2 July 2005

The new B-H Court delivers its first war-crimes verdict, sentencing Abdulahim Maktouf, an Iraqi citizen living in Travnik, to five years in prison

8 July 2005

European Parliament passes a Resolution on Srebrenica condemning the massacre of 8,000 Bosniaks committed by Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladić, with assistance from Serbia

9 July 2005

HR Paddy Ashdown dismisses Central Bosnia cantonal education minister Nikola Lovrinović for failing to implement laws designed to integrate schools

11 July 2005

Tenth anniversary commemoration of Srebrenica massacre takes place at Potočari, in the presence of up to 100,000 mourners (though several thousand were held up by RS police), some 600 journalists, and delegations from over 50 states - including heads of state from Albania, Croatia and Serbia/Montenegro; the president of Serbia in a private capacity; foreign ministers from Britain, Bulgaria, France, Holland, Macedonia, Slovenia, Sweden and Turkey; the US envoy for war crimes; the ICTY president: the former prime minister of Poland; the EU enlargement minister; and other senior international officials. Following the ceremony, a further 610 recently identified victims were re-buried

16 July 2005

Agreement is reached within the B-H Defence Reform Commission whereby the future 10,000-strong B-H army will be fully professional (without conscription) and centrally financed, under a single command and defence ministry

17 July 2005

Mostar’s Old Bridge and historic centre are included the UNESCO list of world heritage sites

4 August 2005

RS blocks a draft agreement between B-H and Croatia on property issues, although one on dual citizenship is initialled

10 August 2005

Milan Lukić, indicted for numerous war crimes notably in Višegrad, is arrested in Argentina and subsequently extradited to The Hague

11 August 2005

Representatives of 90 local associations of refugees and displaced persons from B-H, Croatia and Serbia/Montenegro ask HR Ashdown to assist in unblocking the return process in the region

13 August 2005

Serbia’s state prosecutor indicts 7 individuals for war crimes committed against Bosniaks in Zvornik in 1992, including the murder of 19 and the forced expulsion of 1,822

14 August 2005

Catholic Bishop Komarica of Banja Luka states at a press conference that 20,000 persons - mainly Croats and Slovenes, but including also Bosniaks, Czechs and Roma - were driven out in the last phase of the war, between August and October 1995, from the Banja Luka area, where only 6,500 Catholics remain today, while return continues to be obstructed by local politicians

18 August 2005

Momčilo Mandić arrested in Montenegro and extradited to B-H

19-27 August 2005

11^th Sarajevo Film Festival

20 August 2005

Reconstructed Emperor’s Mosque opens in Višegrad

30 August 2005

Belgrade human-rights activist Nataša Kandić says that she has video footage showing the presence of ‘Scorpion’ special forces from Serbia in the Cazinska Krajina, supporting Fikret Abdić’s rebellion

31 August 2005

RS national assembly accepts the transfer of entity defence powers to the B-H state level

3 September 2005

Hague tribunal transfers Radovan Stanković, indicted for war crimes committed at Foča, to the B-H Court - the first time it has taken such a step

6 September 2005

Ivo Miro Jović, current chair of the B-H Presidency, calls for the establishment of a third (Croat) entity

7 September 2005

Acting B-H foreign minister Mladen Ivanić is refused a US visa to attend the UN general assembly, but the decision is reversed two days later

9 September 2005

HR Ashdown appoints Vinko Dumančić to head the State Border Service, and makes a string of other sensitive appointments on which the B-H leaders have been unable to agree

13 September 2005

Retrial opens of 8 Croatian military policemen accused of torturing and killing Serb prisoners at Lora naval base in Split, after Supreme Court has voided their earlier acquittal

15 September 2005

OHR criticizes SDS, PDP and other RS parties for blocking police reform, leaving RS president Dragan Čavić isolated as only leading RS politician to support it

18 September 2005

Croatian president Stipe Mesić compares the entities in B-H to mediaeval feuds and calls for the country to become a normal European state

19 September 2005

Kosovar and Serbian officials meet in Vienna to discuss decentralization and a number of technical issues, but not final status

A single B-H missing persons institute is established, replacing the two former entity bodies

29 September 2005

Principal US negotiator at Dayton Richard Holbrook and former HR Wolfgang Petritsch both argue that it is now necessary to move beyond the Dayton structures, since they have become an obstacle to progress