Word: balkanize
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Secretary Boutros Boutros-Ghali complained about the attention the Balkan war was receiving in contrast with the Somalian famine, calling it a "rich man's war." While Boutros-Ghali's rage at the lack of action on Somalia is understandable, his statement is reprehensible. As Secretary General, his job is tolead and marshal support for U.N. efforts, not to diminish one tragedy in the face of another. At a time when inspiring leadership is needed at the U.N., Boutros-Ghali has sunk to the level of ridiculous name-calling...
...reluctance to act decisively even in the face of Iraq's blatant aggression should have warned the world of its incompetence in handling the current Balkan crisis...
...diplomat, "Bosnia-Herzegovina has ceased to exist." Even if the cease-fire were to hold, Serbs control about two-thirds of the country, and Croats have proclaimed a quasi-independent republic in ! most of the rest. Sarajevo, if it should be able to hold out, looks increasingly like a Balkan West Berlin: cut off from any countryside, capital of Nowheresville. Outside city limits, only a few slivers of territory remain under the control of the Muslim Slavs who constitute 41% of Bosnia's population...
While the Balkan countries we supply with aid, and the warring groups within America, aren't afraid to look to their own people's interests first, our government has never shaken the image of itself as global police officer, or at the least, global parent. If Dan Quayle sees government as a sort of big father than the American government has obviously become the sort of social-activist parent who neglects his own kids because he's busy saving the world...
Americans and Europeans can no longer wish the Balkan problem away. "This is no ordinary war," says Sylvana Foa of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "We are hearing stories about families having to watch fathers and sons walk through minefields, and summary executions for the hell of it." While comparisons to the international disbelief, blindness and indifference that enabled Hitler to carry out his "final solution" are overblown, Baker hinted at such a parallel on May 24 at an international conference in Lisbon. It was just bracing enough to renew Western determination to halt the slaughter...