04/01/2012
The handover of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic to the UN tribunal in The Hague was one of the most important events in the Balkans in 2011, a year which was also marked by violent clashes in Kosovo's volatile north.
By Svetla Dimitrova for Southeast European Times -- 04/01/12
In 2011, the remaining two war crimes suspects sought by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) were finally captured and handed over to The Hague-based court.
Another major development was the conclusion of Croatia's EU membership talks in the end of June and the signing of the country's Accession Treaty with the 27-nation bloc on December 9th.
On December 26th, a key freedom of movement agreement between Kosovo and Serbia entered into force. The deal reached during EU-brokered talks allows the residents of each of the two countries to enter into and travel freely inside each other's territory for the first time since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
On the downside, simmering ethnic tensions continued to plague parts of the Balkans in 2011, with political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) failing to agree on the formation of a new state-level government for 14 months and an outburst of violence in Kosovo's north.
Mladic, Hadzic behind bars in The Hague
Serbia removed a major obstacle on its EU integration path in 2011, when it handed over former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic and wartime Croatian Serb political leader Goran Hadzic to the ICTY.
Mladic was arrested on May 26th and was transferred to The Hague five days later, after nearly 16 years on the run. The 69-year-old former commander of the Bosnian Serb forces faces two counts of genocide over the Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo. An amended indictment of December 16th 2011 charges Mladic also with five counts of crimes against humanity and four of violations of the laws and customs of war.
Owing to concerns about Mladic's health and "in the interest of fair and expeditious" trial, UN judges accepted the prosecutors' request in early December that the number of crimes in the indictment be reduced from 196 to 106.
The start of the trial against Mladic is tentatively scheduled for late March 2012.
Hadzic, 52, was extradited to The Hague on July 22nd, two days after his arrest. The former Croatian Serb political leader, who was captured after seven years on the run, faces a 14-count indictment charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1991-1995 conflict in Croatia.
The trial against Hadzic is scheduled to open on October 16th 2012.
Clashes in Kosovo
The situation in Kosovo's Serb-dominated north remained tense but generally calm following the flare-up of violence on July 25th when a Kosovo police officer was killed in a shootout with local Serbs. The incident occurred when the government sent special police to the region to take control of two border checkpoints, in a bid to enforce an embargo on Serbian imports following failed talks on a trade liberalisation deal with Belgrade.
There were several sporadic outbursts of violence since late October, when KFOR began dismantling roadblocks erected by ethnic Serbs to prevent the Kosovo authorities from asserting control in the region, where Serb-run parallel structures continue to operate. Two German peacekeepers were shot and wounded in an incident in late November, when Serb protestors opened fire at KFOR troops. Another 23 NATO soldiers were injured during the clash.
Concerned about the possible negative impact of such violence on his country's hopes for achieving formal EU candidate status at the Union's summit on December 9th, Serbian President Boris Tadic urged Kosovo Serbs to remove the barricades. They didn't.
Welcoming Tadic's statement of November 29th, NATO called for concrete follow-up actions.
"The use of violence against KFOR is unacceptable and we deplore it," the North Atlantic Council said in a statement on December 1st. "We urge all parties to exercise restraint and co-operate fully with all international actors on the ground to ensure freedom of movement without delay," it added, calling also on Belgrade and Pristina to continue their constructive participation in the EU-mediated talks between them.
During a visit to Pristina on December 19th, German Chancellor Angela Markel urged Belgrade to dissolve the parallel Serb structures in Kosovo's north.
Earlier in the month, Serbia and Kosovo adopted an Integrated Border Management agreement, aimed at resolving the border problems between the two countries. Other deals reached during the EU-brokered talks on technical issues between Belgrade and Pristina in the latter half of 2011 include the deal on free movement and another on mutual recognition of diplomas.
Organ trafficking investigation
In December 2010, Council of Europe (CoE) rapporteur Dick Marty submitted a report linking senior Kosovo officials, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), to organ trafficking in the late 1990s. EULEX launched a preliminary investigation into the allegations in late January and seven months later, it named former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes John Clint Williamson as head of the task force dealing with the case.
While the announcement was welcomed by some Serbian officials, Belgrade continued pushing for UN involvement in the investigation. Later in the year, a draft resolution prepared by Serbian and Russian diplomats was submitted to the Security Council, envisioning the appointment of a special representative of the UN secretary-general in charge of control of the EULEX task force.
Bilateral disputes
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on December 5th that Greece breached a 1995 interim bilateral agreement with Macedonia by blocking its northern neighbour's NATO accession in April 2008 over the long-running name dispute between the two countries.
"The ruling is a step towards NATO and EU," Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said after it was announced.
Later the same day, NATO issued a statement, saying the verdict "does not affect the decision taken by NATO Allies at the Bucharest summit in 2008".
"We agreed that an invitation will be extended to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached," the statement of December 5th added.
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Another Balkan case before the ICJ -- on the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide filed by Croatia back in 1999 against what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -- is still pending. The hearings are not expected to start before early 2013.
Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians reach agreement
The main political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) reached an agreement December 28th on the formation of a new state-level government after 14 months of futile talks following the October 2010 general elections in the country.
"It is positive news that leaders have at long last, finally reached agreement on the Council of Ministers (CoM) and other important measures; I congratulate them," High Representative Valentin Inzko said in a statement on December 29th. "I encourage the political leaders to build on this positive development. Many important challenges will lie ahead of a new CoM in the months ahead -- challenges that must be overcome in order to move this country forward in a way that will benefit the citizens."
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
Όλοι θυμόμαστε, όσο και να μην θέλουμε να έχουμε τέτοιες εικόνες στο μυαλό μας, την τραγική κατάσταση της Βοσνίας Ερζεγοβίνης κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου. 'Ίσως τώρα στο Σαράγιεβο να έχουν αφήσει άθικτους τους τοίχους με τις τρύπες από τα οπλοπολυβόλα και τους όλμους εκείνης της εποχής σαν να θέλουν να θυμούνται και οι ίδιοι τι πέρασε αυτή η πόλη και ή χώρα ολάκερη. Ίσως και με μια δόση ειρωνείας να είναι εκεί σαν τουριστική ατραξιόν που και μένα προσωπικά με συγκλόνισε την πρώτη φορά που επισκέφθηκα την πόλη και χάζευα αυτή τη ιδιόμορφη αρχιτεκτονική των τοίχων. 
