Latest news with #Serbs
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘A serious crisis' — pro-Russian leader in Bosnia threatening peace in the Balkans
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina — When a court convicted Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik of defying an international peace envoy in February, it was supposed to end his career in politics. He faced not only jail time, but a ban on holding public office. But three months later, little has changed. Dodik remains at the helm of Republika Srpska, one of two autonomous entities that make up the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite an international warrant for his arrest, Dodik has repeatedly visited one of his biggest backers, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, using those visits to fan the flames of ethnic separatism at home. Dodik's embrace of the Russian strongman emphasizes the Kremlin's outsized role in destabilizing Bosnia and Herzegovina. But it also reflects a local struggle: After years of growing tensions, Dodik is now in open confrontation with the central government and using Russia to bolster his position. Experts say that risks dragging the country into the greatest crisis since it was torn apart by civil war and genocide in 1992-1995. 'The situation is tense and unpredictable,' said Nebojsa Vukanovic, a member of the political opposition in Republika Srpska. Dodik's office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. This year alone, Dodik has already made two visits to Russia. He first turned up in Moscow in March. Then, he returned on May 9, as Russia marked Victory Day. In an interview with the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, he described Putin as a 'person who understands perfectly well where the world is' and praised the invasion of Ukraine. Though the trips were international, experts believe the motivation is domestic. With roughly 1.2 million people, Republika Srpska comprises a third of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The vast majority of the region's residents are ethnic Serbs. Dodik was first elected the region's prime minister in 1998. Since then, he has come to dominate its politics. During that time, he has often relied on threats of secession to garner support among the region's ethnic Serb majority, according to Aleksandar Savanovic, a political sciences professor at the University of Banja Luka, the regional capital. Until 2022, such threats were 'a good way to win elections without real plans to create Republika Srpska as an independent state,' he said. Then, around the time when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dodik saw an opening to solidify Moscow's support for his regime. "Bosnians very well understand what's happening in Ukraine because we went through the same thing in the 1990s." Savanovic suggests the Bosnian Serb leader believed the Kremlin would look favorably on a more brazen secessionist policy. 'It was a good moment to protect his power,' he said. Since then, Dodik has held multiple meetings with Putin and has become one of the Russian invasion's most vocal supporters in Europe. Much to the chagrin of Western leaders, his comments regularly echo false Kremlin talking points – including the 'extermination of the Russian population in Ukraine' and Ukraine's 'bombings' in the country's eastern regions. Ismet Fatih Cancar, a former advisor to the minister of security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an expert on international security in the Balkans, emphasizes that similar ethnic allegations of repressions against Bosnia's Serb population underpin Dodik's secessionist aims. Those claims date back to the 1990s, when Serb nationalists' attempt to preserve an ethnically homogenous state fueled a civil war and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But Cancar believes they are 'completely out of reality.' 'I think Bosnians very well understand what's happening in Ukraine because we went through the same thing in the 1990s,' he said. Dodik isn't the only one who stands to gain from efforts to destabilize Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cancar thinks Russia would also benefit 'from having another conflict that will divert attention from Ukraine.' Although separatist rhetoric is not new in Republika Srpska, the tipping point came in 2023, when Dodik supported the passage of a controversial measure to suspend the rulings of Bosnia's Constitutional Court inside Republika Srpska. That threatened to undermine the foundations of peace in the country. Under the Dayton Accords, which ended the civil war in 1995, a high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina is tasked with overseeing the civilian implementation of the agreement. Since 2021, German politician Christian Schmidt has held that position. Controversially, the high representative has the power to impose and annul laws. On July 1, 2023, Schmidt did just that: He annulled the Republika Srpska judicial measure against the Constitutional Court and amended the criminal code to make defying the 'constitutional order' a crime. Dodik signed the measure Schmidt annulled into law anyway. Prosecutors filed an indictment against him the following month. In February, following a lengthy trial, a court in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, found Dodik guilty of defying the high representative's orders, sentencing him to one year in jail and banning him from office for six years. On April 23, state police attempted to arrest Dodik, but were repelled by Republika Srpska police. 'This is a serious political and constitutional crisis,' the Office of the High Representative said in a statement to the Kyiv Independent. It considers the law and Dodik's actions a 'de facto coup d'etat' that threatens constitutional order and Bosnia and Herzegovina's bid for EU membership. Walking the streets of Banja Luka, it's not difficult to understand the danger. Read also: From spy rings to arson — Russia's sabotage across Europe continues unpunished The city is filled with advertisements for Dodik's political party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats. Billboards bear his image and push his narrative. One reads: 'They tried me because they couldn't put a million Serbs in the courtroom!' Their effect is less clear. "Putin is, in this logic of Serbian peoples, the biggest politician in the world." According to Savanovic, Dodik's defiance of the country's peace mechanisms has actually alienated his supporters, many of whom do not want a return to the conflict of the 1990s. 'I don't know a single person in Banja Luka who supports Mr. Dodik, even in his political party,' he said. 'He expected more support from the people,' said Tanja Topic, a journalist and the head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in the city. Internationally, the picture is hardly rosy. Even President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia, usually a reliable ally, is currently distracted by his own domestic political crisis, Topic added. And Dodik's gamble that U.S. President Donald Trump would adopt a more accommodating stance on his nationalistic policies has not paid off. She believes that Dodik's visits to Russia were an attempt to shore up support among his remaining allies and supporters. 'He used these opportunities to create a pro-Russia narrative in Republika Srpska,' Topic said. 'Putin is, in this logic of Serbian peoples, the biggest politician in the world.' Signs of support for Russia are common in Banja Luka. A stand selling T-shirts to tourists features one with Putin's face alongside those displaying Serb nationalistic slogans. There is a Putin-themed restaurant in town, and Russia opened a branch of its embassy here in the summer of 2024. In 2018, local officials announced that they would begin construction of a Russian cultural center. On a recent visit to the planned site, construction was in full swing. At its center is an Orthodox Church covered in a web of scaffolding. The metal skeletons of two onion domes lay in the dust nearby. Officials recently said that the complex will be complete this summer. Russia's influence in the region may not be merely diplomatic and financial. Last fall, reports that Moldova had uncovered a pro-Kremlin hybrid warfare operation shined a spotlight on Republika Srpska. Moldovan authorities said that Russia used camps in the region to train agitators to provoke instability in Moldova around its October presidential election. Officials in Republika Srpska have denied the existence of such camps. Bosnia and Herzegovina's Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment or interviews with officials. But the scandal emphasized the high stakes of Russian influence in Republika Srpska. Now, no one is sure how the current crisis may play out. While few believe there will be a return to violence, experts told the Kyiv Independent that tensions can continue to escalate and small-scale conflict is possible. Dodik, meanwhile, shows no sign of backing down. In March, he announced that Republika Srpska would form an independent border police force, a potential major escalation. 'If we accept this as a status quo, (Dodik) will take this as a form of support or silent acquiescence to what he's done and will move on the offensive,' said Cancar, the international security expert. That could mean the Republika Srpska's slow integration into Serbia and restrictions on the movement of people, goods, and services along Bosnia and Herzegovina's internal boundaries. 'And then at that point,' Cancar added, 'all bets are off.' We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Spectator
The shadow of communism still looms over the Balkans
Our Serbian guide Zoran is a jovial fellow and as we rumble through the streets of Belgrade in our minibus he regales us with a joke about the difference between the various nationalities of the former Yugoslavia, all now with countries of their own. 'We Serbs are rude,' he says, 'but the Croatians are self-centred, the Bosnians are thick, the Montenegrins are lazy and the Macedonians are just Serbs with a speech defect. As for the Slovenians, they are so polite they must be gay!' Joking about each other is a definite improvement on fighting each other, as per so much of their history. The countries on my Balkan tour – Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria – have been struggling for more than three decades with their post-communist problems. But they do like a laugh. The Serb capital Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump family hotel project in Serbia in doubt after forgery probe
The future of a luxury property development by Donald Trump's son-in-law in Belgrade has been thrown into doubt over suspicions that documents used to revoke the site's protected status were forged. Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners signed a 99-year land deal with the Serbian government last year to redevelop the former Yugoslav Army Headquarters, just months after its designation as a "cultural asset" was removed. No work has yet started at the site, which has not been rebuilt since it was bombed several times in 1999 during the NATO air campaign that ended the war in Kosovo. But on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into whether the document used by the government to revoke the building's protected status was forged. The head of Serbia's Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, was arrested on suspicion of "forgery of an official document" and admitted the charge in court. He was given a restraining order barring him from contacting witnesses, the court told AFP in a statement on Friday. The government has so far kept tight-lipped about the case but President Aleksandar Vucic, at a European leaders' summit, denied "any halt to the project plans". "There was no forgery of any kind and we will discuss everything with everyone," he told a news conference in Tirana on Friday. But Kushner's company Affinity Partners told AFP they had played no role in the review of the site's cultural status and that the fate of the project was now unclear. - Opposition - The New York Times has reported that Kushner's $500 million plan involved turning the former army headquarters into a luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units. The Serbian government has said it would also include a memorial to the victims of the 1999 bombing, which still evokes strong feelings among Serbs -- and resentment to NATO -- today. The buildings, completed in 1965 and given protected status in 2005, were designed by Nikola Dobrovic as a brutalist homage to the Sutjeska River canyon, where the Partisans won a decisive battle against German forces in 1943. Respected Serbian architect Slobodan Maldini described the distinctive, red-bricked buildings, which cascade to street level, as "a monumental composition designed to evoke a strong sculptural impression". "It represents a leading work of post-war modernist architecture, not only in the former Yugoslavia but also more broadly in the region," he added. Maldini was one of 350 architects and engineers to call for the army headquarters to be restored to their former glory after the deal with Affinity Partners was signed. He said redevelopment would be a "loss of the finest architectural work of its kind" and the "damage caused by its demolition would be irreparable". oz-al/phz
France 24
16-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Trump family hotel project in Serbia in doubt after forgery probe
Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners signed a 99-year land deal with the Serbian government last year to redevelop the former Yugoslav Army Headquarters, just months after its designation as a "cultural asset" was removed. No work has yet started at the site, which has not been rebuilt since it was bombed several times in 1999 during the NATO air campaign that ended the war in Kosovo. But on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into whether the document used by the government to revoke the building's protected status was forged. The head of Serbia's Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, was arrested on suspicion of "forgery of an official document" and admitted the charge in court. He was given a restraining order barring him from contacting witnesses, the court told AFP in a statement on Friday. The government has so far kept tight-lipped about the case but President Aleksandar Vucic, at a European leaders' summit, denied "any halt to the project plans". "There was no forgery of any kind and we will discuss everything with everyone," he told a news conference in Tirana on Friday. But Kushner's company Affinity Partners told AFP they had played no role in the review of the site's cultural status and that the fate of the project was now unclear. Opposition The New York Times has reported that Kushner's $500 million plan involved turning the former army headquarters into a luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units. The Serbian government has said it would also include a memorial to the victims of the 1999 bombing, which still evokes strong feelings among Serbs -- and resentment to NATO -- today. The buildings, completed in 1965 and given protected status in 2005, were designed by Nikola Dobrovic as a brutalist homage to the Sutjeska River canyon, where the Partisans won a decisive battle against German forces in 1943. Respected Serbian architect Slobodan Maldini described the distinctive, red-bricked buildings, which cascade to street level, as "a monumental composition designed to evoke a strong sculptural impression". "It represents a leading work of post-war modernist architecture, not only in the former Yugoslavia but also more broadly in the region," he added. Maldini was one of 350 architects and engineers to call for the army headquarters to be restored to their former glory after the deal with Affinity Partners was signed. He said redevelopment would be a "loss of the finest architectural work of its kind" and the "damage caused by its demolition would be irreparable".
Saudi Gazette
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Croatia's new 'graveyard law' stirs Serb minority's sentiments
ZAGREB — Croatia's war of independence ended almost 30 years ago. However, the EU and NATO member's lawmakers felt some matters stemming from the conflict had not been fully laid to rest. On Wednesday, MPs overwhelmingly voted in favor of a new piece of legislation called the Graveyard Law, replacing the two-decades-old policy with a fresh set of rules which now demand the removal of graveyard inscriptions and plaques erected during the 1991-1995 conflict "not in line with the constitutional order". The new law, as explained in a statement released by the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets, outlaws inscriptions made during the "occupation and peaceful reintegration" and contains "symbols that might offend the morals and feelings of citizens." The law particularly targets gravestones made after 30 May 1990 — the day when the former Socialist Republic of Croatia inaugurated its first multi-party parliament, an initial step on its path to independence from the rest of Yugoslavia. Its ethnic Serb minority, backed by Belgrade and the nationalist regime of Slobodan Milošević, increasingly disagreed with Croatian President Franjo Tuđman's push for independence. The ethnic Serbs, who were at the time Croatia's largest minority and represented some 12.2% of the population according to the 1991 census, soon unilaterally declared a breakaway state of Republika Srpska Krajina, or the Republic of Serb Krajina, in the country's east. By April 1991, the armed rebellion escalated into a full-fledged war, with the newly-founded Croatian armed forces on one side and the rebels, paramilitaries and the Yugoslav People's Army troops on the other. A series of initial skirmishes and sieges laid waste to cities like Vukovar in Croatia's northeast and led to an international community-arranged stalemate monitored by UN peacekeepers. However, in 1995, the regrouped and rearmed Croatian army's Operations Flash and Storm, respectively, ended the war by pushing out the Serb forces — and most of the ethnic Serb population — from its territory. Now, the new law plans to remove any memorials glorifying either the Republika Srpska Krajina or otherwise celebrating the enemy forces, including referring to Croatia as "Serb land". The legislation states that any citizen can report a tombstone, plaque or other monument as potentially problematic. If found to be at fault, plot owners or relatives of those interred will have 30 days to change the inscription. Otherwise, they would face a fine of €1,000 to €5,000. The decision on what might be in breach of the law will be in the hands of a local commission, consisting of five independent members, including a historian, an art historian and a lawyer. Earlier in April, Minister of Construction, Spatial Planning and State Property Branko Bačić said that the changes to the law were prompted by the fact that "after the occupation of a part of Croatia during the Homeland War, certain graves, monuments and memorial plaques remained with inappropriate names contrary to the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Croatia." Serb minority representatives have blasted the new legislation, arguing it has turned a communal issue into a political one. Lawmaker Milorad Pupovac, from the SDSS party, earlier criticized the law, saying it creates an impression that Croatia was "pockmarked with (Serb nationalist) graveyards," which he said was not true. "There are people who are bothered by symbols associated with the Ustasha ideology and idea, which can also be found in certain cemeteries, but also outside the cemeteries on monuments, and they offend their religious and national feelings," he said at a parliament session in late April, referring to the Croatian Nazi collaborationist units from World War II and their tombstones and other memorials, which the law does not ecompass. While his party was in favour of removing any troubling remnants of the 1991-1995 war, Pupovac added, "We are now afraid of what might bother you next". This is not the first time in recent years that Croatian authorities have attempted to tackle this sensitive issue. In August 2024, a judge in the city of Zadar on the Adriatic coast fined two Croatian citizens who are singers in a local folk band over references to the Republika Srpska Krajina and the Serb participation in the war. In his rationale, the judge stated that "songs with this content cause unrest among citizens, especially among citizens who were directly exposed to war suffering," and "disturb the coexistence of Croat citizens of Croatia and citizens of Serb ethnicity." Most ethnic Serbs have not returned to Croatia following Operation Storm, and the minority now comprises around 3.2% of Croatia's population, according to the 2021 census. — Euronews
