Bosnian War

AMSTERDAM -- Against a backdrop of protests, the defense minister gave citations yesterday to Dutch troops who served in the UN peacekeeping force that failed to prevent the slaughter of Muslims in the Srebrenica enclave during the Bosnian war. Henk Kamp pinned an insignia on the lapels of some of the 850 members of the ill-fated Dutch battalion -- known as "Dutchbat" -- which was overrun in July 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces who subsequently killed...

She remembers Ratko Mladic looking straight into her eyes and promising to spare the other children. A soldier had just killed a 3-year-old who was crying too loud. She remembers, too, the arrogant swagger as he barked murderous orders to his troops that showed his promise to be a lie. For Munira Subasic, these are the two sides of the Bosnian Serb general who goes on trial Wednesday on genocide charges: the sly deceiver and the ranting bully. Now Subasic wants to see the man who called himself "the Serbian God" try to defend himself as he faces justice at the U.N. war...

An agonized romantic melodrama set during the Bosnian War, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is a credible narrative feature filmmaking debut even if you didn't know that the director was Angelina Jolie. An awareness of who's behind the camera, though, goes some way toward explaining the movie's sometimes powerful, sometimes queasy mix of earnestness and soap. Like Jolie's public persona, "Blood and Honey" is both strong and headstrong, equally invested in grit and glamour with a hazy understanding of the line separating the two. That said,...

Former ultranationalist allies of Slobodan Milosevic may return to power in Serbia, 12 years after the late Balkan strongman was ousted by pro-Western forces seeking European Union membership. The first-round vote on Sunday for president, and votes for a 250-seat national assembly and local councils pit pro-EU democrats against nationalists who have gained in popularity with the EU's own economic troubles, which have dimmed the bloc's allure for many Serbs. The two leading contenders are the Democratic Party of Boris Tadic — who had been president until he resigned so the triple...

The distributor in Serbia of Angelina Jolie's directorial debut — a love story set in the Bosnian war — said Friday the movie will start showing here next week, but without the red-carpet premiere it had in Bosnia. Zoran Savic of Millennium Film said "the movie will be shown normally, so whoever wants to see it will have a chance to do so. " Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey" has triggered outrage among Serbs, who claim it depicts them as the only villains of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The drama about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim Bosnian woman,...

People of the Book By Geraldine BrooksViking, 372 pp., $25.95 Few fiction writers travel across territory as vast as that staked out by the intrepid Geraldine Brooks over the course of her career, namely, practically the whole world and several centuries of human civilization. The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "March," which imagines the life of the famously absent father in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," Brooks began her writing career as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and went on to cover some of the world's most incendiary political landscapes in...

A summary of the 11 charges Gen. Ratko Mladic faces at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. —GENOCIDE AND COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE: For leading Bosnian Serb forces who massacred 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 and ethnically cleansed towns and villages in Bosnia of non-Serbs throughout the 1992-95 Bosnian war. —PERSECUTION: For killing, torturing, raping, deporting and illegally imprisoning Muslims and Croats. —EXTERMINATION, MURDER, CRUEL TREATMENT: For widespread killing of non-Serbs in towns and villages targeted by Bosnian Serb forces and for the...

Serb screenings of Angelina Jolie's directorial debut have attracted just a handful of viewers, say local media — "more than the movie deserves," one daily reported Friday. "In the Land of Blood and Honey" — a drama set in the Bosnian war about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim woman, among sex slaves in a camp — has triggered mixed emotions in the postwar Balkans. It received a standing ovation in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, but has sparked outrage among Serbs, who have blasted the movie as propaganda designed to portray them as the 1992-95...

THE HAGUE - Ratko Mladic repeatedly disobeyed and shouted at judges yesterday during his arraignment at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. A judge finally ejected the former Serb general and entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to 11 charges of ordering the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war. Mladic, 69, put on a cap, defying the rules of the courtroom. He gestured to the packed public gallery despite a judge ordering him not to. He threatened a boycott because his chosen lawyers were not there.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The UN war crimes tribunal ruled yesterday that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will be appointed a lawyer to represent him whenever he fails to appear in court. It also postponed the resumption of his trial until March 1, 2010, when the new lawyer should be ready to take over if needed. The decision comes after Karadzic boycotted the start of his war crimes trial last week, arguing he has not had enough time to prepare his defense. Karadzic, accused of masterminding Serb atrocities throughout the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, faces two...

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Bosnians walked silently and sobbed on Sarajevo's main street, leaving flowers and gifts on 11,541 red chairs arranged in seemingly endless rows - the number representing the men, women, and children killed in a siege that ended up being the longest of a city in modern history. Sarajevo marked the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian war Friday. Exhibitions, concerts, and performances were held, but the impact of the empty chairs reduced many to tears.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the nation's top military leader delivered a sober assessment Wednesday of Syria's sophisticated air defenses and its extensive stockpile of chemical weapons in a strategic reality check to the demand for US military action to end President Bashar Assad's deadly crackdown on his people. President Barack Obama's 2008 rival — Republican Senator John McCain — has called for the president to launch airstrikes against Assad to force him from power and end the bloodshed.

Serb screenings of Angelina Jolie's directorial debut have attracted just a handful of viewers, say local media — "more than the movie deserves," one daily reported Friday. "In the Land of Blood and Honey" — a drama set in the Bosnian war about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim woman, among sex slaves in a camp — has triggered mixed emotions in the postwar Balkans. It received a standing ovation in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, but has sparked outrage among Serbs, who have blasted the movie as propaganda designed to portray them as the 1992-95...

The distributor in Serbia of Angelina Jolie's directorial debut — a love story set in the Bosnian war — said Friday the movie will start showing here next week, but without the red-carpet premiere it had in Bosnia. Zoran Savic of Millennium Film said "the movie will be shown normally, so whoever wants to see it will have a chance to do so. " Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey" has triggered outrage among Serbs, who claim it depicts them as the only villains of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The drama about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim Bosnian woman,...

Angelina Jolie says she's nervous and excited about the upcoming premiere in Sarajevo of her Bosnian war movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey. " The film, which is showing at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday, is set to make its full debut in the Bosnian capital on Feb. 14, though it already has been shown to some groups there. Already released in the U.S., Jolie's directorial debut is a drama about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim Bosnian woman, among sex slaves in a camp.

The Duxbury Lifelong Learning Program's winter term with 14 courses, including eight new ones, will begin Feb. 6 at the Duxbury Senior Center, 10 Mayflower St. The new courses are "Religions of the World"; "American Short Stories"; "When Jesus Came to Harvard (Part 2)"; "Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor (Part 2)"; "Understanding the United States Constitution"; "Music from the Classical Era"; "The Bosnian War and its Aftermath"; and "Opera for Everyone: New Offerings. " The program offers college-level courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and current events, with...

AHMICI, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Croatia’s president paid tribute yesterday to victims of massacres during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, in the clearest message of reconciliation yet from a leader of the three nationalities that fought in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. President Ivo Josipovic had the Islamic and Catholic religious leaders in Bosnia join him in central Bosnia, where he promised “never again’’ to the survivors in...

The Duxbury Lifelong Learning Program's winter term with 14 courses, including eight new ones, will begin Feb. 6 at the Duxbury Senior Center, 10 Mayflower St. The new courses are "Religions of the World"; "American Short Stories"; "When Jesus Came to Harvard (Part 2)"; "Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor (Part 2)"; "Understanding the United States Constitution"; "Music from the Classical Era"; "The Bosnian War and its Aftermath"; and "Opera for Everyone: New Offerings. " The program offers college-level courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and...

An agonized romantic melodrama set during the Bosnian War, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is a credible narrative feature filmmaking debut even if you didn't know that the director was Angelina Jolie. An awareness of who's behind the camera, though, goes some way toward explaining the movie's sometimes powerful, sometimes queasy mix of earnestness and soap. Like Jolie's public persona, "Blood and Honey" is both strong and headstrong, equally invested in grit and glamour with a hazy understanding of the line separating the two. That said,...

As she developed her story about lovers on opposite sides in the Bosnian War, Angelina Jolie drew on everything she had learned traveling to combat zones. But she started at home, imagining herself and partner Brad Pitt at such extremes. "In the Land of Blood and Honey," Jolie's writing-directing debut, hurls two lovers — a Bosnian Muslim woman and a Bosnian-Serbian man — from their tender relationship before the war into the horrors of work and rape camps, where brutality, betrayal and degradation are daily matters.