Word: yugoslavia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...blue-ribbon United Nations panel assessing the condition of a still unified Yugoslavia back in 1991 called it a state in the "process of dissolution." Well, it took 10 years of bloodshed, but the job is almost done. The original six Yugoslav republics have been whittled down to two. First Slovenia and Croatia went their own ways, then Bosnia withdrew, triggering the long siege of Sarajevo, then Macedonia managed to get out miraculously without violence. Now, with a seemingly minor election later this week in the small mountain republic of Montenegro, Serbia's remaining partner in the incredible shrinking federation...
...that providers of aid are supportive of independence. Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to meet with Djukanovic when he visited Washington in January, and E.U. external relations Commissioner Chris Patten said this month: "We want to see a democratic Montenegro in a democratic and reformed Yugoslavia. We don't agree with Djukanovic...
...Independence would probably not make much difference in daily life in Montenegro. It no longer pays taxes into the federal coffers. It has its own police force. And in 1999 it introduced Germany's deutsche mark as its official currency. Ties with Serbia are so distant that Yugoslavia recently opened a "representative's" office in Podgorica, like some foreign diplomatic mission. In Serbia, on the other hand, the fallout from secession will be considerable. "If Montenegro goes, Serbia would effectively become a new country," Kostunica says. Elections might precipitate the breakup of the ruling coalition and, as President...
...Absent from the debate so far is any acknowledgment of the economic harm to Montenegro of trying to go it alone at a time when Western Europe is heading in the opposite direction toward greater union. But expectations are low in the Balkans. If Yugoslavia manages to disapear without triggering more death and destruction, no one will seriously object...
...Economic aid has become the West's main weapon for influencing events in post-Milosevic Yugoslavia. Presumably that would create major obstacles to independence plans if the West chose to make it difficult for Djukanovic to break away...