Word: ethnic
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Like most Kenyans, Rachel Kung'u takes a do-it-yourself approach to security. Last year, police did nothing when gangs went on a killing spree and blocked the main road into Nairobi during ethnic violence following the elections. Kungu had to face down the thugs herself. Eventually, she persuaded them to back off. "I told them, now that you blocked the road, food cannot go through, people cannot flee," Kung'u remembers. "They were starving their own people...
Twelve months later, Kenya's roads are clear but people like Kung'u fear that their leaders have no desire to confront the problems that led to the clashes, which saw ethnic groups turn on each other and forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes. (The Dec. 27, 2007 vote saw President Mwai Kibaki edge out his rival, Raila Odinga, in balloting that was seen as rigged by both sides.) Damning evidence has emerged that Kenyan politicians plotted much of the violence that killed 1,200 people last January. This was done by offering cash to poor...
Meanwhile, insults are flying across the ethnic divide, spurred by tabloid media and populist politicians from both sides. Two weeks ago, Dodik's government decided to remove the adjective "Bosnian" from the names of several towns in the Serbian Republic. Meanwhile, in once multi-ethnic Sarajevo, a decree by Bosniak officials introducing compulsory lessons in the Koran to kindergarteners prompted remaining Serbs and Croats to pull their children out of school. "Instead of showing some statesmanship, Bosnian political leaders are practicing petty politics", complains the current OHR chief, Slovakian diplomat Miroslav Lajcak...
...divisive ethnic vitriol is further fueled by political calculation. Nationalism sells - as Dodik's and Silajdzic's parties learned in recent local elections, when they won the bulk of the vote in their respective constituencies. The politics of ethnocentrism props up the parties that really don't have anything else to offer the populace. The economy has been in deep trouble even before the international financial crisis. Unemployment and corruption are among highest in the region. Basic goods suffer from inflation. According to a recent study, about 70% of Bosnians below the age of 30 have abandoned hope...
...another bloody mess? Some analysts caution that the talk of war is overblown and overheated. Some real progress has been achieved in the past 13 years. The peace has been sustained; a high proportion of refugees have returned to their homes; and despite harsh words, no serious incidents of ethnic violence has occurred in recent years. In June 2008, Bosnia signed a crucial agreement with the E.U., putting it on the road to membership. Most importantly, the country's armed forces were recently unified and, unlike Bosnia's political apparatus, put under central command. The military is taking steps...