SARAJEVO (AFP) - A video showing a Muslim commander ordering his troops to kill and rape during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war was broadcast by Bosnian-Serb television yesterday. “Slaughter, strangle with wire, torch!” Hamdija Delalic, the commander of the Bosnian Muslim army’s 503rd brigade, was shown telling his soldiers on the amateur video footage broadcast by the Alternativna channel. “I am sorry I do not have a knife for each of you. Slaughter with teeth to defeat the enemy,” he continued. The channel said the footage was shot in April 1995 near the northwestern town of Cazin, and that Delalic’s orders targeted local Serbs and Muslims who had formed an autonomous region there, refusing to ally with the authorities in Sarajevo. The footage also showed a soldier asking Delalic whether the troops were allowed to rape. “You are allowed to do anything,” he answered.

STRASBOURG (AP) - A top European Union official called on EU governments yesterday to commit to long-term financial backing of Kosovo to ensure the province’s rehabilitation does not fail. “The EU has a major responsibility in the future of Kosovo,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told the European Parliament, adding that the 25-nation bloc will have to take “the lead” in Kosovo reconstruction efforts after current international negotiations on the Serbian province’s future status are agreed upon. “It is better to cover costs of economic and social development than sending more soldiers to the Balkans,” Rehn said. Rehn also said that the EU will reopen association talks with Serbia after top war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are handed over for trial.

Bulgaria’s prime minister urged the European Union yesterday to stick to the timetable and allow the country to join the bloc next year, saying he hoped his people’s “sacrifices” would be recognized. “I’m an optimist by nature,” Sergei Stanishev told a press conference in Brussels, “and I know what my country has done in recent years and the efforts, which are not only the efforts of the government but of the people, who sacrificed a lot... I would expect the efforts and the sacrifices of the people of Bulgaria to be respected by Europeans as well.” Bulgaria, like Romania, is set to join the 25-nation bloc in January but the existing members could still push its entry back by a year. (AFP)