Word: slovenia
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...Baltics has a spasmodic, last-gasp quality. Similarly, the late, unlamented Warsaw Pact was probably the only military alliance in history that did nothing but invade its own member states, and the Yugoslav army has finally seen action -- in a civil war. The federal government's bullying of Slovenia is a reminder that fear and force are all that keep these decrepit regimes together...
...cooperative international environment where economies are capitalist, trade is free, political life is democratic, security is collective, and some degree of sovereignty is pooled. Europe -- thanks to the Common Market, the Helsinki process and the march toward integration in 1993 -- is closer to that ideal than anywhere else. Hence Slovenia, Lithuania and the Ukraine have somewhere to go. And, crucially, their masters in Belgrade and Moscow have less to fear in letting them...
Neither those locked in conflict within the country's borders nor those watching from a distance could explain exactly what guided events last week as the showdown between the Yugoslav People's Army and the secessionist republics of Slovenia and Croatia first pushed toward all-out civil war, then pulled back in a shaky cease-fire. What baffled most was not so much the sporadic bloodshed -- all but foreordained by centuries of ethnic antagonisms -- but the political and military muddle. No one seemed to be in charge, and the country appeared to be sliding into chaos. The federation's civilian...
...Slovenia had hoped to use its bold declaration of independence as a negotiating card, by week's end the republic had its stalwart performance to buttress resolve. The Yugoslav army, by contrast, will have much to explain. The use of missiles on Ljubljana's airport seemed excessive, given the purported objective of restricting access to Slovenia. More inexplicable still, Yugoslav jets fired on civilian trucks and reportedly entered Austrian airspace...
...their independence. The Yugoslav army, in turn, has received no encouragement for its actions, and speculation is keen that senior officers will be held accountable for excesses once civilian order is restored. Perhaps the most encouraging sign is that many among the estimated 500 prisoners of war taken by Slovenia turned themselves in. If civilians and troops alike can signal their interest in cooling the hotheads, perhaps there is still hope that Yugoslavia can settle its differences peacefully...