Word: balkanize
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Though officials have not determined who was responsible for last week's World Trade Center explosion, speculation that Balkan terrorists had planted the bomb underscored the potential consequences of getting involved in the region. At the same time, Pentagon critics pointed out that the airdrop puts American prestige on the line. If the limited operation proved ineffective, then what? Take greater risks to deliver food and medicines to suffering Bosnians? Or back away from responsibility? Initially wary of a venture he feared might jeopardize the safety of peacekeepers on the ground, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali eventually endorsed...
...telephoned claims of "credit" that were received in the first 24 hours. Though none came in before the blast -- the earliest followed it by an hour, well after the first news reports -- a few were intriguing. Many of the calls were made by people claiming to be affiliated with Balkan groups, including one made by a caller in Europe who said he represented the Black Hand, a Serbian extremist organization last active about 10 years ago. According to terrorism expert Xavier Raufer, Serbian nationalists have threatened terrorist reprisals against West European countries for interference in the region...
...from the negotiations, hoping this pledge will strengthen the hand of the Muslim-led Bosnian government. But one skeptical U.S. official called the plan "smoke and mirrors," doubting that the Serbs will take nonmilitary threats seriously or that Washington will ever let its forces get bogged down in a Balkan quagmire. (See related story on page...
...finally takes on Balkan peacemaking...
...Balkans ethnic purity is a primitively overriding value. Bosnian Muslims believe that the mass rapes are intended to break down their national, religious and cultural identity. In part, they assume, the Serb objective is to use rape and enforced pregnancy as a form of revenge and humiliation. Says Mark Wheeler, a lecturer on modern Balkan affairs at the University of London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies: "The idea of nationality in the former Yugoslavia is based on descent, and the greatest debasement is to pollute a person's descent...