2021 | Balkan Insight

As the government increases its capacities for surveillance in the interest of national security, experts are concerned that people’s right to privacy risks being violated.

Three former Bosnian Army soldiers were charged with involvement in the unlawful detention, murder, torture and abuse of Serb civilian detainees in villages near Sarajevo in 1992 and 1993.

The remains of 80 missing persons from the 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been found this year - an increase on last year, when searches were slowed down by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Montenegro has decided to extend its controversial scheme, which offers citizenship in return for a major investment, despite strong criticism of such programs by the European Commission and civic organisations.

Discouraged by the pandemic-related crisis in Albania and lured by promises of easy money, thousands of Albanians are entering the criminal underworld in Spain – unaware of the cost they may pay.

North Macedonia witnessed new protests over a court verdict in the retrial of an ethnically-sensitive murder case, and faced demands for international investigations into the fairness of terrorism trials of Albanians.

From Greece to Moldova and from Turkey to Croatia, BIRN spent 2021 reporting, investigating and holding the powerful to account.

The OSCE Mission and mayor of Gracanica have condemned the vandalism of over half-a-dozen Serbian graves in a village cemetery in the centre of the country, demanding a thorough investigation.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has filed an indictment against Branislav Lasica and Miroslav Milovic for crimes in the village of Lozje, near Gorazde, in 1992.

State Prosecution filed 15 war crime indictments against 39 persons this year, less than in 2020, including four persons who were previously convicted by the Hague Tribunal and State Court.