Word: stating
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Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic took the stand at his war crimes trial in The Hague this week to defend his dream of an independent Bosnian Serb state, calling his cause during the 1990s Bosnian war "just and holy." The war has been over now for 14 years, but in Bosnia, many fear the question of independence for the country's Serbs could be reopened, this time not with guns and bombs but with a referendum...
...country's Serbs see the Republika Srpska as a guarantee of their rights in a state dominated by a Muslim majority. But for many Bosniaks and Croats, its very existence is an affront and a reminder of the success of Karadzic's campaign of ethnic cleansing. Reuf Bajrovic, a Sarajevo-based political analyst with links to the Social Democratic Party, the successor to the Communist Party and the closest thing Bosnia has to a multi-ethnic party, warns that Bosniaks and Croats would not accept partition. "The lesson is that ethnic cleansing is a legitimate form of state building...
...voters go to the polls on Sunday for Iraq's third parliamentary election, the fragile stability of a country still recovering from a vicious civil war hangs in the balance. Iraq's leaders have so far been unable to resolve central issues regarding the shape of the Iraqi state - oil sharing, the boundaries of disputed territories, and the balance of power between the central government and the regions. The surge of U.S. troops and the deployment of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces bought time for another shot at political reconciliation. But the window for national compromise is closing fast, with...
...normal life back to Iraq. Originally chosen as a compromise candidate by rival Shi'ite leaders who expected him to be a weak prime minister, he surprised the country by consolidating power, reaching out beyond his Shi'ite base and embracing the cause of national unity. Still, Maliki's State of Law coalition has significant weaknesses. Though untouched by scandal himself, the Iraqi government is notoriously corrupt, and voters remain unhappy about the lack of services such as electricity...
...final composition of the government will nominally affect the future direction of the Iraqi state - whether it becomes more centralized in the hands of the Baghdad government, or whether power is devolved to the regions, especially the Shi'ite-dominated south and the Kurdish north. But either direction could destabilize the country. Devolution could spark a civil war between Arabs and Kurds, while further centralization in a country with a history of totalitarianism could put Iraq on a slippery slope to a new kind of dictatorship...