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2006

Muslim, Serb women united by heartbreak of war
April 9, 2006. The Plain Deler. Over seven months, the women met and told their stories: heart-rending tales of hugging husbands and sons for the last time, witnessing atrocities, struggling to survive and fight for their children after the Balkans bloodletting ended. A program to bring together Serb, Croat and Slavic Muslim women on opposing sides of the 1990s conflicts triggered by the breakup of Yugoslavia sought to promote mutual understanding and build bridges, something their political leaders have so often failed at doing.

2004

WOMEN ACROSS ETHNIC DIVIDE ANGERED BY LOWLY STATUS
December 9, 2004 –- (IWPR) Both Serb and Albanian woman are starting to resist the idea that they're destined to be homemakers. Ryve Azizi, an ethnic Albanian dentist in Presevo, says women living in this rural area on Serbia's southern border are still very much second-class citizens.

OSCE MISSION HELPS RAISE THE VISIBILITY OF PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN IN POLITICS
October 8, 2004 –- (OSCE) In light of the recent local elections in Serbia, 25 women, representing their respective municipalities, gathered yesterday in Belgrade to evaluate the "Women can do it 3" project aimed at the political empowerment of women in local government.

SERB REFUGEES RETURN TO THEIR HOMELAND
July 26, 2004 - (The Christian Science Monitor) She returned in the spring of 2002 to a home looted and bare, stripped even of its stairs. Nothing was as Sonja Leka had left it seven years earlier, except the pink roses her aunt had planted there decades before.

REPORT ABOUT THE STANDING OF WOMEN IN BLACK, BELGRADE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE NINTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MASSACRE IN POTOCARI, SREBRENICA
July 18, 2004 - (Women in Black) Every year since 1995, we have been standing on the Republic Square on the occasion of marking the massacre in Srebrenica. (Women in Black Belgrade) The vigil and performance “Map of Forbidden Remembrance”, performed by Maja Mitic (Dah theater) were registered for July 10th from 19h-20h.

CROATIA BUILDS GOODWILL IN SERB VILLAGES
June 19, 2004 – (The Guardian) One sunny afternoon last month Sofiya Skoric stood among the olive groves, fig trees and war debris of Biljane Donje, her native village, and with damp eyes surveyed a small miracle - four walls and a roof.

IN BOSNIA, MUSLIM AND SERB WOMEN RECONCILE
June 1, 2004 — (Agence France Presse) Hundreds of Bosnian Serb and Muslim women, who viewed each other as enemies not long ago, have decided to put the past behind them for the sake of business, bringing hope for reconciliation in this war-torn country.

GENDER REPORT ON STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMEN IN SERBIA AND MONTENGRO
March 30, 2004 – (ENAWA) Gender Action has recently released a report examining the gender impacts of structural adjustment loans. The report, entitled "Structural Adjustment's Gendered Impacts: the Case of Serbia and Montenegro," was written by Elaine Zuckerman, President of Gender Action, and Aleksandra Vladisavljevic, from the Economic Policy Initiative of the Association for Women's Initiatives, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro and 2003 Network of East West Women Economic and Social Policy Fellow.

FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS THE PRIORITY OF THE SERBIAN GOVERNMENT
March 26, 2004 – (Oneworld.net – Serbia) Dragan Jo_i_, Minister of Interior in the Government of Serbia, announced yesterday, at the opening of the 6th Stability Pact Conference on Children Trafficking that the fight against human trafficking in the region will be one of the top priorities of the Government.

SERBIA: REPORT AND REQUEST FROM WOMEN IN BLACK, BELGRADE
March 9, 2004 – (WLUML - Serbia and Montenegro) On 6th April, Women in Black together with citizens of Serbia, protested under the slogan "Not in our name, not with our money." (Women in Black, Belgrade)

OSCE MISSION IN KOSOVO MARKS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
March 8, 2004 – (OSCE – Pristina) The OSCE Mission in Kosovo and local non-governmental organizations held a series of events today to mark International Women's Day. They included roundtables on gender issues with prominent women representatives attending from the Office of the Prime Minister, Municipal Gender Focal Points and NGOs, selecting the most successful women in the region and exhibitions with gender topics.

PODGORICA SOS PHONE LINE FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE: ALMOST EVERY WOMEN HAS SUFFERED FORM OFSEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
March 5, 2004 – (OneWorld.net – Montenegro) “Private entrepreneurs offer their female employees to the business partners – Sexual Harassment, in all forms and in all places, has become so wide-spread that such behavior on the behalf of men is now socially accepted to the extent that women can’t recognize it” estimates Biljana Zekovic, Executive Director of SOS Phone Line for Women and Children Victims of Violence.

2OO3

MONTENEGRIN TRAFFICKING SCANDAL DEEPENS
November 13, 2003 – (IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 468) Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic has added his voice to the growing chorus around claims from a leading judge Ana Vukovic that the security services tried to obstruct her investigation into a high-profile human trafficking case allegedly involving a senior official.

TASK FORCE CHAIR: REOPEN MONTENEGRIN ABUSE CASE
October 2, 2003 – (UN Wire) The chairwoman of the Balkan-focused Stability Pact's Taskforce on Human Trafficking today called for the reopening of an investigation into the involvement of Montenegrin state officials in an illegal detention and sexual abuse case.

U.N. ENVOY CRITICIZES MONTENEGRO ON SEX TRAFFICKING CASE
September 5, 2003 – (UN Wire) The U.N. human rights commissioner for Serbia and Montenegro, Laurie Wiseberg, yesterday criticized the country in comments published in the daily Dan for failing to prosecute four prominent figures in a highly publicized sex-trafficking case. The criticism revolves around a 2002 case in which a Moldovan woman escaped from a brothel and accused the deputy state prosecutor and others of forcing her into prostitution.

HIGH PROFILE SEX TRAFFICKING CASE COLLAPSES – SUSPICION OF A COVER-UP
June 5, 2003 – (Amnesty International) Amnesty International is concerned that victims of forced trafficking are being failed by the judicial system in Montenegro. Recently a high profile trial collapsed after the Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, halted criminal proceedings against the Montenegrin deputy state prosecutor and three other men for involvement in sex-slavery.

SPECIAL CO-ORDINATOR LAUDS FIRST WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIAN’S CONFERENCE OF SOUTH EAST EUROPEAN COOPERATION PROCESS COUNTRIES
May 13, 2003 – (Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Press Advisory) A conference of women members of parliaments under the topic ‘From Victims to Agents of Change’ was held in Budva, Montenegro, 9-11 May 2003. Special Coordinator Erhard Busek welcomed this as a very positive development, which shows that regional cooperation and networking amongst SEE parliaments is developing its structures.

MILOSEVIC TRIAL: PARAMILITARY SEX CRIMES ALLEGED
May 8, 2003 – (IWPR’s Tribunal Update) Witness tells how Serbian paramilitaries rounded up the men in his village and forced them to perform sex acts on one another.

BOOMING SEX TRADE IN SERBIA OVERWHELMS POLICE
January 25, 2003 – (IWPR’S Balkan Crisis Report) Campaign against the vice industry seems certain to fail for as long as many women view escort work as a way out of the poverty trap.

2002

SEX TRADE SCANDAL IN MONTENEGRO
December 6, 2002 – (IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT) Arrest of senior official over alleged involvement in human trafficking sparks claims that other leading figures may be involved in the racket.

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