OHR related Articles

Serb nationalism was whipped up by the regime's TV factory of lies. Simon Haselock says that creating an independent media is fundamental to the region's stability Here is a short test. Is the following true or false? Kosovo is the spiritual homeland of the Serbs: that is the reason why they have refused to compromise on the province's nominal sove [...]

Usluge. Everyone in Bosnia-Hercegovina knows what it means: it is the oil that has always made the wheels of daily life here turn, the old and cosy system governed by the attitude, "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, and we'll all get along just fine." It is a mark of the prevalence of this attitude, of how deeply embedded it is in this count [...]

Bosnia is back in the public eye. I have been besieged by international journalists and Western governments alike, all seeking answers basically to two questions: What has the international community gleaned from its experience here? And how can that experience be applied to Kosovo? The first point to make is that while the similarities between Bos [...]

By Carlos Westendorp It sounds simple enough: To end the war in Yugoslavia, just arrange a territory swap. Tell Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that in return for handing the Serbian province of Kosovo over to the resident ethnic Albanians, he will be allowed to annex a matching acreage of Republika Srpska, the Serb half of Bosnia, which Ser [...]

By Carlos Westendorp SARAJEVO - On March 5, I fired a president, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs. It was with regret, and as a last resort, that on behalf of the international community I ordered the removal of Nikola Poplasen. This, together with the decision on the same day not to award the disputed town of Brcko to the Serbs but to turn it into [...]

Bosnia's three main ethnic groups may have stopped killing each other, but they still balk at calling each other compatriots. So when the time came to devise a common passport, it was Carlos Westendorp, the West's man in Bosnia, who had to force a design on the stubborn nationalists.

By Chris HEDGES SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, April 9 - The Spanish diplomat Carlos Westendorp, the top international official charged with carrying out the Bosnian peace agreement, was in the Presidential palace in Zagreb recently listening to a windy lecture by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on European history and the Islamic threat to Weste [...]

Carlos Westendorp This diplomat is fighting for returning the peace to Bosnia for nine months. He is re-inventing a State from the ashes of the war and of ethnic hate. Seventy-two frenetic hours with the Spanish mediator who can bring back hope to the Balkans. Text: Jesús Rodriguez Photography: Tino Soriano "Alpha Tango for Double Pope: start prep [...]

Saturday 31 January My last day in Washington. I came back here for a few days military duty - in my part time job as a Major General in the US Air Force Reserve (which, somewhat surprisingly, is in fact the third largest Air Force in the world). I also had consultations with Bob Gelbard, the President and Secretary of State's Special Envoy for Day [...]

By Chris HEDGES While the press attention is focused on the new "hot spots", Bosnia is moving on. In a much less spectacular way, but, nevertheless, effective. There has been a turn of the situation in the last four months, comparable only to the cessation of hostilities imposed by the NATO bombers in August 1995.