Balkans leaders discuss common market after EU snub

Yahoo – AFP, November 10, 2019

The three Balkans leaders want to ease trade and travel between their
countries, and others in the region (AFP Photo/Robert ATANASOVSKI)

Ohrid (Republic of North Macedonia) (AFP) - Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia discussed setting up a common market at a summit Sunday, weeks after the European Union snubbed bids by Skopje and Tirana to open membership talks.

The leaders of the three countries met at Lake Ohrid, in North Macedonia, after the EU last month refused to start membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, his North Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who launched the common market initiative in October, attended Sunday's meeting.

"We should not be afraid of our own shadow and to do something for ourselves," Vucic told reporters.

"We did not invent anything better for the past 30 years in the Balkans."

"We all want to be part of EU," but "it depends on them," he added. Serbia opened membership talks with the bloc in 2014.

This new initiative is aimed at establishing the free movement of goods and people by 2021 in the divided region.

Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo have also been invited to take part in the project.

But while Bosnia and Montenegro sent representatives to Sunday's meeting, Kosovo was absent.

"The vision of Kosovo is its accession to EU and NATO" which cannot be replaced by "any other regional initiative", Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said in a message posted on social media.

"This initiative makes no sense as long as Serbia and Bosnia do not recognise Kosovo independence."

Serbia's former ethnic Albanian-majority province proclaimed independence in 2008, but Belgrade has still not recognised it. Nor does Bosnia, due to the opposition of Bosnian Serbs.

The issue remains extremely sensitive in the Balkans region, which was torn apart in a series of wars in the 1990s that accompanied the collapse of Yugoslavia.

Rama voiced regret over Pristina's stance over the initiative.

"It is also in the interest of Kosovo, its citizens and market that the border between Kosovo and Serbia be abolished" despite the unresolved dispute between the two countries, he said.

The three leaders present agreed on introducing a common work permit and allowing travel between the three countries with an ID card only.

They also discussed setting up a "mini Schengen" visa-free zone to facilitate free movement of foreign visitors within the three countries.

And they agreed to ease customs procedures and border controls to accelerate the passage of trucks.

Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia have a combined population of nearly 20 million people.

France led last month's opposition to the EU membership talks for Albania and North Macedonia, although Denmark and the Netherlands also expressed reservations.

Albania will host the next meeting of the Balkans initiative on December 21.

Dutch court cuts state's liability for Srebrenica deaths

Yahoo – AFP, Jan HENNOP, 19 July 2019

Dutch troops were posted to protect the UN safe area of Srebrenica but were overrun
in July 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces who massacred nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys

The Dutch Supreme Court on Friday slashed the state's liability for 350 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, saying peacekeepers had only a "slim" chance of preventing their deaths.

The 350 men were among 5,000 terrified residents who had sought safety in the Dutch peacekeepers' base when the besieged Muslim enclave was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

The lightly armed Dutch troops eventually became overwhelmed and shut the gates to new arrivals before allowing Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic to evacuate the refugees.

The men and boys were separated and taken in buses to their deaths, their bodies dumped in mass graves.

Judges, however, on Friday reduced from 30 percent to 10 percent the Dutch state's responsibility for compensation to the families in a case brought by the Mothers of Srebrenica victims' organisation.

The 350 were among the almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the genocide at Srebrenica, the worst massacre in Europe since World War II and the darkest episode in the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

"The Dutch State bears very limited liability in the 'Mothers of Srebrenica' case," the Supreme Court said. "That liability is limited to 10 percent of the damages suffered by the surviving relatives of approximately 350 victims."

'Humiliation'

After the ruling, Mothers' president Munira Subasic, who lost family members including her son, husband and father in the massacre, expressed disappointment.

Relatives of the Srebrenica victims were represented by the Mothers of Srebrenica

group, which was suing for compensation

"Today we experienced humiliation upon humiliation. We could not even hear the judgement in our own language because we were not given a translator," she told AFP.

At Srebrenica "every life was taken away 100 percent. There is little we can do with 10 percent, but yes, the responsibility still lies where it does".

"I only have two bones. I have found less than 10 percent of his body," she added, referring to her teenage son.

The Dutch government accepted responsibility, saying it was relieved that "finally there was some clarity."

A Dutch court originally held the state liable for compensation in 2014. In 2017 the appeals court upheld that decision before it was referred to the Supreme Court.

The lower court had said in 2017 that the Dutch actions meant the Muslims were "denied a 30 percent chance of avoiding abuse and execution", and thus the Dutch state was liable for 30 percent of damages owed to families.

The Supreme Court agreed that "the state did act wrongfully in relation to the evacuation of the 5,000 refugees" in the compound, including 350 Muslim men the Bosnian Serbs were unaware of.

It said the Dutch peacekeepers "failed to offer these 350 male refugees the choice to stay where they were, even though that would have been possible".

But explaining the decision to reduce the liability, the Supreme Court said that "the chance that the male refugees would have escaped the Bosnian Serbs had they been given the choice to stay was slim, but not negligible".

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is serving a life sentence for the 

genocide carried out in Srebrenica and for other war crimes

Reacting to the ruling, Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld said in a statement the cabinet would "examine how to best implement the liability for damages suffered by the relatives in such a way it does justice to the Supreme Court ruling".

Long shadow

In a swipe at the failure of other foreign powers to act during the 1995 crisis, the top court added that the "chance of Dutchbat (the Dutch UN mission) receiving effective support from the international community was slim".

Former Dutchbat soldiers attending the case said they were disappointed on behalf of the victims' families.

"I think the final judgement is a bit disappointing, especially when you see the court ruling of 30 percent and now it's downgraded to 10 percent," said Remko de Bruijne, a former Dutch blue helmet who served at Srebrenica.

"I think that's not fair for the Mothers of Srebrenica but, on the other hand, now it's clear," he told AFP.

Srebrenica has cast a long shadow over The Netherlands, forcing a the government to resign in 2002 after a scathing report on the role of politicians in the episode.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is currently serving a life sentence in jail in The Hague after being convicted of genocide over Srebrenica and war crimes throughout the 1990s.

Ex-military chief Mladic, 76, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", is currently appealing a life sentence on similar charges at an international tribunal in The Hague.

Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic's long-time patron during the war, was on trial in The Hague at the time of his death in 2006.

Albania, Macedonia backed for EU membership talks

Yahoo – AFP, Lachlan CARMICHAEL, April 17, 2018

The announcement comes a month ahead of a summit in Sofia when the leaders of
six Balkan nations will be given fresh hope of eventually joining the EU (AFP
Photo/EMMANUEL DUNAND)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU on Tuesday backed the opening of formal membership talks with Albania and Macedonia as the bloc looks to expand into the Balkans and grow for the first time in years.

The announcement comes a month ahead of a summit in Sofia when the leaders of six Balkan nations will be given fresh hope of eventually joining the EU, amid rivalry between Brussels and Moscow over the region.

Skopje and Tirana both welcomed the move and vowed to work hard to remove obstacles on the long way to full membership.

EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, recommended that member states "open accession negotiations with Albania and with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."

Mogherini stressed that any prospective members must make sweeping reforms to secure their entry to the club, which currently counts 28 countries as members -- although Britain is set to leave next year.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker put all enlargement on hold four years ago, and the Balkans states have become increasingly impatient.

Montenegro and Serbia are the frontrunners to join, having already started the formal membership process, with Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia lagging behind.

In February the EU unveiled its new strategy for the region, which aims to give membership to some states by 2025 but insists they must first resolve all border rows.

The EU has been wary of admitting new members before they settle their differences. The border rows will be a particular point of contention in a region still bedevilled by the aftermath of the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

These include a bitter and long-running dispute between Macedonia and EU-member Greece over its name, which Athens insists refers to its own northern province.

'Drift to Russia'

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, whose country's NATO membership bid has also been held up by the row, said his government wanted to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.

Macron insisted on reforming the European Union before expanding the

bloc (AFP Photo/Frederick FLORIN)

"We are making efforts to finish this before the summit... but we would be even happier if it can happen earlier," Zaev told a press conference in Skopje.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said the former communist country has "passed the historic test of our rapprochment with Europe" but acknowledged hard work lay ahead.

Rama told reporters in the capital Tirana that it marked "the opening of a new, more difficult phase of reforms and reinforcing the fight against crime and corruption."

Mogherini told reporters at the European parliament that Montenegro and Serbia have "progressed well" with their reforms, adding that "maintaining and deepening the current reforms must continue in all areas."

These areas are the rule of law, human rights, democratic institutions and public administration as well as ensuring economic competitiveness.

An ally of Russia, Serbia has refused to recognise its former breakaway province of Kosovo since it declared independence a decade ago. Five EU countries also do not recognise its independence.

Bulgaria, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, has warned it is now or never for expanding the European Union into the Balkans as concerns grow about Moscow's influence in the bloc's eastern backyard.

French President Emmanuel Macron underscored the concerns, saying: "Yes to anchoring them in the EU and not letting them drift toward Turkey and Russia."

But Macron insisted on reforming the bloc before admitting them, saying: "I will not defend any new enlargement until there is a deepening and improvement of our own Europe."

Dutch police launch investigation after tribunal suspect takes poison and dies

DutchNews, November 29, 2017

Photo: UNtv screen shot

Dutch police have begun an investigation into how a defendant on trial at the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal in The Hague managed to take poison and kill himself after hearing the verdict. 

Slobodan Praljak, 72, died in hospital, after swallowing liquid from a small bottle after hearing his 20-year jail term for war crimes had been upheld. 

The ex-commander of Bosnian Croat forces, who took the poison in full view of the cameras, said he was not a criminal before drinking from the bottle. As the judge continued reading, he then said: ‘I have taken poison.’ 

In 2013, Praljak had been sentenced for crimes in the city of Mostar during the Bosnian war from 1992-95. 

How Praljak obtained the poison is so far a mystery.  Praljak has been held at a special unit in Scheveningen for tribunal suspects and is allowed free access to visitors and his legal team, broadcaster NOS said. 

Visitors have to go through security checks similar to those at an airport. Visitors to the court itself have to go through a similar security procedure. 

Smuggling

A Serbian lawyer who has represented suspects at the tribunal told news agency AP that it would be easy to smuggle in a liquid. ‘They check you for metal objects. Pills or small amounts of liquid would not be discovered,’ he said. 

Wednesday’s session was the final one to be held at the court since it was established by the United Nations in 1993, two years after the end of the war. 

Dutch justice minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus told reporters later that he did not think the Netherlands’ reputation as host of the tribunal had been damaged by Wednesday’s shock death. ‘The Netherlands has always had a very good reputation and has acquitted itself well,’ he said. 

The court room has now been declared a crime scene. Dutch lawyer Erik Kok, who worked at the tribunal from 2006 to 2011, told RTL Nieuws it is strange that Praljak took his own life now. 

Although he had been sentenced to 20 years in jail, most people are released after serving two-third of their sentence. Given that he had already been in jail for 13 years ahead of the trial, he would have been released in the very near future, Kok said.

'Butcher of Bosnia' found guilty of genocide, jailed for life

Yahoo – AFP, Jan Hennop and Jo Biddle, 22 November 2017

The trial for Ratko Mladic, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia," was the last
before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

UN judges on Wednesday sentenced former Bosnian Serbian commander Ratko Mladic to life in prison after finding him guilty of genocide and war crimes in the brutal Balkans conflicts over two decades ago.

But the man dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia" was not present in court to hear the verdict, having been dragged out of the courtroom after loudly accusing the judges of "lying". And his son and lawyers told reporters he planned to appeal.

Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found Mladic guilty on 10 counts including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity such as murder and deportation. But he was acquitted of one charge of genocide in certain municipalities.

About 100,000 people were killed and 2.2 million displaced in the 1992-1995 war when ethnic rivalries tore Yugoslavia apart.

Judges said "ruthless" Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic's command carried out "mass executions" and showed "little or no respect for human life or dignity."

"For having committed these crimes, the chamber sentences Mr Ratko Mladic to life imprisonment," presiding judge Alphons Orie said as applause broke out in the public gallery.

He added that the crimes were "amongst the most heinous known to humankind".

A smiling Mladic, 74, who once left a trail of fear across Bosnia, gave a thumbs-up as he entered the courtroom in The Hague dressed in a grey suit and red tie.

But in dramatic scenes he was later ordered to be removed, after accusing the judges of lying, when they refused to adjourn the hearing because of his high blood pressure.

"They are lying, you are lying. I don't feel good," he shouted, as two UN security guards hustled him into a nearby room to watch the rest of the verdict.

Relatives of people killed in the Bosnian war celebrated Ratko Mladic's 

conviction for genocide at a memorial cemetery near near Srebrenica

Tears in court

Wednesday's verdict was long awaited by tens of thousands of victims across the bitterly divided region.

Dozens gathered early outside the courtroom, many clutching photos of loved ones who died or are among the 7,000 still missing.

It was an emotional day for victims, some of whom sobbed in the gallery as the judges recalled brutal scenes of rape and murder. In Srebrenica there were tears of joy.

"Mladic will die in The Hague! I'm so happy that justice has been done!" said Nedziba Salihovic, who lost her husband, father and son in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The court found Mladic guilty of genocide in that northeastern town, where troops under his command slaughtered almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

The killings, in which the victims were marched away, shot in the back and dumped in mass graves, was one of the darkest episodes in the conflict, and has been called the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.

Mladic "intended to eliminate the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica by killing men and boys and forcibly removing the women, young children and some elderly men," Orie said.

Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica association, said she was "partially satisfied" with the verdict.

"It's more than for (Radovan) Karadzic. But they didn't find him guilty for the accusation of genocide in some villages," she said.

Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in March 2016 for similar charges, including the Srebrenica genocide. He is appealing the sentence.

Edin Halilovic, 18, whose grandfather died in Srebrenica, said it had been important to attend the hearing. "My generation, and future generations, must never forget what happened to our families."

Profile of Ratko Mladic

Milestone for justice

Chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said the verdict was a "milestone" for the court and for international justice.

Mladic's was the last genocide trial before the tribunal before it closes its doors on December 31, having indicted 161 people since it was set up in 1993.

Praising the victims as the only "true heroes," Brammertz insisted it was not a verdict against the Serbian people.

"Mladic's guilt is his and is alone," he said.

Mladic was also found guilty of having "personally directed" a 44-month campaign of sniping and shelling in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which 10,000 people died.

And he was convicted for taking more than 200 NATO military personnel hostage.

But defence lawyers have denounced the trial as "political".

"This sentence is unjust and contrary to the facts and we will fight it on appeal to prove that this judgement is wrong," his son Darko Mladic told reporters.

"Mladic will die in The Hague! I'm so happy that justice has been done!" Srebrenica survivors hail life sentence handed to the "Butcher of Bosnia" https://t.co/lVxRESh4iA pic.twitter.com/Hsjbkmdo0W

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 22, 2017

Hundreds of children put to work as beggars; four gangs work in NL

DutchNews, June 22, 2016

Police outside the house in
Barcelona. Photo: OM

Dutch police have identified four criminal gangs who are putting Roma children on the streets to beg and steal in the Netherlands, the public prosecution department said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The Dutch probe is part of an international investigation into the exploitation of some 300 children by criminal gangs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Spain, the department said. 

The children, ranging in age from eight to 16 – come from Bosnia, Croatia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia, the NRC reports. According to police spokesman Arthur de Rijk, they have been lured away from poor families and taught to steal in groups. They are expected to ‘earn’ up to €1,000 a day, he told the paper. 

Raids

Some of the children were found in Spain last week and brought back to the Netherlands where they are now in the hands of social services. 

They were found in police raids in Barcelona, where six children, ranging in age from under one to 15, were found living in a filthy home with a 49-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman, said to be from eastern Europe. Four of the children were already on a Dutch watch list.

‘They had been put under the supervision of Dutch social services earlier and so we are responsible for them,’ a prosecution department spokeswoman said. Eight other Roma children who are known to the Dutch authorities are still missing. 

Amsterdam 

The children, put to work in groups, were stealing up to €1,000 a day, police said. The money was passed on to criminal families who spent it on fast cars, luxury homes and gambling, according to Dutch media reports. 

The investigation began a year ago after police noticed they had been repeatedly arresting the same children pick-pocketing at Amsterdam’s central station.

‘We started to look into where the children lived,’ Arthur de Rijk said. ‘Their parents never came to pick them up. It was always other family members but they never had ID. Something was not right.’ 

DNA

In one case, dna tests showed the woman who came to fetch two children was not their mother, as she claimed to be. Various children were placed in care but encouraged to run away by their ‘families’. 

The two adults arrested in Barcelona will be extradited to the Netherlands to face charges. Five of the children have been placed in a secure unit to stop them running away. A sixth remains in Spain where she has to serve a youth detention sentence.

The Balkans' new zeal for protecting whistleblowers

Balkan countries vying to join the EU have passed, or are in the middle of passing, better whistleblower protection laws than most EU member states have. Ironically, the EU is co-financing this new anti-corruption zeal.

Deutsche Welle, 23 July 2015

It's impossible to fight corporate corruption if you don't know it is happening. But whistleblowers never get an easy ride, and their stories often end with the realization that if they'd known what they were getting themselves into, they wouldn't have become whistleblowers at all.

Visnja Marilovic was a bookkeeper at the Skenderija cultural and sports center in Sarajevo, when, one day in 2010, she was asked to process an invoice for a lot of beds. She realized that not only was her boss furnishing his new hotel with the company's money, but that evidence of corruption was passing across her desk every day. To Marilovic, reporting the crime wasn't whistleblowing - it was her job. "As a financial official, I was responsible for the documentation to be accurate and true," she told DW. "I thought I was protecting the company from disaster and my workplace altogether."

After googling how to file charges, and getting prosecutors to investigate, she assumed the director would be replaced and they could carry on working. Instead, she got fired and went through nearly three years of misery until her boss' trial finally began earlier this year. "I passed hell with my children and for two months I had to live under police protection because of threats," she said. "If I knew how much my kids had to suffer I would not have done it."

Progressive laws

Delegates from across the region
gathered at a Sarajevo hotel

With her life turned upside down, Marilovic now works at the Center for Responsible Democracy, a Sarajevo-based NGO that helped to draw up Bosnia's brand new whistleblower protection law - which came into effect in January this year. Bosnia is not the only country in the region that has written whistleblower protection into its legislation in the past few years - so have Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Moldova, and Montenegro. Albania is in the middle of passing one through its parliament, while the Bulgarian government last year released an in-depth report that includes legislative proposals.

It all amounts to a surge of legislative activity in the region that was distilled a few weeks ago in a windowless hotel conference room in downtown Sarajevo. Legislators, government advisers, ministry officials, NGO workers, and actual whistleblowers came together for a conference organized by the international NGO "Blueprint for Free Speech" and the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative (RAI) to compare whistleblower protection notes.

"Countries like Bosnia, long thought of as more economically backward, are now moving forward more seriously on whistleblower protection than Western European countries," said Suelette Dreyfus, executive director of Blueprint for Free Speech. "If Western Europe doesn't lift its game, it will end up being left behind in the dust."

The irony is of course that many of these efforts are being co-financed by the European Union, even though Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal, for instance, have no dedicated whistleblower protection laws.

Meanwhile, Blueprint's Mark Worth, who says he has studied around 70 whistleblower laws and draft laws around the world, explained the priorities to those assembled: "The three things a whistleblower needs are: a place to disclose information, protection from retaliation, and for the thing to be investigated. The law has to create loophole-free provisions and mechanisms for those three things to be covered."

Curing the cancer

Deputy Justice Minister Idlir Peci is
about to get Albania's new whistleblower
protection law through parliament

In the heat of the summer afternoon, with phrases like "Can we at least agree that pre-court protection is necessary?" flying across the conference room, the Albanian Deputy Justice Minister Idlir Peci, his shirt-sleeves rolled up, explained that he had been stung by his country's terrible record on corruption.

"I spent 20 years in the Netherlands, and I decided to come back to my country because I saw a will to change things," he told DW. "I think all the countries in the region are tired of being dragged down. And I think the politicians are also realizing they cannot hide behind their fingers and sell beautiful stories to the public without really accomplishing these beautiful stories."

But where is this new energy coming from? "My motivation comes from all the reports, especially from Transparency International, but also all kinds of other rankings, where Albania scores very badly," he said. "And from the public perception that corruption is a cancer in society that has to be cured."

A polite nudge from the EU

Yavor Siderov, advisor to the Bulgarian deputy prime minister, was making similar noises: "There seems to be a very concerted effort with regards to anti-corruption and whistleblowing, which is amazing. It's a very positive trend, given that the Balkans are constantly being given as examples of rampant corruption."

Both Peci and Siderov also said that the competition to join the EU was acting as a spur - as was the money the EU offers to help fund the laws. "It's always a good thing to have the European Union provide you with a polite nudge down the road of transparency and anti-corruption," said Siderov.

As the conference wound down, Mark Worth delivered a closing pep talk to encourage the assembled legislators. "It's a very delicate issue, and I'm hearing a lot of tentativeness," he told the various delegations. "I think you should be brave, because the whistleblower's being brave."

But as Marina Micunovic, a senior advisor at the Montenegro Ministry of Justice, underlined afterwards, the point of a whistleblower law is to end the need for bravery: "At the moment, we are just applauding the ones who are brave, but they are not our target group," she said. "We need to encourage the ones who are afraid."

Related Articles:

HSBC 'SwissLeaks' leaker urges more support for whistleblowers
HSBC bank 'helped clients dodge millions in tax'

Martin van Pernis, Chairman, Committee Whistleblowers advice

center, speaking at the launch of the advice center Whistleblowers

 in 2012 (NRC/ANP)

Whistleblowers need better protection: helpline

14 Dutch whistleblowers contact US authorities

Advice Centre for Whistleblowers in The Netherlands

Dutch state agrees compensation deal with five Srebrenica relatives

DutchNews.nl, June 25, 2015

The genocide memorial. Photo:
dinosmichail/depositphoto

The Dutch state has reached a compensation agreement with the relatives of three men who were sent out of the Dutch army compound in Srebrenica and killed by Bosnian Serbs. 

The five relatives will receive payouts of several tens of thousands of euros, broadcaster Nos says. In addition, defence minister Jeanine Hennis has formally apologised for the way the men were sent to their deaths.

The agreement ends a legal dispute which began in 2002. 

The Dutch supreme court said in 2013 the Dutch state can be held responsible for the death of the three Muslim men in the siege of Srebrenica during the Yugoslavia war in 1995. 

Interpreter Hasan Nuhanovic, who lost his father and brother, and relatives of electrician Rizo Mustafic said Dutch soldiers serving under the UN flag in the Muslim enclave did not do all they could to protect their relatives from the Bosnian Serb army. 

Over 8,000 men and boys were murdered and buried in mass graves when the enclave was overrun and the massacre remains the subject of other legal action. 

The Netherlands had earlier offered each relative €20,000 but this was rejected as insufficient. Their lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld said the sum which has been agreed is ‘decent’ and that the relatives now hope to find peace.

In Sarajevo, Pope says world haunted by atmosphere of war

Yahoo – AFP, Olivier Baube, Rusmir Smajilhodzic, 6 June 2015

Pope Francis greets the crowd from the popemobile in a street of Sarajevo,

 on June 6, 2015, ahead of a ceremony at the Catholic Cathedral (AFP

Photo/Elvis Barukcic)

Sarajevo (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday bemoaned the "atmosphere of war" haunting the world as he urged the people of war-scarred Sarajevo to provide an example of how different cultures and religions can co-exist peacefully.

The 78-year-old was given a rapturous reception by a 65,000-strong crowd at the city's Olympic stadium and tens of thousands more took to the streets to greet him.

Pope Francis arrived in Sarajevo on 

June 6, 2015 for a one-day visit aimed

at bolstering reconciliation between

war-scarred Bosnia's Serb, Croat and 

Muslim communities (AFP Photo/

Elvis Barukcic)

Many conflicts across the planet amount to "a kind of third world war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications, we sense an atmosphere of war," the pontiff said in a mass at the stadium during a one-day visit to the Bosnian capital.

"Some wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately," he added, attacking those who want to foster division for political ends or profit from war through arms dealing.

"But war means children, women and the elderly in refugee camps, it means forced displacement, destroyed houses, streets and factories: above all countless shattered lives.

"You know this well having experienced it here."

The pontiff had earlier referred to Sarajevo, with its synagogues, churches and mosques, as a "European Jerusalem", a crossroads of cultures, nations and religions which required "the building of new bridges while maintaining and restoring older ones."

In a reference to the legacy of the war, which left Sarajevo in ruins and Bosnia permanently divided along ethnic lines, he urged the country's Muslim, Serb and Croat communities to reach out to each other at every level.

"In so doing, even the deep wounds of the recent past will be set aside," Francis said in a meeting with officials of the rotating presidency.

Later, at a meeting with Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Orthodox religious figures, he said Sarajevo could reclaim its former status as a beacon of multiculturalism.

"In a world unfortunately rent by conflicts, this land can become a message: attesting that it is possible to live together side by side, in diversity but rooted in common humanity."

Pope Francis was given a rapturous reception by the 65,000-strong crowd in

 Sarajevo and his one-day visit to Bosnia comes 20 years after the end of a 

1992-95 conflict that ripped the Balkan state apart (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

The pope boarded a plane back to Rome at around 1840 GMT, after spending roughly 10 hours in the Bosnian capital.

Lack of trust

Despite a show of unity to welcome the pope, it was not hard to find reminders on Saturday of how fragile Bosnia's unity is.

It was noticeable that there were far more red and white Croatian flags being waved than Bosnia's blue and yellow ones.

The national anthem played for Francis on his arrival remains without words because the three communities have been unable to agree a common text.

Katarina Dzrek, a Bosnian Croat who was in the stadium crowd said: "Bosnia is in need of the message of peace the pope will send because there is still a lack of trust between the communities."

The 1992-95 Bosnian war left nearly 100,000 people dead and resulted in half the population, some two million people, being forced to leave their homes, many of them never to return.

More than a third of Bosnia's pre-war ethnic Croat population have left the country which is now divided in two between a Bosnian Serb republic and a Croat-Muslim federation.

Bosnian Muslim survivors of the Srebrenica 1995 massacre cry beside the 

coffin of a relative during a 2014 memorial service for the 8,000 people killed

in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II (AFP Photo/Elvis Barukcic)

At the city's cathedral Francis heard testimony from Catholics who suffered during the war. Ljubica Sekerija, a nun, told him how she had been beaten and threatened with death by "foreign soldiers" if she did not convert to Islam, while Jozo Puskaric recounted his four months spent in a concentration camp. "It was 120 days that felt like 120 years for me," the priest told Francis.

Francis said interfaith dialogue was vital to overcoming the legacy of such bitter memories.

"Dialogue is a school of humanity and a builder of unity," he said at the inter-faith meeting he attended.

Around 40 percent of the population of Bosnia is of Islamic heritage, just over 30 percent are from the Serbian Orthodox tradition and around one in 10, almost uniquely Croats, describe themselves as Catholics.

Francis is the second pope to visit Sarajevo after Jean-Paul II, who braved a snowstorm to come two years after the end of the war.

Related Articles:

Don't be afraid of Russia, Putin tells West 

Chinese president: flexing military muscles does not reflect strength

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."