A campaign to return the Olympics to
Sarajevo -- site of the 1984 winter Olympics -- has failed.
The International Olympic Committee picked four finalists for the
21st winter games in 2010, but the Bosnian capital did not make the
list. The official IOC announcement is at
http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/publications/press_uk.asp?release=306
Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica caused an uproar after claiming that Republika Srpska is
only "temporarily detached" from Serbia.
At a campaign rally, Kostunica said Srpska was "part of our family
we hold very dear, very close to us and only temporarily detached
from us but always ours and always in our heart," according to media
reports.
"We consider this to be the worst form of cheap and irresponsible
electioneering," a spokesman for Bosnia's high representative told AP.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia and the Fund for
Humanitarian Law also criticized the statement sas "a throwback to the
Milosevic era." And Bosnian officials said the comment proved Serb
nationalists are still clinging to their dream of creating a
Greater Serbia -- a goal that led to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and
the deaths of several hundred thousand people.
Kostunica complained his statement was "wrongfully and maliciously
misinterpreted" by Bosnian officials. And Bosnian Serb Republic Prime
Minister Mladen Ivanic said Kostunica "has no reason to apologize,"
according to SRNA, a Serb news agency.
MORE ON THE WEB: Serbia: Kostunica Remarks Frighten Bosnia
By Milanka Saponja-Hadzic in Belgrade, Institute of War and Peace
Reporting
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr2/bcr2_20020918_1_eng.txt
Bosnian Serb fans of
Yugoslavia's national basketball team rioted against Muslims throughout
Republika Srpska, after the team won a world championship in Indianapolis.
There were pogroms "in nearly all towns and villages in the RS where
a significant number of [Muslim refugees returning to their homes
are] residing," according to a media roundup from the High
Representative's office. Attacks took place Kozarac, Brcko, Zvornik
and Bijeljina, among other sites.
The Yugoslav team was congratulated by Bosnian Serb wartime leader
and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who is accused of
masterminding the murder and torture of tens of thousands of people.
"The players are expected to accept the ex-leader's well-wishes,"
Ananova reported at
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_668649.html?menu=news.quirkies .
An official
Bosnian Serb report claims that there was no massacre of Muslims in
Srebrenica, the "UN safe haven" overrun by Serb forces in 1995 where
thousands were slaughtered.
"Alternative TV" in Banja Luka disclosed the report's findings.
Forensic investigators have found the remains of about 6,000
victims of the slaughter, including some with hands bound behind
their backs. A number of Serbs were indicted for genocide in the wake
of the atrocity, and one, Radislav Krstic, has already been convicted
by a UN war crimes tribunal.
A Voice of America story on the report is posted at
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=9A4C1080-655C-4E60-B356553763AE8F4E
The Yugoslav and Bosnian national
soccer teams recently played a match in Sarajevo, the city besieged by
Yugoslav-backed Serb forces during the war.
"Though the match -- won by Yugoslavia, 2-0 -- was relatively
peaceful, the experience of the war permeated the event," the Los Angeles Times
reported. "Fans shouted the names of wartime leaders, waved the
wartime flags and shouted religious slogans. Still, the deadly
potency of such language seemed truly diminished. 'This is finally
just football now; the war is over,' said Vahidin Hodzic, 29,
a Bosnian Muslim veteran of the war."
However, "eight people were arrested and 25 were hurt in clashes
between Bosnian fans and police after the match," Associated Press
reported. Supporters of the Yugoslav team chanted Karadzic's name,
inflaming anger among the Bosnian crowd. Police protected
Serb fans as they left the stadium, but some Bosnian fans then
attacked the officers, Sarajevo police told AP.
Italian investigators have called on former British Foreign
Secretary Douglas Hurd to testify about charges of bribery and
embezzlement. The inquiry involves NatWest Markets, "when the bank
advised on a controversial deal involving Telecom Italia and the
Serbian telephone network in 1997." Some charge that money paid by
Telecom Italia for a stake in Telekom Serbia actually ended up in the
hands of "bank accounts and front companies controlled by Slobodan
Milosevic and his associates," the Observer reports.
Hurd was a staunch opponent of Western intervention in Bosnia to
stop Serb atrocities there and "was perceived to have been
sympathetic to the Serbs during the Balkans conflict," the Observer
notes. He later served as deputy chairman of NatWest during the time
of the Telekom Serbia deal.