Roblog

Nine years after anti-gay rioting rocked Belgrade, homophobia in Serbia remains distressingly pervasive. Is there hope for 2010?

As the newly-elected Croatian President Ivo Josipović prepares to take office, the recent freeze in Croatia’s relations with Serbia will provide an immediate—and unwelcome—test of his diplomatic mettle.

As we move into 2010, the future EU prospects of Serbia and Croatia look bright; their neighbour Bosnia, though, risks being left behind if it cannot overcome serious obstacles.

In 1995, the Croatian army launched a series of huge military operations, aimed at retaking those areas of Croatia that had been under the control of the secessionist Croatian Serbs. Though military successful, the operations displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians whose lives remain blighted by what happened in the summer of 1995.

By affording Kosovo diplomatic recognition immediately after its 2008 declaration of independence, the west helped secure for the nascent republic a peaceful future, and helped avoid potential bloodshed. That future might reach a more permanent settlement with legal proceedings, opening this week at the International Court of Justice, that will eventually rule on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

This month saw the passing of Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church for nearly twenty years, whose tenure saw change of an unimaginable magnitude. His life was controversial and his patriarchy divisive, but perhaps there is hope for the future.

The Drina Valley in eastern Bosnia has an incredible geographical, political and mythological significance within both Serbian and Bosnian society. Between 1992 and 1995, however, it achieved a new infamy as the site of bitter conflict and human rights abuses. This article explores the events of those years and those indictees of the ICTY who were involved in abuses there.

The first in a series focussing on the lesser-known indictees of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this article examines the background of Vojislav Šešelj, the former Vice-President of Serbia, and his journey from star law student to ultranationalist rhetorician.

Jason Elliot’s masterful account of his journeys through Iran reveals a society riven with dilemma and conflict, one that proves remarkably—and frustratingly—inscrutable. At times indistinguishable in appearance and aspiration from the west; at others as far from it as is possible, Iran proves to be as enigmatic as it is beautiful.