An apparent bid by federal president Vojislav Kostunica to curry favour with Serbian nationalists has rocked relations between Yugoslavia and Bosnia. While Kostunica was visiting the border town of Mali Zvornik on September 14 as part of campaigning for Serbia's presidential elections, the Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, leader described neighbouring Republika Srpska, RS, as "part of the family, temporarily separated from the Serbian motherland". Haris Silajdzic, a Bosniak candidate for the Bosnian presidency, described the remarks as "one step away from declaration of war", claiming that "everything achieved in the process of normalisation" between the two neighbouring states had been destroyed as a result. Kostunica - who later described his comments as having been "maliciously misinterpreted" - maintained he has no plan to reunite the RS with Serbia, saying that he had only been calling for the eventual reunion of all of the former Yugoslavia's Serbs within the framework of the European Union.

Read more: Serbia: Kostunica Remarks Frighten Bosnia

"UN prosecutors have opened their genocide case against Slobodan Milosevic, vowing to prove that he played a leading role in the worst crimes against humanity in Europe since World War II," CNN Europe reports, in a story posted at http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/26/hague.milosevic/index.html The trial for crimes in Kosovo finished earlier this month. In the Bosnia trial, Milosevic faces the most severe charge of genocide. "Murder, torture and deportation are among the [other] serious charges Milosevic, 61, now faces," CNN notes. After the prosecution outlined the case against the former Yugoslav leader, including large-scale murder, torture and expulsion of Muslims from large regions of Bosnia, Milosevic answered by showing a video that portrayed Serbs as the war's victims. "Milosevic, who has refused a lawyer and is conducting his own defence, looked rested after a two-week break in court hearings and listened closely to the prosecution, sometimes smirking or frowning," CNN Europe reported. "The former Yugoslav president has been charged for the mass execution of Muslims in the city of Srebrenica, and the three-year siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, when Serb snipers shot children, women and the elderly on the streets and in their homes. . . . "Outside, . . . , a dozen Bosnian protesters called for the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime general, Ratko Mladic, who remain at large despite also being indicted for genocide in Bosnia." Prosecutors are expected to call 106 witnesses against Milosevic in the Bosnia portion of the trial, and another 71 for the Croatia indictment. So far, the trial has increased Milosevic's popularity in Serbia, reports Time magazine's European edition, in an article posted at http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020930-353524,00.html (A rally for radical Serb ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj -- endorsed by Milosevic in the race for Serbia's presidency -- drew an estimated 20,000 people in Novi Sad. "Seselj is the only man capable of protecting Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic," his aides told the cheering crowd, AFP reported. However, opinion polls show Seselj in third place among the electorate).

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

"Saboteurs blew up a mosque in the Serbian part of Bosnia just three months after it was reopened following its destruction during the 1992-1995 war," the New York Times reported earlier this month. "Muslims expelled by Serbian forces at that time have only recently begun to return to the area, near the southeastern town of Gacko." The mosque, in Kljuc, suffered damage to the minaret, according to AP.

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 .