BTW, I just read the article that heads this thread (finally). It's really not too bad. I wrote my original post prior to even reading it.
The role of the Maastricht Treaty was just touched on by post. I don't know if you've ever read it, but "The New Yorker" wrote a fantastic piece called "Genscher's War" many many years ago that did a great job of documenting Germany's economic push in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. It's a must read.
If there had been a critical mass of people who stood up for the Yugoslav ideal, all the money in the world pumped into the HDZ & SDA would have been for nought. Even those who stood the most to loose from the destruction of Yugoslavia (namely Serbs and people from "mixed" families) allowed themselves to be branded by narrow ethnic labels.
Just try calling a Londoner "English", he'll politely remind you "British".........why does he do this ? because a Englishman is shrwed enough to know that he loses nothing by calling himself "British", but knows he gains Scotland & Wales allegience by this little subtretuge.
A Englishman who calls himself British in public is privately a Englishman through and through.