Zagreb, 15 October: Austria plans on holding a conference on the Balkans in the first half of 2006, when it takes over the presidency of the European Union, President Heinz Fischer said in Zagreb on Saturday [15 October].
Speaking at the final press conference of Central European presidents at the end of the two-day Croatia Summit 2005, Fischer said the summit had proved that other countries in the region were also interested in European integration.
He said the summit had been very successful and an opportunity for presidents of Central European countries to get to know each other better.
Croatia is developing very positively, said Klaus Mangold, executive adviser of the president of DaimlerChrysler AG and chairman of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. He was speaking on behalf of a European business delegation which attended the summit.
We concluded that Croatia is developing very positively and the European economy advocates that it become a member of the EU as soon as possible, he said, adding that everything would be done to support Croatia so that its entry negotiations did not last too long.
Mangold said that today the summit focused on economic issues and that it was clearly said that nobody in the European economy advocated unbridled capitalism.
We always try to find a balanced way between what the world economy makes us do in terms of competition and the social acceptability of a process in which the people in Europe will feel good, he said.
We feel there can be no employment or social peace in Europe without growth, which is common to both politics and the economy and a fact we highly appreciate, Mangold added.
The European business delegation represents EUR400 billion in turnover and 1.6 billion employees, he said.
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said an important topic of all talks during the summit had been the challenge represented by globalisation and how to deal with its consequences.
Albanian President Alfred Moisiu said the debate on economic issues had been very important because one could not aspire to progress without a developed economy or prospects of economic development.
Asked about the final status of Kosovo, he said the population of Kosovo wanted independence.
The will of the people of Kosovo is independence and we are convinced that only this will bring about peace and stability in the region, Moisiu said, adding that Kosovo must become part of the integration process because it was the only way to turn towards a peaceful future.
Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said the launching of EU entry negotiations was a historic moment for Croatia and a big encouragement to Macedonia and the entire region because it was clear that the enlargement process was not stopped.
The project of European unification is so important that regardless of all controversies and disputes, it must be completed successfully, he said, voicing hope that at next year's summit of Central European presidents in Bulgaria, Macedonia would enjoy EU candidate status.
Bosnia and Hercegovina President Ivo Miro Jovic said the Zagreb summit would support his country's attempts to adopt EU standards and that it had demonstrated that the EU was open for all who organized their country in accordance with principles valid in Europe.
The heads of states who attended the summit unanimously assessed it as very successful and well-organized. They departed from Zagreb in the afternoon.
Tight security measures were taken for the event, causing major traffic gridlocks around Zagreb's Westin hotel and at the airport.
Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 1534 gmt 15 Oct 05
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Alleged Bin Laden Associate Assets Frozen
20 September 2005 | 13:03 | FOCUS News Agency
Tirana. The Bush administration moved Monday to financially incapacitate a man who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden and others to provide support to terror networks in Albania, AP announced.
The Treasury Department ordered U.S. banks to freeze any bank accounts or other financial assets found in this country belonging to Abdul Latif Saleh, who holds Jordanian and Albanian citizenship. The order also prohibits Americans from doing business with him.
According to the department bin Laden provided Saleh with USD 600,000 to encourage the creation of "extremist groups" in Albania, the Macedonan Makfax reports. Saleh is also believed to be closely associated with groups in Albania with links to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terror group connected to al-Qaida, the department said.
Saleh founded an Albanian jihadist group that has been bankrolled by the Al Haramain Foundation, an Islamic charity with alleged links to al-Qaida, the Treasury Department said.
He also is believed to be associated with Yasin Qadi, a Saudi businessman, that the United States designated as a global terrorist in October 2001. The department said Qadi was an active fund-raiser for Saleh's jihadist group.
The department said that Saleh was expelled from Albania and that his last known residence was in the United Arab Emirates.
More Victims of Serbian Mass Murder
A forensic team in Bosnia has found the remains of another 482 victims of the Srebrenica massacre, officials say.
The head of the forensic team said only eight sets of remains were complete, indicating that bodies had been moved by bulldozer in an effort to hide them.
The mass grave is the latest of five found so far in the village of Liplje, about 30km (19 miles) from Srebrenica.
Almost 8,000 Muslims were killed by Bosnian Serbs there in 1995 - Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
Thousands of bodies have been recovered from mass graves around Srebrenica over the past few years.
Reassemble skeletons
Forensic team leader Murat Hurtic said the exhumation of the latest grave in Liplje took the number of bodies found in the village to more than 1,000.
"Experts will now start examination of bones found in all five sites in order to reassemble as many skeletons as possible," he said.
"Since bulldozers were used for reburial of the victims into five secondary mass graves it is very possible that parts of a single body are found in two or three sites."
Mr Hurtic told Reuters news agency he believed the remains were those of Muslims killed by Bosnian Serb forces at Petkovci dam after fleeing Srebrenica.
The massacre took place after Serb forces stormed the UN-designated safe area near the end of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The Bosnian Serbs' political leader during the war, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, are still being sought.
Both men have been indicted by the UN tribunal for alleged war crimes and genocide over the Srebrenica massacre.
That doesn't mean anything, there were plenty of Bin Laden associates inside the USA one of them a born and raised American.
Also the title says alleged, nothing proved. Now lets talk about the terrorist that bombed Spain and how he was able to live very happily for a year in Serbia.
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