Free Republic

Serbia is commemorating today nine years since the beginning of NATO air strikes on then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The strikes lasted 11 weeks and according to different sources between 1,200 and 2,500 people were killed. Serbia PM Vojislav Kostunica shall attend today the commemoration service dedicated to the victims of NATO aggression on FRY in 1999, while the Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovic shall meet with the pilots that took part in combat actions and members of the families of the pilots that lost their lives in those actions. Minister Sutanovac shall also lay the wreaths on the monument dedicated...

Serbian hero Milorad Cavic long ago brought his decision to become a professional swimmer, but only a couple of weeks ago realised he was not only an athlete but also his nation’s ambassador. He consequently decided to wear a T-shirt that read “Kosovo is Serbia” in Serbian to a European Swimming Championships medal ceremony in Eindhoven, Holland. The red shirt which according to Cavic bore a “message of positive energy to the Serbian people” cost the swimmer his further taking part in the competition’s races and possibly another gold medal and a European record – all in the 100-metre butterfly...

President can sign agreement with EU. One of the most important issues in pre-election campaign that stances of the DS and DSS shall be conflicted over is if the stabilization and association agreement (SAA) with EU should be signed and who can sign it. Vojislav Kostunica said yesterday that ‘Serbia President has no constitutional authority to do that’, while President Tadic’s cabinet yesterday told ‘Blic’ that ‘such authority is undisputable as per Vienna Convention’. The PM Vojislav Kostunica who actually made Serbia Government fall for the reason that he has lost the trust in the DS and G17 Plus that...

Del Ponte revealing in her book ‘I am sure that some of the top UNMIK and even KFOR officials feared for their lives and the lives of their missions’ members. I think that some of the judges of the Tribunal for Yugoslavia were afraid that the Albanians might come and get them’, Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal writes in her book titled ‘Hunt’ describing inefficiency of that court in investigations of crimes committed by the Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. In her book she says to have been sitting by Hashim Thaci at a table...

Families of killed Serbs announced lawsuit against Carla Del Ponte Podgorica, Belgrade – The Association of the families of Serbs abducted and killed in Kosvo shall sue the former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal Carla Del Ponte for hiding of crimes committed against Kosovo Serbs by Kosovo Albanians that abducted and killed them, the president of that association Simo Spasic said. ‘In 2004 Del Ponte told us in The Hague that she had information that all abducted Kosovo Serbs were killed later on. She, however, has not told us that before they were killed, their body organs were taken...

The Hague Prosecution learned while investigating war crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbs and other ethnic communities that people that disappeared in 1999 in Kosovo were subjected to surgery in which their kidneys and other organs were taken from them and then the smugglers were selling them to foreign clinics, Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal wrote in her book ‘Hunt’. ‘The victims were most likely abducted after NATO bombing when international peace-keeping forces were already deployed in Kosovo’. Even high KLA members were involved in the operation of smuggling of organs, Del...

Serbia to roll out €30bn sell-off By Stefan Wagstyl and Neil MacDonald in Belgrade Published: February 21 2008 19:03 | Last updated: February 21 2008 19:03 Acting in the teeth of the Kosovo crisis, the Serbian government is rolling out eastern Europe’s biggest privatisation programme. The planned sale of companies is worth an estimated €30bn ($44bn, £23bn), which will include the mass distribution of free shares to about 4m people. With privatisation mostly complete in other ex-communist states, the programme is certain to attract interest from international bankers and institutional investors. The plan could prove controversial for ethnic Serbs because...