Chris Hildebrand: Don't Forget the Balkans, Again
[Chris Hildebrand writes for Diplomatic Courier.]
Noticeably absent from President Obama’s recent jaunt through Europe is any update or attention on the Balkan nations of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and the fledgling state of Kosovo. This absence is not surprising. The Balkan states, scene to a brutal civil war in the 1990’s, have remained seemingly hidden from international media of late, bar a few exceptions. Now, 14 years after the massacre at Srebrenica, it is time for politicians on both side of the Atlantic to push past the negative stigma of the area and re-examine the Balkans.
The Balkans still confront several large problems. First, corruption remains rampant in nearly every country in the region. Croatia experiences bouts of violence at the hands of a powerful mafia that continues to exert significant control. Among the victims are politicians, journalists, lawyers, and policemen. To speak out against the corruption and the mafia is to face swift repercussions, as the murders of journalist Ivo Pukanic and the daughter of a well-known Croatian lawyer unfortunately demonstrate. Others are on the receiving end, as the pockets of politicians have an odd propensity to suddenly become thicker.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, still divided mostly along ethnic lines, consists of the northern Serbian Republika Srpska and the southern Bosnian/Croatian Bosnia and Herzegovina. The split country faces the same corruption as Croatia, along with continued ethnic tensions from the not-too-distant war. The bifurcation has proved difficult to manage, as the rotating Presidency, shackled by an aging Dayton Agreement, finds itself increasingly unable to effectively tackle the economic and criminal problems plaguing the troubled nation.
Indeed, the High Representative overseeing the troubled country, per the Dayton Accords, recently flexed special powers to revoke controversial ethnically-motivated legislation from the Bosnian Serb legislature. The legislation, which was annulled peacefully, alleged that the southern Bosniak legislature was denying the northern Bosnian Serbs access to some of their rightful powers. Clearly ethnic tensions—once hoped to have been forgotten—still exist.
Meanwhile Serbia, along the same lines, is struggling to come to terms with an independent Kosovo. Although they recently successfully initiated an action in the United Nations to take the matter of Kosovo’s February 2008 Declaration of Independence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which will assess the legality of the declaration, the ICJ decision will not be binding. It will, however, have a significant impact on Kosovo’s standing with the international community, many members of which have yet to recognize Kosovo—including several EU member states.
Serbia still needs to extinguish lingering remnants of extreme nationalist political parties and bring the remaining war criminals to justice—a benchmark the EU insists Serbia must pass, and soon, if it is to apply for EU membership in 2009. While Serbia did make progress on this front with the arrest and extradition of Radovan Karadzic in the summer of 2008, other noted figures from the war are still at large, including Ratko Mladic. These figures have achieved almost mythical status as anachronous Serbian heroes still supported by a Serbian population that is highly averse to the ICTY and similar international efforts in the Balkans.
Indeed, Karadzic, wanted in association with the genocide at Srebrenica, lived openly in Belgrade among the Serbian populace for many years, brazenly practicing freely as a doctor of alternative medicine. Karadzic’s extended abeyance of justice suggests even elements of the Serbian political realm are still hesitant to consider the extremist nationalism Karadzic represents as extinct.
A solution, however, is available, and can provide many quick advantages and lessons arguably applicable elsewhere...
Read entire article at Diplomatic Courier
Noticeably absent from President Obama’s recent jaunt through Europe is any update or attention on the Balkan nations of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and the fledgling state of Kosovo. This absence is not surprising. The Balkan states, scene to a brutal civil war in the 1990’s, have remained seemingly hidden from international media of late, bar a few exceptions. Now, 14 years after the massacre at Srebrenica, it is time for politicians on both side of the Atlantic to push past the negative stigma of the area and re-examine the Balkans.
The Balkans still confront several large problems. First, corruption remains rampant in nearly every country in the region. Croatia experiences bouts of violence at the hands of a powerful mafia that continues to exert significant control. Among the victims are politicians, journalists, lawyers, and policemen. To speak out against the corruption and the mafia is to face swift repercussions, as the murders of journalist Ivo Pukanic and the daughter of a well-known Croatian lawyer unfortunately demonstrate. Others are on the receiving end, as the pockets of politicians have an odd propensity to suddenly become thicker.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, still divided mostly along ethnic lines, consists of the northern Serbian Republika Srpska and the southern Bosnian/Croatian Bosnia and Herzegovina. The split country faces the same corruption as Croatia, along with continued ethnic tensions from the not-too-distant war. The bifurcation has proved difficult to manage, as the rotating Presidency, shackled by an aging Dayton Agreement, finds itself increasingly unable to effectively tackle the economic and criminal problems plaguing the troubled nation.
Indeed, the High Representative overseeing the troubled country, per the Dayton Accords, recently flexed special powers to revoke controversial ethnically-motivated legislation from the Bosnian Serb legislature. The legislation, which was annulled peacefully, alleged that the southern Bosniak legislature was denying the northern Bosnian Serbs access to some of their rightful powers. Clearly ethnic tensions—once hoped to have been forgotten—still exist.
Meanwhile Serbia, along the same lines, is struggling to come to terms with an independent Kosovo. Although they recently successfully initiated an action in the United Nations to take the matter of Kosovo’s February 2008 Declaration of Independence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which will assess the legality of the declaration, the ICJ decision will not be binding. It will, however, have a significant impact on Kosovo’s standing with the international community, many members of which have yet to recognize Kosovo—including several EU member states.
Serbia still needs to extinguish lingering remnants of extreme nationalist political parties and bring the remaining war criminals to justice—a benchmark the EU insists Serbia must pass, and soon, if it is to apply for EU membership in 2009. While Serbia did make progress on this front with the arrest and extradition of Radovan Karadzic in the summer of 2008, other noted figures from the war are still at large, including Ratko Mladic. These figures have achieved almost mythical status as anachronous Serbian heroes still supported by a Serbian population that is highly averse to the ICTY and similar international efforts in the Balkans.
Indeed, Karadzic, wanted in association with the genocide at Srebrenica, lived openly in Belgrade among the Serbian populace for many years, brazenly practicing freely as a doctor of alternative medicine. Karadzic’s extended abeyance of justice suggests even elements of the Serbian political realm are still hesitant to consider the extremist nationalism Karadzic represents as extinct.
A solution, however, is available, and can provide many quick advantages and lessons arguably applicable elsewhere...