Word: yugoslavs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When Franko Simatovic was first dispatched from his native Belgrade to Croatia in 1991, there was little to distinguish him from other young Yugoslav intelligence officers drafted into the early days of Serbia's war effort. Slobodan Milosevic was whipping up Serbian nationalism, and the rest of the world was only dimly aware of the simmering ethnic mix that was about to explode in Yugoslavia. Tall, with fair hair, fluent in English and several other languages, "Frenki" was noted for his calm, professorial manner--and a fondness for Raybans. His main accomplishment was having successfully spied on U.S. diplomats...
...latest, most serious threat to peace in the Balkans. But will American and European troops fight against the guerrillas? No Western forces are eager to be drawn into a fight with the guerrillas on their own turf. Instead, last week NATO enlisted the aid of its former archenemy, the Yugoslav army, to tamp down guerrilla activity. Two years ago, it was this army that stormed into Kosovo. "NATO is beginning to trust us," mused a Serbian official...
Since the early 1990s, Western officials have feared a spillover of violence into Macedonia, the only Yugoslav republic to have won independence without bloodshed--thus far. The republic's 30% Albanian, 60% Macedonian-Slav mix is as volatile as any other in the former Yugoslavia, but a progressive government and Western aid have kept things stable. In recent weeks, however, a couple of hundred former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army attacked Macedonian army and police positions while another group assailed Serbian security forces in the nearby Presevo Valley--each in an apparent attempt to carve out additional territory...
...Where NATO had been happy to fight alongside the KLA against the Yugoslav army in Kosovo, the alliance is now confronting those former KLA elements who are bent on destabilizing Serbia and Macedonia. Not only that, NATO has actually enlisted the help of the same Yugoslav army against which it fought in Kosovo. To the consternation of Kosovo's Albanian leaders, NATO this week asked Belgrade to send troops into the buffer zone inside Serbia established as part of the cease-fire agreement that ended the war in Kosovo. The symbolic significance of that decision cannot be understated...
...NATO may have remained largely passive in the face of attacks on Kosovo's Serbs and even the minor insurgency in Presevo, but by taking their campaign to Macedonia, the nationalist guerrillas may have crossed a NATO red line. Macedonia was the only former Yugoslav republic to break away without bloodshed in the early 1990s, and Western observers have long been concerned that the conflicts in the surrounding republics could spark a disastrous showdown between Macedonia's 30 percent Albanian population and the Slavic majority - even more so since the Kosovo war increased tensions between the two communities. Still, Macedonia...