minister of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska, has told Serbian media that Bosnian Serbs are hoping to play an active role in Serbia’s next parliamentary elections. “We are not seeking integration that would mean major participation in Serbia’s political life, but we’d like for our people …

The Opposition Serb Progressive Party, SNS, will open a Council for EU Integration, Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the party, announced on Thursday in Brussels. Nikolic met in the EU capital with European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and EC Director for Western Balkans Pierre Mirel to discuss ways in which the …

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will help Serbia ship tonnes of spent nuclear fuel to Russia and decommission its research reactor, IAEA’s outgoing chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Friday. The Vinca Nuclear Institute, 17 km (11 miles) southeast of Belgrade, will ship 2.5 tonnes of spent fuel rods and …

Bosnia’s war crimes court jailed a Bosnian Serb wartime army commander on Friday for 18 years for the killing, rape and torture of Muslims in eastern Bosnia early in the 1992-95 war. “Momir Savic was found guilty of persecution, murder, imprisonment, rape, torture and other inhuman acts against Bosnian Muslim …

BELGRADE, Serbia The government backed President Boris Tadic on Thursday (July 2nd), agreeing that minority Serbs in Kosovo should not participate in November local elections there. Tadic, leader of the ruling Democratic Party (DS), says conditions for Kosovo Serbs are inadequate and that their security cannot be guaranteed. 

UNMIK has reminded EULEX that under resolution 1244 it remains in control of its former headquarters in central Prishtina, now the home of EULEX police. Senior officials at the UN mission wrote to EULEX following rumours that the EU rule-of-law mission was planning to hand UNMIK’s former headquarters to Kosovo’s …

The Serbian government annouced that the November 15 elections in Kosovo have no validity and called upon Serbs in Kosovo not to vote. Svetozar Ciplic, Serbian Minister for Human and Minority Rights, told media at a new conference on Thursday that no conditions existed for Serbs to vote. “The Serbian …

Greece’s President Karolos Papoulias, during a trip to Belgrade, told media on Thursday that Greece gives Serbia its full support to European integration, hoping that the visa liberalisation process for Serbian citizens would be resolved by the end of the year. At a news conference with his Serbian counterpart Boris …