Balkans: UN's Ban Ki-moon in six-day tour of region

Ljubljana, 20 July (AKI) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday arrived in Slovenia at the start of a six-day tour of the region ravaged by the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Ban held talks with Slovenian president Danilo Turk and prime minister Janez Jansa in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana and was due to address the parliament before heading for Croatia.

Ban will also hold talks with officials in Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia, where he will visit the eastern town of Srebrenica, scene of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

In Srebrenica, Ban will pay tribute to some 8,000 Muslims killed there by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995 at the end of the 1992-1995 war.

Slovenia was the first ex-Yugoslav nation to enter the European Union in 2004, while Croatia is slated to join next year.