AUG. 21, 2012 VOLUME 6, NUMBER 16 PAGES 377-400 WWW.GLOBALRESEARCHER.COM The Troubled Balkans CAN THE VOLATILE REGION FIND PEACE? wenty years after Yugoslavia’s bloody breakup, the patchwork of nations known as the Western Balkans faces rampant organized crime and corruption, chronically high unemployment and simmering ethnic tension. The region lags far behind its Eastern European neighbors — economically and democratically T — and poses a potential trouble spot for the rest of Europe. Still, the picture isn’t all bleak. Croatia is about to join the European Union, and several other nations have membership applications pending. By contrast, Bosnia and Kosovo, where savage sectarian fighting occurred in the 1990s — including mass killings of civilians — are struggling to establish themselves as functional, independent states. Meanwhile, Serbia, after years of steady progress, re - cently elected an ultra -nationalist presi - dent, triggering renewed concerns over its future role in the region. Two young women in Potocari, Bosnia, mourn over one of 613 coffins containing newly identified remains of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia. In Europe’s only genocide since World War II, Serbs slaughtered up to 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys who had sought refuge at a U.N.-protected enclave. The coffins were interred during a mass burial on July 10, 2011, the 16th anniversary of the genocide. PUBLISHED BY CQ PRESS, AN IMPRINT OF SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC. WWW.CQPRESS.COM THE TROUBLED BALKANS THE ISSUES Western Balkans at a 381 Glance • Is another Balkan war Serbia has the largest popula - Aug. 21, 2012 379 likely? tion; Montenegro the smallest. Volume 6, Number 16 • Will membership in the War Wounds Still Raw in MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch European Union (EU) solve [email protected] the Balkans’ problems? 383 Bosnia • Should NATO keep “We have stopped the war CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Thomas J. Billitteri but not the conflict.” [email protected]; Thomas J. Colin troops in the Balkans? [email protected] BACKGROUND Corruption and Democracy CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Brian Beary, 384 Rankings Roland Flamini, Sarah Glazer, Reed Karaim, Historic Hegemony Slovenia is the most democratic Rob ert Kiener, Jina Moore, Jennifer Weeks and the least corrupt. 388 The region became balkan- DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis ized under Turkish and ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa Austrian rule. 387 Chronology Key events since 1389. FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris 389 Yugoslavia’s Rise Ethnic Tensions Threaten The country stagnated 388 Kosovo’s Unity after Tito. Will the “youngest country in the world” backslide? Breakup and Recovery 391 Wars of independence Most Balkan Nations An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. roiled the region in the 390 Not in EU, NATO VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, 1990s. Slovenia was first to join HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: European Union. Michele Sordi CURRENT SITUATION At Issue DIRECTOR, ONLINE PUBLISHING: 393 Should all EU countries Todd Baldwin Euro Crisis recognize Kosovo’s indepen - 392 The crisis has slowed dence? Copyright © 2012 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Balkan recovery. Publications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright Voices from Abroad and other rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec - 400 Headlines and editorials from i fied in writing. No part of this publication may Healing Old Wounds 394 around the world. be reproduced electronically or otherwise, Serbia cooperated with the without prior written permission. Un au tho rized Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. re pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy right - FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ed material is a violation of federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. OUTLOOK For More Information 397 Organizations to contact. CQ Press is a registered trademark of Con - 395 Stable Borders? gressional Quarterly Inc. EU membership could 398 Bibliography CQ Global Researcher is printed on acid-free paper. help unify the Balkans. Selected sources used. Pub lished twice monthly, except: (Jan. wk. 5) (May wk. 5) (July wk. 5) (Oct. wk. 5). Published by 399 The Next Step SAGE Publications, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Additional articles. Oaks, CA 91320. Annual full-service subscriptions start at $575. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020. To Citing CQ Global Researcher purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or elec - Turbulent Balkans Seek 399 Sample bibliography formats. 380 EU Membership tronic format (PDF), visit www.cqpress.com or call Outside powers repeatedly 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk pur - conquered the region. chase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thou - sand Oaks, California, and at additional mailing offices. POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash - ing ton, DC 20037. Cover: Getty Images/Sean Gallup 378 CQ Global Researcher The Troubled Balkans BY BRIAN BEARY ing” — minorities fled their THE ISSUES homes for safer locales . 2 As a result, the Balkan countries alkanize (verb): To today are more ethnically divide (a region or homogenous and segregated B territory) into small, than before the wars. Bosnia often hostile units. is perhaps the most extreme Few, if any, regions of the case: Its “Bosniaks” — or world have the dubious honor Muslims — are concentrated of inspiring a word, let alone in certain areas, while the Serbs a word with such negative and Croats, who make up connotations. about a third and a seventh But the troubled history of the population, respective - of the Balkans, a mountain - ly, live in other areas. ous region in southeastern The region’s geography ex - Europe, cried out for its own plains why it has remained word. How else to describe “politically fragmented and the countless conflicts over economically marginalized,” the centuries that have frag - c says Davor Kunc, a Croatian i c k mented religious and ethnic u expert on European Union r a groups in the region. B (EU) and international affairs s i v Indeed, as Britain’s wartime l who is working at the World E / leader Winston Churchill s Bank on sustainable develop - e g once quipped, “The Balkans a ment issues. “Southeast Europe m I produce more history than y is easy to get into, so it has t t they can consume.” 1 e been conquered by many G / P The Western Balkans — F powers,” he explains. But A a region with 26 million in - More than 11,500 empty red chairs, representing the victims — mountains and non-navigable habitants encompassing Al - mostly civilians — of the infamous siege of Sarajevo, fill the city’s rivers make it difficult to move bania and the seven coun - main avenue during a 20th anniversary memorial on April 6, around within the region, he tries that emerged from the 2012. Beginning in 1992, thousands of Serbian troops, many of says, making it difficult for ashes of Yugoslavia — has them snipers, encircled and blockaded the city for 44 months, the various ethnic communi - shooting at anything that moved. The siege highlighted the been perennially plagued by impotence of U.N. peacekeepers stationed in the city at the time ties to integrate. conflict, largely stemming and led to a more decisive international intervention in Kosovo in 1999. In addition, the region from its polyglot mix of re - lacks natural resources, ex - ligious and ethnic populations. Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). cept for Kosovo, which has significant Today, after numerous wars in the Nevertheless, under pressure from the mineral and coal deposits. Unem - 1990s, the region is more fragmented two bodies, the countries have made ployment has been a chronic prob - and ethnically segregated than ever, significant strides in building their lem, with levels as high as 50 percent even as the patchwork of small new democracies and closing the painful in places. Organized crime, however, nations tries to forge democracies and chapter of their recent past. has flourished, especially since the stable governments out of the chaos. Ethnic and religious tensions have end of the Yugoslav wars of the The site of the continent’s only genocide been perhaps the biggest hurdle for 1990s, developing a lucrative trade in since World War II — in the Bosnian the former Yugoslav republics. Kosovo drugs, sex trafficking and counterfeit city of Srbrenica — the region con - is populated predominantly with Sunni goods. tinues to suffer from simmering post - Muslim Albanians. The other six coun - “We half-jokingly, half-seriously, say war ethnic tensions. Rampant orga - tries are made up mostly of Slavic pop - that the best regional cooperation is nized crime, political corruption and ulations who speak similar languages between criminalized groups,” says Ivan a dismal economy are also hamper - and are Orthodox Christians and Roman Vejvoda, a Serbian who is vice president ing the region’s efforts to join the Catholics. During mass expulsions in for programs at the German Marshall European Union (EU) and the North the 1990s — dubbed “ethnic cleans - Fund of the United States. Among the www.globalresearcher.com Aug. 21, 2012 379 THE TROUBLED BALKANS Turbulent Balkans Seek EU Membership The Western Balkans, made up of Albania and the seven countries that comprised Yugoslavia until 1991, is a region in southeastern Europe that for centuries was conquered by competing outside powers. In the 1990s bloody wars of independence broke out in the ethnically and religiously diverse area, punctuated in Bosnia by Europe’s only genocide since World War II. Slovenia is the only country in the region to have joined the European Union (EU); the rest are at various stages in the membership application process. Western Balkan Nations and Their EU Membership Status AUSTRIA HUNGARY ROMANIA Ljubljana SLOVENIA Zagreb ITALY Danube CROATIA Belgrade BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA SERBIA BULGARIA Sarajevo Pristina MONTENEGRO Adriatic KOSOVO Sea Podgorica Skopje MACEDONIA EU Membership Status Tirana Member Admission approved for 2013 ALBANIA Candidate Potential candidate GREECE Map by Lewis Agrell gangs , he says, “There is no ethnic prob - Alexandrovski, a corporate lawyer in He believes Yugoslavia’s violent, lem between Serbs, Albani ans, Croats, the Macedonian capital, Skopje.