Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has improved but Belgrade must keep up efforts to arrest the remaining fugitives, the court said in a report obtained by Reuters today.
The European Union will allow visa-free travel inside the 27-country bloc for Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro from December 19, but keep restrictions on Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, EU ministers have agreed.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, on trial over 11 counts of war crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian war when 100,000 people were killed, said the court lacked the "legal validity and legitimacy" to try him.
The permanent members of the UN Security Council and the European Union have urged the competing sides in Bosnia and Herzegovina to work toward common solutions so the country can get on the fast track to join Euro-Atlantic structures. Speaking at the UN, Valentin Inzko, the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, described the current situation as "worrisome and stagnant."
The UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has said former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic cannot appeal against the court's decision to appoint him legal counsel after he boycotted proceedings.
The international body that oversees the peace process in Bosnia said today it will not change the status of the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, RFE/RL's Balkan Service reports.
In Sarajevo, international negotiators are meeting to discuss the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which suffered through three years of war in the 1990s and has struggled ever since to overcome ethnic divisions and establish a peaceful, unified government. At issue is whether the time has come to close the international post responsible for supervising the country's elected officials.
The 55-member international body that supervises Bosnia's peace process is gathering in Sarajevo to discuss whether to extend the mandate of its main civilian overseer there.
The Yugoslavia tribunal upheld its verdict against a former Bosnian Serb general for war crimes committed while he commanded the army during the 43-month siege of Sarajevo that killed 10,000 people.
Serbia will probably apply next month for eventual European Union membership, but will first wait for a green light from Brussels to proceed, the country's president said.
Envoys from Bosnia's Serbian entity came to Washington this week to make the case for ending 14 years of international supervision. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Sarajevo and left no doubt where his country stands on the question of closing the Office of the High Representative.
The Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal is appointing legal counsel to represent Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at his trial, and has adjourned proceedings until March 2010 to give new counsel time to prepare, court judges said.
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