By ALAN J. KUPERMAN August 16, 2007; Page A11 The Wall Street Journal Twice in the early 1990s, the international community prematurely supported the independence of a former Yugoslav territory before addressing the concerns of its Serb minority. In both cases, Croatia and Bosnia, this failure triggered a bloody ethnic war between secessionists and fearful local Serbs, who perpetrated inexcusable war crimes. Fighting ended only when Serbs were either granted autonomous regions and police forces to patrol them, or when they were ethnically cleansed from the territory. Today, the United States is poised to repeat the mistake by recognizing the independence of Kosovo before Serb concerns are addressed. Admittedly, the arguments for Kosovo's independence are powerful. Ninety percent of the province is now ethnically Albanian. Serbia abused its sovereignty under former leader Slobodan Milosevic, first by revoking Kosovo's autonomy and then -- in response to NATO bombing in 1999 -- b...
REAL-LIFE SOLUTIONS IN POST - CONFLICT SITUATIONS