Croatian War of Independence

Borisav Jovic, one of last presidents of the presidency of socialist Yugoslavia prior to its break-up, a key ally of Slobodan Milosevic and a leading figure in his ruling Socialist Party, died on Monday as a consequence of contracting COVID-19.

Due to their publication, officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Association Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj were arrested and accused of undermining the work of the court.

The decision of the local assembly of Pantelej, a municipality of the city of Nis, the biggest city in southern Serbia, to make a convicted war criminal, Vladimir Lazarevic, an honorary citizen is not surprising and represents part of the "petty political game" of the ruling party, NGO activists told BIRN.

Croatia's political leadership, wartime generals and war veterans gathered on Thursday in the town of Knin to mark the anniversary of the victorious military offensive, Operation Storm, that practically ended the independence war in the country in 1995.

Part of the ceremony took place at the Knin Fortress, while another part was held at the town's football stadium.

"Gentlemen, I want to talk a little bit more about [our] promotional focus, given the advantages gained from Storm," Tudjman said as he opened the session.

The legal amendments address the problems of around 5,000 people whose parents were Croatian Serbs but were living in Serbia when they were born, when both Serbia and Croatia were part of Yugoslavia.

A law that will grant benefits to civilian victims of the 1991-95 war was adopted by Croatian MPs on Thursday with 107 votes in favour, 16 against and five abstentions.

It was passed after heated discussions in parliament about whether the law would also give benefits to people who were part of 'enemy' Serb forces during the war.

A senior official from the Serbian State Security Service, Franko 'Frenki' Simatovic, arrived at a covert paramilitary training camp near the town of Ilok in Croatia in the spring of 1992 - one of many that would allegedly be set up by Serbian security officials during the wars that erupted as Yugoslavia collapsed.

Fighting units under the ultimate command of Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic "controlled the situation on the ground" in Serb-controlled parts of Croatia and, to a lesser extent, Bosnia during the wars of the 1990s, veteran Serbian journalist Filip Svarm told BIRN ahead of the verdict in the pair's war crimes trial in The Hague.

On June 27, 1991, the first day of the armed conflict in Slovenia, what were initially described as two 'enemy' helicopters were shot down by Slovenian troops.