Latest news with #Sarajevo
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
ArcelorMittal signs deal to sell its steel mill and iron ore mine in Bosnia
SARAJEVO, June 20 (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal, the world's second-largest steelmaker, signed a deal on Friday to sell its steel mill and iron ore mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Bosnia-based Pavgord Group, the company said in a statement. The completion of the deal is planned for the third quarter of 2025, after all conditions for its implementation have been fulfilled, the company said.
National Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
Belgrade show plots path out of Balkan labyrinth of pain
Belgrade — Life in 1990s former Yugoslavia was a nightmare of war, economic collapse and an all-powerful mafia. Article content But a new exhibition in Belgrade hopes plunging visitors back into this labyrinth of trauma and suffering may actually help the Balkans find a way to escape its troubled past. Article content The show tells how a once-prosperous country was ripped apart by rampant nationalism and devastating violence as much of the rest of Europe basked in post-Cold War optimism and the beginning of the digital revolution. Article content Article content 'I feel like crying,' Vesna Latinovic, a 63-year-old from Belgrade told AFP as she toured the exhibition, visibly shaken. Article content Article content 'Labyrinth of the Nineties' opens with a video collage of popular television intros and music videos, followed by a speech from Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who ended his days in prison being tried for war crimes. Article content 'We've forgotten so much — how intense and dramatic it was, how deeply human lives were affected, and how many were tragically cut short,' visitor Latinovic said. Article content At least 130,000 were killed — with 11,000 still missing — as Yugoslavia spiralled into the worst war in Europe since 1945. Millions more were displaced as neighbour turned on neighbour. Article content The collapse Article content The exhibition features haunting images of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo under siege, civilians under sniper fire, refugees and concentration camps. Article content Those of strikes, worthless, hyper-inflated banknotes and descriptions of the rise of a new class of tycoons and oligarchs reveal a society imploding. Article content The labyrinth in the show is meant to be a 'powerful metaphor to show that we entered the maze of the 1990s and we still haven't found the way out,' said historian Dubravka Stojanovic, who co-curated the show. Article content At the labyrinth's heart is 1995 — a year when over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, and 200,000 Serbs were displaced from Croatia in the fall of the Republic of Serbian Krajina. Article content That year the Schengen Agreement removed borders within the European Union, but at the same time new borders were being thrown up between the former Yugoslav republics.
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
European rabbis cancel Sarajevo meeting citing political pressure
SARAJEVO, June 13 (Reuters) - Organisers of a conference for Orthodox Jewish Rabbis in Bosnia's capital Sarajevo have moved it to another country, citing political pressure and a hotel's decision to cancel a mass booking. The Conference of European Rabbis (CER), which represents more than 1,000 mainstream Orthodox Jewish communities, was due to hold its biannual standing committee meeting next week in Bosnia to discuss issues facing Jews in Europe and religious freedom. The event faced a backlash in Muslim-majority Sarajevo after local media reported that the rabbis would pledge their support to Israel in the war in Gaza. "We have been made unwelcome," the CER's Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said in a statement, confirming the Sarajevo meeting was off and calling its treatment "disgraceful". The CER moved the conference to Munich, where it is based. Jakob Finci, president of Bosnia's Jewish Community, also said the hotel had cancelled the booking. The hotel did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. CER has no formal link to the state of Israel. Residents of Sarajevo, where about 11,000 people were killed during a 1992-1995 siege by Bosnian Serb forces, are sympathetic to the plight of civilians in the Gaza Strip. "We must not allow that Sarajevo be the stage from which the genocide will be justified," Adnan Delic, the regional labour and social policy minister, wrote in a Facebook post, urging the organisers to cancel the meeting and authorities to ban it. Israel denies carrying out genocide in Gaza. Many Jews worry about a surge of antisemitism since the Gaza war began.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Ratko Mladic: ‘Terminally ill' Bosnian Serb general serving life for genocide seeks release
Lawyers for former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, serving life imprisonment for genocide, have asked a UN court to release him on 'humanitarian grounds' – claiming he has a terminal medical condition and just months to live. Mladic (83) – known during the Yugoslav war as the Butcher of Bosnia – was found guilty in 2017 of extermination, murder, persecution and forcible transfer in connection with the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the 'safe haven' of Srebrenica in July 1995. He was also convicted of directing the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in which almost 14,000 people died. It lasted a year longer than the siege of Stalingrad and was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Mladic's application for early release lodged with judges at the international court in The Hague by his long-time legal team, Dragan Ivetic and Branko Lukic, comes just weeks before the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica atrocities, on July 11th. READ MORE According to a motion lodged last week with the court and now publicly available on its website, Mladic has been moved to palliative care at the UN detention centre a few kilometres from the court, and has just 'months to live'. [ The Irish Times view from 2021 on Ratko Mladic: held to account Opens in new window ] Although the details of his medical condition are redacted from the motion as it appears on the court's website, it is known that Mladic has suffered two strokes and a heart attack in recent years while incarcerated. The former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska also had a pacemaker fitted at a Dutch hospital in 2023. However, his condition continues to deteriorate and since then, his kidneys have failed. 'Given Mladic's incurable condition and his short life expectancy, continued detention serves no legitimate purpose, and amounts to inhumane treatment and punishment,' the motion reads. As well as saving the UN detention centre the cost of palliative care, his lawyers argue, early release would allow Mladic to explore all his medical options, so as to live out the remaining months of his life with his family. [ Inside Srebrenica: old scars, new wounds Opens in new window ] Mladic's son, Darko, said he had spoken to two doctors on the UN medical team who confirmed the terminal diagnosis. 'Our Serbian doctors share the opinion that he has very little chance of surviving until the end of this year,' he added. Mladic was convicted and sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. This has largely completed its work and has been subsumed into the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), also in The Hague. The motion is listed on the IRMCT website as an 'urgent defence motion'. However, there is no indication of when the court will rule.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘Terminally-ill' Bosnian Serb general serving life for genocide seeks release from prison
Lawyers for former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, serving life imprisonment for genocide, have asked a UN court to release him on 'humanitarian grounds' – claiming he has a terminal medical condition and just months to live. Mladic (83) – known during the Yugoslav war as the Butcher of Bosnia – was found guilty in 2017 of extermination, murder, persecution and forcible transfer in connection with the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the 'safe haven' of Srebrenica in July 1995. He was also convicted of directing the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in which almost 14,000 people died. It lasted a year longer than the siege of Stalingrad and was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Mladic's application for early release lodged with judges at the international court in The Hague by his long-time legal team, Dragan Ivetic and Branko Lukic, comes just weeks before the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica atrocities, on July 11th. READ MORE According to a motion lodged last week with the court and now publicly available on its website, Mladic has been moved to palliative care at the UN detention centre a few kilometres from the court, and has just 'months to live'. [ The Irish Times view from 2021 on Ratko Mladic: held to account Opens in new window ] Although the details of his medical condition are redacted from the motion as it appears on the court's website, it is known that Mladic has suffered two strokes and a heart attack in recent years while incarcerated. The former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska also had a pacemaker fitted at a Dutch hospital in 2023. However, his condition continues to deteriorate and since then, his kidneys have failed. 'Given Mladic's incurable condition and his short life expectancy, continued detention serves no legitimate purpose, and amounts to inhumane treatment and punishment,' the motion reads. As well as saving the UN detention centre the cost of palliative care, his lawyers argue, early release would allow Mladic to explore all his medical options, so as to live out the remaining months of his life with his family. [ Inside Srebrenica: old scars, new wounds Opens in new window ] Mladic's son, Darko, said he had spoken to two doctors on the UN medical team who confirmed the terminal diagnosis. 'Our Serbian doctors share the opinion that he has very little chance of surviving until the end of this year,' he added. Mladic was convicted and sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. This has largely completed its work and has been subsumed into the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), also in The Hague. The motion is listed on the IRMCT website as an 'urgent defence motion'. However, there is no indication of when the court will rule.
