Word: yugoslavia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...many areas, though, ethnic groups are so thoroughly mixed that it is impossible to draw neat border lines between their respective turfs. Any attempt to do so only creates new minority problems: a Serb minority in Croatia, for example, instead of a Croat minority in a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. That leads at best to severe tensions, at worst to savage wars between peoples who once lived in peace...
...powers shudder. To them, it threatens instability on a horrendous scale. Secessions often have touched off savage neighbor-vs.- neighbor wars, like those in Moldova; in Georgia, where South Ossetians have been fighting to break away and join ethnic brethren across the border in Russia; and of course in Yugoslavia and in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, caught in a violent tug-of-war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Even peaceful secessions could spawn a slew of mininations, unable to support themselves economically and dependent on aid from richer nations for survival. At a recent international conference French President Francois Mitterrand...
...Yugoslavia, says a U.S. State Department official, is the horrible example of "self-determination gone mad." He and others accuse Serbia of adopting a poisonous nationalism that demands ethnic purity at home, enforced by deporting "foreigners" if necessary, and conquest of any lands -- portions ) of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example -- to which one's brethren have migrated. Once that spirit takes hold, says the official, "anything becomes justifiable in the name of your kind: expulsion, devastation, murder...
...Yugoslavia also provides an example of how badly the international community has been fumbling in managing self-determination. The U.S. and the European Community tried to keep the so-called nation together long after that had become impossible. Then they split over whether to recognize the independence of Slovenia and Croatia. The U.N. sent peacekeeping forces far too late and, by making clear that it would not allow its soldiers to become involved in any fighting, effectively signaled Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic that nobody would seriously try to stop his efforts to create a Greater Serbia...
...Develop a set of principles to govern when new states should be given diplomatic recognition, and what they must do to qualify for admission into international bodies. Robert Badinter, president of the French Constitutional Council and head of the E.C. Arbitration Commission on Yugoslavia, suggests that new states must establish democratic institutions, accept international covenants on human rights, pledge to respect existing frontiers and guarantee respectful treatment of their own ethnic and/or religious minorities...