[JCB]

And if the Power that Be don't allow for an independence referendum then they're denying self-determination, are they not? Most Muslims wanted to break away and Serbs didn't. A clash was inevitable. A constitution with guaranteed rights (which I agree should have been insisted upon) would still have left Serbs living in countries they wanted no part of. The fires of nationalism was stoked since the death of Tito and so some sort of partition was going to happen.

And in Kosovo, the two sides again held irreconsible positions, which was addressed in 1999 by a proposed referendum in three years to buy some time. If the demographics would lead to eventual breakup then what is everyone supposed to do? Deny the majority what they want?

[Oplenac]

Kosovo poses a different problem than that of the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia. In Kosovo, Serbia exerts historical, and many would say, legal rights; whereas in the latter, Croatian and Bosnian Serbs were left with little or no assurance of guaranteed rights. Fragmenting along ethnic lines is a failure, leading only to stunted growth and stagnation, where parties exist as failed statelets, depending on charity to live, while resources are privatized to global profiteers. Much more needed to be done to prepare the new independent states: assurances put into law, compromises from high to low, options to break down mistrust. There is fault for everyone, including the external Powers who should have used their weight more fairly.