"No iron can enter the human heart as chillingly as a full stop placed at the right time." - Isaac Babel
The men who fought for the Serbian cause in the 1990s are now fighting the state for rights and benefits. Their lowly status is in stark contrast to the privileges enjoyed by their victorious counterparts from neighbouring countries. This story traces Belgrade’s neglect of the veterans to its wartime defeats and denials. Report by Mirko Rudic. My edit for BfJE/Balkan Insight and The Guardian.
Top story for Vanity Fair’s homepage: “In 2008 The Hurt Locker introduced the Americans who defuse explosives in Iraq. Now that all US troops will be gone by 2012, meet the Iraqi soldiers left carrying the fuse.”
Photograph by Kamaran Najm/Metrography
Kirkuk’s anti-terrorist police ride around in battered pickup trucks, keeping a nervous lookout for the bombers that have killed scores of their colleagues. With the American military eying an exit from Iraq, the force has become a central player in a seemingly intractable conflict over land and oil.
I accompanied the officers as they carried out overnight raids in pursuit of an insurgent cell linked to al-Qaeda.
Photographs by Kamaran Najm/Metrography
Hackers from Russia and Georgia open up a new front in cyberspace as their countries go to war in the Caucasus. Experts say it was inevitable that “the dark side of Silicon Valley” would be enlisted for real-life battles. Analysis for BBC News, August 2008
An account of the Georgian assault on Tskhinvali from a spokeswoman for South Ossetia’s separatist government. BBC News, August 2008
By uniting thousands of foreigners and Serbs for an annual party, the Exit music festival is also steering the Balkans away from the legacy of conflict. Report from Novi Sad for BBC News, July 2006
Interview from Sarajevo with Esad Pozder – market trader and witness to a mortar attack that killed more than 60 people. BBC News, March 2006
Ten years after the siege of Sarajevo was lifted, young couples in the city are once again breaching the ethnic and religious divide. Report for BBC News, February 2006
Insurgents from Iraq to Chechnya and Kashmir have been recruiting women as suicide bombers. But the jihadists are not the first armed groups to do so – and the practice could prove counter-productive. Analysis for BBC News, November 2005
Legendary Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths talks about embedding and censorship from Vietnam to Abu Ghraib. Interview for BBC News, April 2005
Neil Arun 
