Archive for the month of July 2010

Serbia submitted Kosovo draft resolution to UN

28 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Serbia submitted a draft resolution on Kosovo to the UN General Assembly. Serbia is not satisfied with the opinion by the International Court of Justice regarding Kosovo and argues that Kosovo's unilateral secession is not an acceptable manner of solving territorial disputes.

The UN court ruled that Kosovo declaration of independence was not in violation of international law because there is no international law prohibiting it. It did not touch on the subject of whether Kosovo had the right to secede. The court argued that it answered precisely what Serbia had asked for.

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Slow printing from Nitro PDF

27 Jul, 2010 Stephan

I have always used Adobe's free Reader to read PDF's and the free Primo PDF to create PDF's. Since a while I switched to the also free Nitro PDF, that can both read and create PDF's (currently at version 1.2.0.11).

But if there is one caveat to Nitro PDF it is that printing is rather slow.

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Drupal: remove "reply" link from comments

26 Jul, 2010 Stephan 20 Comments
Drupal

In admin/content/types you can configure the behavior of the comments per content type. One of the options under the comment settings is the visibility of the comment form: either hide it or display it under the comments.

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Dodik: ICJ opinion opens road to RS secession

25 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Republic of Srpska prime minister Milorad Dodik said that the ICJ opinion on Kosovo hypothetically opens the possibility for RS to secede from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In an interview with daily Danas he said that ICJ's opinion also shows that there is a strong political front working against Serbia, especially the countries that have recognized Kosovo’s independence.

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Italy FM: Serbia and Kosovo must continue dialog

25 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said that now that ICJ’s opinion has been given, Serbia and Kosovo must continue talks.

He added that ICJ’s decision clearly states that Kosovo must remain a unique case and that it cannot cause a domino effect, since such an event would lead to a crisis of international relations.

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Kosovo to submit UN membership request

24 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu said that Kosovo intends to submit a request for United Nations membership in 2011.

July 23, the Kosovo assembly adopted a declaration that says: "The ICJ has opened the road for new recognitions of the Republic of Kosovo and the decision has also opened Kosovo’s road towards regional and Euro-Atlantic integrations.” It "supports the call of the EU for the start of dialogue regarding practical questions between Kosovo and Serbia, but excludes all possibilities of negotiations regarding Kosovo’s status."

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July 21, 2010

23 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Kosovo's central bank governor Hashim Rexhepi was arrested by Kosovo police in an investigation concerning suspected bribes, tax evasion, influence-peddling and money laundering. Kosovo police searched the central bank, a private company and the homes of four suspects.

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Bosian Serb sentenced for role in Srebrenica massacre

22 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Bosnia's state prosecutor's spokesman Boris Grubesic said that Marko Boskic was sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes. Boskic confessed that he and seven other members of his Bosnian Serb army unit executed several hundred of the over 8,000 men imprisoned after the Serbs conquered Srebrenica in July 1995.

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Retrial for Ramush Haradinaj

22 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

Former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj of Kosovo faces a retrial for war crimes after ICTY partially overturned his acquittal. Haradinaj was in 2008 of torture, murder, rape and deportation after trial judges in the tribunal found prosecutors did not prove a deliberate campaign to kill and expel Serb civilians from Kosovo.

Appeals judges ruled that the original ruling erred by not giving prosecutors enough time to exhaust all reasonable steps to secure the testimony of two crucial witnesses.

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UN: Kosovo independence legal

22 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

The UN's International Court of Justice ruled that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 did not violate international law because there are no prohibitions against such declarations. The ICJ ruling is an advisory only and not binding in any way.

Serbia maintained that it's former province of Kosovo has been a fundamental component of Serbian national identity for hundreds of years and that the territory rightfully remains a Serbian province. It was unlikely that Serbia would have changed its opinion. Russia also dismissed the court's ruling.

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Explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica

20 Jul, 2010 Balkanblog

In the town of Zvecan, an explosive device was thrown in the back yard of the editor-in-chief of Kosovska Mitrovica Radio, Caslav Milisavljevic. No injuries were reported.

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