Nato chief announces further measures as situation in Serb-majority north remains ‘fragile’
Nato has said it will send 700 extra troops to try to curb the violence in Kosovo a day after 30 alliance-led peacekeeping soldiers and more than 50 ethnic Serbian protesters were injured in clashes.
On Monday, Nato peacekeepers in riot gear had secured a town hall in the town of Zvecan as the situation remained tense.
Continue reading...Dozens of Italian and Hungarian soldiers from Kfor mission and more than 50 Serbs were injured in clashes over ethnic Albanian mayors taking office
More than 30 Nato peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo have been injured in clashes with Serb protesters, while Serbia’s president put the army on the highest level of combat alert.
The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb-majority area after elections that the Serbs boycotted – a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.
Continue reading...Mass shootings prompted arms amnesty, but many see politicians and media as part of the problem
In the first week an amnesty after mass shootings plunged their country into shock and soul-searching, Serbians surrendered more than 13,500 weapons, from guns through hand grenades to anti-tank launchers, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition.
But in a deeply divided nation awash with lethal weaponry, where war criminals are glorified, reality shows on state TV star convicted murderers, and memories of savage recent conflicts run deep, many doubt whether the president’s pledge to “disarm” the country will be enough.
Continue reading...Marchers in Serbian capital’s second protest in a week decried populist president Aleksandar Vučić
Tens of thousands of people have marched through Belgrade, blocking a key bridge in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled Serbia and left 17 people dead, including many children.
Protesters gathered in front of the parliament building on Friday before filing by the government’s HQ and on to a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. At the head of the column was a black banner reading “Serbia against violence.”
Continue reading...Protesters condemn gun culture and call for officials to resign after 17 people were killed in under 48 hours
Tens of thousands of Serbians have rallied in the capital, Belgrade, with the protesters calling for the resignation of top officials and the curtailing of violence in the media, after back-to-back shootings stunned the Balkan country.
The “Serbia against violence” demonstration saw members from across the country’s political divide come together after last week’s shootings in which 17 people were killed in less than 48 hours – including nine at an elementary school in the capital.
Continue reading...Shootings in a school in Belgrade and a day later in a rural area left 17 people dead and 21 injured
Funerals are being held in Serbia for some of the victims of two mass shootings that happened in just two days this week, leaving 17 people dead and 21 injured, many of them children.
The shootings on Wednesday in a school in Belgrade and on Thursday in a rural area south of the capital city have left the nation stunned with grief and disbelief.
Continue reading...Arrest follows hunt for shooter who fired automatic weapon from moving vehicle in town south of Belgrade
A suspect has been arrested after at least eight people were killed and 13 injured in a second mass shooting in Serbia in as many days.
The man – who has been identified only by his initials UB – was detained near the city of Kragujevac, the interior ministry said.
Continue reading...Police name shooter as Kosta Kecmanović and say he was a pupil at the school who may have plotted attack for a month
A 13-year-old boy opened fire in a Belgrade classroom in an apparently planned attack that killed eight children and a school security guard and injured a further six pupils as well as his teacher.
Police named the shooter as Kosta Kecmanović and said he had been a pupil at the school in the centre of the Serbian capital since 2019. They said he had used two of his father’s guns for the shooting and may have been plotting the attack for a month.
Continue reading...President says Belgrade ‘has not nor will it’ send Kyiv arms, after leaked Pentagon paper claimed Serbia had agreed to send weapons
The Serbian president says his country has not sold arms to Ukraine and would not do so, after a leaked Pentagon report said Belgrade had agreed to provide arms to Kyiv, according to foreign media reports.
“Serbia has not nor will it export weapons to Ukraine,” Aleksandar Vučić told reporters on Thursday, according to the Beta news agency.
Continue reading...Classified Pentagon document seems to show Serbia has committed to sending lethal aid or has supplied it already
Serbia, the only country in Europe that has refused to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, agreed to supply arms to Kyiv or has sent them already, according to a classified Pentagon document.
The document, a summary of European governments’ responses to Ukraine’s requests for military training and “lethal aid” or weapons, was among dozens of classified documents posted online in recent weeks in what could be the most serious leak of US secrets in years.
Continue reading...Albin Kurti warns rising tensions only benefit Putin as ethnic Serbs set up road blocks in north of country
Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, has warned of Russia inflaming tensions between his country and Serbia due to the war in Ukraine faltering, as Belgrade took its first step in deploying troops to the region.
Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, where they are in the majority, have had barricades set up for more than a week, preventing the free movement of the Kosovan authorities, despite US and EU calls for the illegal road blocks to be dismantled.
Continue reading...Trucks and agricultural machines used as roadblocks, heightening recent tensions in the region
Hundreds of ethnic Serbs erected barricades on a road in northern Kosovo on Saturday, blocking the traffic over the two main border crossings towards Serbia, police said.
Trucks, ambulance cars and agricultural machines were used as roadblocks, heightening recent tensions which included explosions, shootings and an armed attack on a police patrol which saw one ethnic Albanian police officer wounded.
Continue reading...Local media report arrests of unruly counter-protesters as pride marchers flout ban with shortened walk in rain
Serbian police arrested more than 64 people as thousands of LGBTQI+ activists turned out for Belgrade’s EuroPride march on Saturday, despite a government ban.
The event had been intended as the cornerstone event of the EuroPride gathering. But the interior ministry banned the march earlier this week, citing security concerns after rightwing groups threatened to hold protests.
Continue reading...Organisers vow to go ahead with event on Saturday after authorities announce ban citing public safety
Serbian authorities have banned EuroPride, the pan-European gathering of the LGBTQ community due to be held in Belgrade on Saturday, sparking an outcry from organisers.
EuroPride is held in a different country every year, and this would have been Serbia’s first time hosting the event.
Continue reading...Serbia to abolish entry-exit document for Kosovo ID holders and Kosovo agrees not to introduce them
Serbia and Kosovo have agreed on an arrangement for free movement between their countries, the EU’s foreign policy chief announced Saturday.
Serbia agreed to abolish its entry-exit document for Kosovo ID holders, and Kosovo agreed to not introduce them for Serbian ID holders, said Josep Borrell.
Continue reading...Experts say social support, honesty and generosity key to wellbeing, as Afghanistan and Lebanon struggle in global ranking
Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the fifth year in a row, in an annual UN-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon.
The latest list was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina urge western leaders to ‘engage more actively and strongly’ in the region
Russia is likely to expand its confrontation with the west by pressuring Serbia into undermining the independence of Kosovo and other western Balkan states, regional leaders have warned in interviews with the Guardian.
They also called for the EU and Nato to speed up their approach to applications for membership from Balkans countries, and bolster defences against Russian interference.
Continue reading...Abuse of the policing body’s ‘red notice’ system is blamed as an activist is forced to return to life in prison in the Gulf state
Marko Štambuk arrived at Belgrade district prison on a Monday morning in late January, only to be told his client was no longer inside. “Immediately I knew something had happened,” he said.
Štambuk, a lawyer, had spent the previous Friday frantically obtaining an injunction from the European court of human rights (ECHR) demanding Serbian authorities halt the extradition of his client, Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali, a Bahraini dissident. This banned the Serbian authorities from extraditing Ali until late February, and warned them that doing so would constitute a rare breach of the European convention on human rights.
Continue reading...Move comes despite European court of human rights injunction saying that it should be postponed
Serbian authorities have extradited a Bahraini dissident in cooperation with Interpol despite an injunction by the European court of human rights, in the first test for the international policing organisation under the presidency of a top Emirati security official.
Authorities in Belgrade approved the extradition of Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali to Bahrain earlier this week. Days earlier the ECHR had issued an injunction saying the extradition should be postponed until after 25 February to allow Serbian authorities time to provide more information to the court, which was responding to a request by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights to consider Ali’s case.
Continue reading...Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić criticises the Australian federal court's decision to dismiss Novak Djokovic's visa appeal as 'political'. 'Of course, all of us in Serbia are very much disappointed with the court's ruling,' says Vučić. 'I think Australian authorities humiliated themselves with these kinds of procedures against Novak Djokovic.'
Djokovic was trying to use a medical exemption to get around the requirements that everyone at the Australian Open - players, their support teams, spectators and others - be vaccinated against Covid-19.