Ahern begins visit to Balkans

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern begins a four-day visit to the Balkans today amid political unrest in the region.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern begins a four-day visit to the Balkans today amid political unrest in the region.

The four-day visit begins today in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, before moving to Srebrenica and Serbian capital Belgrade and finishing in the capital of Kosovo Pristina on Friday.

Mr Ahern will meet Irish military serving in the Kfor peacekeeping force, gardaí and people working with international organisations in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The trip includes meetings with Nikola Spiric who resigned as prime minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina last week in a row over proposed reforms.

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The measures, supported by the US and European Union, were designed to simplify voting in the federal government, but Mr Spiric, an ethnic Serb, claimed they could leave Serbs vulnerable to domination by the country's Muslim majority.