Serbs

Another seven Serb civilians and three policeman were killed in or around Kosovo, a province of Serbia, by Albanian terrorists (Feb. 19). It was another sad day for the Serbs. Sad to realize that the U.S.-led NATO forces (KFOR) did not improve anything, despite repeated empty promises to protect the Serbs and non-Albanians in Kosovo. While KFOR watches, in the 22 months since the "humanitarian war" was launched against Serbia, Serbs are being killed with impunity. Nothing is being done about it: 1,200 Serbs from Kosovo are dead or missing in the last 18 months.

Two Bosnian Serb officials each must spend 22 years in prison for their roles in a campaign of murder and torture against Muslims and Croats in the 1990s, a U.N. war crimes tribunal ruled Wednesday. As interior minister for the breakaway Serb Republic of Srpska, Mico Stanisic “both intended and significantly contributed to the plan to remove Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from the territory of the planned Serbian state,” as did senior security official Stojan Zupljanin, said a judgment read out by Judge Burton Hall in The Hague.

In "The Serbs Asked for It" (Commentary, Sept. 1), William Pfaff argues that the Serbs could have taken their case to the "international community." He claims that international sympathy was somewhat in favor of the Serbs before the war. But the fact is that the so-called "international community," in the form of the United Nations, blithely ignored the Serbs and proceeded with the breakup of Yugoslavia, thus creating the conditions that made this war virtually inevitable. Pfaff comments, "No shortage exists of Croatian and Bosnian atrocities in the course of this war."

A Bosnian Serb general was convicted of genocide and other war crimes Wednesday by a United Nations tribunal in the Netherlands for his role in plotting and carrying out the murder of thousands of Muslim men in Eastern Bosnia in 1995. Zdravko Tolimir, intelligence chief and deputy to wartime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, was found guilty of murder, persecution, deportation and genocide by a 2-1 judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Tolimir, 64, was a key architect of the criminal conspiracies to eradicate Muslims from Bosnian territory coveted by Serbs, including the killing of at least 6,000 Muslim men from the purportedly U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.

Do I understand correctly that the Serb armies are being allowed to overrun Bihac, the other U.N. "safe areas" and eventually all of Bosnia? Do I understand correctly that this murderous aggression will be allowed because the Europeans don't want to get "involved"? Is this the same Europe that gave us the Kaiser's and Hitler's Germany? Is this the same Europe that gave us communism and the Cold War? Is this the Europe that gave us colonial wars of independence all over the globe, including our own?

The liberal U.S. media continue to meddle in Yugoslavia's (i.e., Serbia and Montenegro's) business. "Pragmatism Wins in Serbia" (editorial, March 28) is a good example. At a time when the U.S. is finally conducting a "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan, it seems that the media are trying to prove to the Muslims of the world that our war does not have anything to do with Muslims and fundamentalism. Your focus continues to be upon former Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic, Gen. Ratko Mladic, Slobodan Milosevic and other internal Serbian happenings.

Offering chilling new evidence of widespread, calculated revenge slayings by ethnic Albanians, a top NATO investigator said Wednesday that the majority of killings under investigation in and around Kosovo's capital are apparent executions in which the Serbian victims had their hands bound and were made to kneel before being shot in the head. These characteristics were common in "dozens" of slayings committed since NATO-led peacekeepers occupied Kosovo on June 12, said British Maj.

The man who until recently was the mayor of this Serb-held city could not find his name on the voter registration list Sunday when he went to cast his ballot for president of Croatia. Nor could hundreds of other Serbs trying to vote in an election that appeared certain to return Croat nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman to the presidency.

LONDON - Going into Saturday's group-play match against Serbia, Tony Azevedo, captain of the U.S. water polo team, must have felt a bit like a law student getting an advance peek at the bar exam. Although the game wasn't exactly meaningless, the Americans have already qualified for the cross-over stage, where they're likely to meet Serbia again. That made the Americans' 11-6 loss to the tournament favorites a valuable chance to study. "From every loss, you learn a great deal," Azevedo said.

Let's trade one old draft dodger for the three young American GIs being held by the Serbs. WESLEY G. HUGHES Riverside

Even when Roger Federer had the lead, Novak Djokovic had the answers. The top-ranked Serb recovered from early breaks in both sets and beat Federer, 7-6 (6), 7-5, in the championship match of the ATP finals at London. Federer broke Djokovic's serve to take a 2-0 lead in the first set, and then again to open the second, but both times the world's No. 1 player rebounded to get back into the match. "Maybe a bit of regret because I had the lead twice first before him," Federer said.

Playing in his opening match in the ATP finals at London, Novak Djokovic dived right in. The top-ranked Serb twice landed hard on the court Monday at the O2 Arena, but it didn't stop him from beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-6 (4), 6-3, and setting up a Wednesday showdown with Group A rival Andy Murray. "All those balls were out of my reach, so I tried to dive," Djokovic said. "I don't usually dive that much. I don't usually spend that much [time at] the net as well. " Djokovic and Murray have played a few epic matches against each other this year, including a five-set Murray win in the U.S. Open final.

LONDON - Going into Saturday's group-play match against Serbia, Tony Azevedo, captain of the U.S. water polo team, must have felt a bit like a law student getting an advance peek at the bar exam. Although the game wasn't exactly meaningless, the Americans have already qualified for the cross-over stage, where they're likely to meet Serbia again. That made the Americans' 11-6 loss to the tournament favorites a valuable chance to study. "From every loss, you learn a great deal," Azevedo said.

LONDON — Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic confronted the accusations against him at the opening of his war crimes trial in The Hague on Wednesday with contemptuous gestures to the court and the victims who had come to see him face justice for atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Slowed by age and the hardships of 15 years on the run from the indictment by the United Nations tribunal, Mladic still mustered a hint of his trademark swagger as...

Reporting from New York -- This tennis season from Novak Djokovic has been practically perfect. He has won two major tournaments, Wimbledon and the Australian Open, of the three already completed. The 24-year-old from Serbia has a 63-2 match record and became the first man in history to win five ATP Masters-1000 events, considered just a step below the four majors, in the same year. One of his losses was to Andy Murray when Djokovic retired in the second set because of a sore shoulder at the last of his preparatory events before the U.S. Open.

War crimes suspect Ratko Mladic was thrown out of court Monday at The Hague after he shouted in protest and refused to hear the allegations against him. The court entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to charges that he oversaw unspeakable acts of genocide during the 1992-95 Balkans conflict. "I'm not going to listen anymore. You're talking in vain," a contemptuous Mladic told the International Criminal Court as the presiding judge began reading out the counts against him. As the former Bosnian Serb general pulled off his headphones and continued to hurl abuse, the judge asked security officers to remove him from the courtroom.

If the Senate really wanted to take a strong stand, the senators would vote to disarm the Serbs rather than to arm the Bosnians. RODNEY HOFFMAN Los Angeles

The man accused of overseeing the worst massacre of civilians in Europe since World War II was flown to The Hague on Tuesday for trial after judges rejected his argument that he was too frail to be extradited. Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general, was bundled onto a plane in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, late Tuesday afternoon to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for his part in the savage ethnic cleansing campaigns of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Mladic's lawyer had tried to prevent his transfer on the grounds that the onetime military commander, 69, had suffered at least two strokes and was too mentally clouded to stand trial.