For three successor states of the former Yugoslavia, this fall is all about voting. Macedonian parliamentary elections were held this past weekend, with predictable results. Serbian presidential elections are next on September 29, followed by a general vote in...
"The world has changed. Nothing is the same any more." Those were the two most common sentiments last year, in the shell-shocked aftermath of Black Tuesday, as the horrors of war stopped being something that happened elsewhere. A year later, those phrases...
After a month-long hiatus, Slobodan Milosevic’s show trial before the Hague Inquisition reopened last week. As expected, no one looked back on the prosecution’s fiasco just before the recess, when their star witness turned around and exonerated Milosevic....
Given the amount of sheer lunacy that has been exhibited in the Balkans over the past decade, both by the Empire and its local vassals, it is tempting to say that things could hardly get any more irrational. And also very, very wrong. For just when you thought it was...
Over the past couple of days, two prominent leaders of the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) have been arrested by the NATO forces occupying Kosovo. Rrustem Mustafa, better known as Commander Remi, is accused of torturing and murdering several people. Ramush...
True Stories of 'Failed States'So often is it necessary to describe and decry all the iniquities of Imperial occupation in the Balkans, it is easy to lose track of other reasons for which the peninsula is important. Advocates of Empire often justify their...
Perhaps this description of Mordor from the film version of Tolkien's classic is too harsh on the Balkans. After all, the peninsula is not a fountainhead of evil, merely a victim of its ravages and possession. A more apt comparison in this vein would be Moria: a...
In the summer of 1995, the Bosnian War was rapidly approaching its conclusion. The balance of power was shifting, with Croatia joining the conflict semi-openly (with American blessing and encouragement) and the Bosnian Muslims bolstered by incoming weapons and...
If, twelve years ago, someone had written a book about the Balkans wars that contained even a tenth of what has actually happened since, they'd have been laughed right out of every publishing house in the world. Truth, as Mark Twain remarked, really is stranger than...
It may have slipped in under the radar by now that the United States vetoed an extension of the UN mission in Bosnia this weekend, since the UN could not be blackmailed into granting US troops immunity from the new International Criminal Court. Since the Security...
