This post was first published in TH!NK ABOUT IT site 25th February 2009. During last twenty years war for humanitarian reasons has came quite popular in political vocabulary e.g. in Balkans and now with Georgia case. The ideal to use power in the service of ethics is good. The problem is the low level of [...]

This post was first published in TH!NK ABOUT IT site 25th February 2009. Parliament is a venerable name of democratic institution, one could even suppose that its members are doing some worthy job and decisions there. However a couple of examples from last week again showed where the real power is. The meeting in the [...]

This post was first published in TH!NK ABOUT IT site 21st February 2009. An Italian non-governmental organisation – the Rome-based “Un ponte per …” – is investigating consequences of NATO’s 1999 bombings of Serbia and the effects of the use of depleted uranium (DU) on the civilian population. The NATO allegedly used shells with depleted uranium [...]

Kosovo Albanians celebrated yesterday their first year of sc. Independence.  Among normal praising statements and congratulations there was also various definitations of the status of this Serbia’s separatist province.  Newest for me was one of which  the former PM Ramush Haradinaj used.  He addressed many criticisms toward the Government – a quote (Koha Ditore, Zëri, [...]

It is nearly five years since the outburst of ethnic Albanian violence in Kosovo on March 17, 2004, when 19 people killed and 954 wounded and when 35 Orthodox holy sites were ruined in two days. This pogrom got its prize a year ago on February 17th when Kosovo Albanians unilaterally – but orchestrated by [...]

In Croatia a Round Table discussion entitled “Croatia: Tired of EU Reforms?” was held last week. The title of event was quite describing because a recent Gallup poll showed serious doubts about Croatia’s EU membership. Opinion of local citizens is of course core of future developments but at least as important and actual aspect is [...]

This post was first published in TH!NK ABOUT IT site 12th February 2009. AFP/Washington reports Feb.13th 2009 that The Balkans pose the greatest threat of instability in Europe in 2009, according to an annual threat assessment presented Thursday by U.S. intelligence director Dennis Blair. The report said the principal challenge will come from the unresolved [...]

This post was first published in TH!NK ABOUT IT site 12th February 2009. The internal report shows that a project of World Bank in southern Albania led to the destruction and destitution of a powerless village Jale in 2007. The report, obtained last week by Balkan Insight , a publication run by investigative journalists in [...]

This post was first published in TH!NK ABOUT IT site 9th February 2009. A lot of interesting marches of progress will take or not take place in West Balkans during 2009. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of developments at least in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia (including Kosovo) where the most interesting [...]

(This article was 1st published in TH!NK ABOUT IT 5th Feb. 2009 and will be republished because it gives some background for my blog here) Occasionally people have asked me why I write more from Balkan perspective and nothing about Finland where I mostly live. A simple answer would be that events in Finland are [...]