Flashpoint Looms in the Balkans - Who will Douse the Flames?

Powerless UN troops in Kosovo

Recent rioting in Kosovo

Just as in every major conflict which has occurred in the Balkans over the past one hundred years, the igniting spark for the next one has failed to attract due attention from the world media. It appears that most of the major news outlets simply fail to recognise the future consequences of events that happen in that troubled region of the world.
From the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand just after the turn of the 20th century to the atrocities carried out out in Pristina in the name of ethnic cleansing in the late 1990's, the world's policing agencies and protection forces have consistently failed to intervene in a decisive manner before the conflict wrecked the fragile stability of these Eastern European states and engulfed the region into chaos and bloodshed. The capacity for violence in the region is great, and it's the stories and images of these atrocities inflicted on one group of people by another which eventually spur the western powers into action.
It is no surprise that the violence in the region has settled into ten year cycles. One side will murder a lot of thirty something male 'enemy' leaving many young children fatherless. Ten years later the children, soaked in hatred through their growing years are ready for revenge.
It's almost ten years since Pristina, and:

Trepca Mine - a makeshift crematorium 700 bodies found;

Ribari Vogel - 26 dead;

Kutlin - 60 killed on 26 Mar 99;

Pec - 5 young men killed on 15 Apr 1999. A further 200 killed on 8 Apr 1999;

Orahovic - Mass grave that could contain some 500 bodies.

Other sites:

Korenica - 150 bodies;

Djakovica - 70 bodies.

Drenica - 530 killed;

Izbica - 43 "mass graves"

Rezalla -100 bodies;

Velika Krusa - Between 20 and 50 bodies;

Vlastion - Up to a 100 bodies;

Ravine North of Pristina - 82 graves.
To list every atrocity would make this article unmanageable, there are many more.

Once again, we are way past the first spark which has signalled the coming chaos. On 17 February 2008 Kosovo declared its independence.
The enclaves are already created. Kosovo is not an integrated nation, Serbs live in separate area's from Albanians. They are facing each other across ethnic divides today, no longer is it integrated to the extent that it was back in the 90's when neighbour turned on neighbour because of their held beliefs.
Today in Kosovska Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, armed Serbs attacked UN forces trying to quell rioting as demonstrators seized the courthouse.
As in the 90's the UN, who have no mandate to become actively involved in 'fighting' during these incidents, immediately pulled out of the region. Who will now police the area; the Kosovan Police? The Army? No, that's been tried before, with horrific consequences.
So, is there a plan to prevent the region falling once more into civil war and chaos?
I don't know
I do know however, who is on standby to go in to do all of the dirty work after the killing and mayhem really gets going.
The good old British Army, and you can guess who will be right behind them.
Wouldn't it make much more sense to pay really close attention to what's going on there right now and get in there and stop it before it gets out of hand, or should we do just what we always do - cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Back To Top