At Srebrenica more than 7,000 were murdered – mostly shot in the head before being dumped in mass graves – in just a few days in July 1995. Since 1945 politicians have repeatedly chanted about “learning the lessons of history” “Never again”, the history books told us. In reality, as Bosnia showed, none of the lessons had truly been learnt.The world has rightly been shocked by the killings in Kosovo, where maybe 5,000 Albanians died in the whole province in a few months. Previously unpublished letters from the then prime minister, John Major, attack the “disgraceful” suggestion that Britain did too little for the thousands of Muslims murdered at Srebrenica. But new evidence makes it clear that the charge was justified. A senior US diplomat has revealed that the preservation of “safe areas” in Bosnia was deemed to be “not compatible” with a solution to the Bosnian war.
The killings at Srebrenica in July 1995 serve as a reminder that, as Europe enters the twenty-first century, no nightmare is too horrifying to be real. ONCE UPON a time, it was just another sleepy forgotten town in the green hills of Bosnia.

Now, Srebrenica – “place of silver”, known to the Romans as Argentaria – stands as the ultimate symbol of the horror that Slobodan Milosevic has unleashed in the Balkans in the past decade. Planning permission for the next phase of building work at the pounds 100m centre near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, will not be granted until January at the earliest.. THE JOKES of the late comedian Tommy Cooper will live on in the Millennium Dome. It was announced yesterday that Cooper’s voice will be used as the voice of a madcap “comedian brain” inside the Dome’s Body Zone.
A three-dimensional brain, complete with fez, microphone and glass of water, will be on a stage and under the spotlight, telling classic Cooper gags to visitors who pass through the Body Zone.

An audience of other brains will laugh and heckle Cooper, who died in 1984. The comic brain is just one of many types of brain that will be on display in the Body Zone and will demonstrate various emotions.The leader of the creative team behind the Body Zone,John Hackney, said: “Tommy was master of stand-up comedy and the rapid-fire gag, and this made him the ideal choice for the voice of the Comedian Brain inside the Body Zone.”Visitors will to the Brain Room will stand inside a giant human skull, behind massive teeth, to hear the comedian’s jokes, which have been assembled from various routines he performed during his career.t Delays in construction work at the Millennium Commission flagship Earth Centre means it will be closed to the public until next July. In fact, Mr Wesker wrote:

“The evidence appears to be that I have a place in contemporary world theatre deserving courtesy and respect no less than you [Trevor Nunn] for achievement.”. It would take two days to go through the necessary processes, meaning that devolution would “go live” on Thursday of next week..

In the story published last Saturday “Angry Old Wesker vilifies Nunn”, we misquoted the playwright Arnold Wesker’s website. to put the republican movement’s professed commitment to peace and democracy to the ultimate test.”Roy Beggs, the MP for East Antrim and a member of the anti-Trimble camp, said: “There are many people who fully supported the agreement, but cannot take the further step asked of them to admit terrorists into government in the absence of any evidence of the decommissioning and intent to hand over all of these illegal weapons.”WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?A TRIMBLE victory at today’s vital Ulster Unionist Council meeting will lead to a burst of political activity.The Northern Ireland Assembly will be convened on Monday to elect a new power-sharing executive which would include members of the four largest parties – the Ulster Unionists, the nationalist SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.Then on Tuesday Westminster will be asked to approve the devolution of powers to the Assembly. All the gains we have secured for Unionism in the Agreement will be lost and the pain we endured will have been for nothing We owe it to ourselves… David McNarry, who has played a prominent role in the Drumcree marching dispute, yesterday appealed for a pro-Trimble vote.”It will haunt us for ever if we do not find out what the next step would take,” he said. “It’s important and it’s incumbent on the Ulster Unionist Council to back their leader.”Mr Trimble said: “If we say no, there will be no decommissioning and no Stormont government.