Bosnia then, Ukraine now
The crisis in Ukraine over Crimea has
uncomfortable echoes of the long
dissolution of Yugoslavia. Though
Ukraine has been a recognised
independent state for over twenty
20
„artificial country.‟
Horrific war
crimes and acts of genocide followed,
in Bosnia and later in Kosovo. It was
the latter, following on from years of
oppression, which finally precipitated
NATO intervention, international
occupation, stalemated negotiations
and, in the end, a UDI by Kosovo‟s
democratically elected leadership.
That so many states chose to
recognize Kosovo is a mark of the
persuasiveness of „remedial secession‟
as a doctrine in the Kosovo case, and
the government‟s „earned sovereignty‟
over nearly a decade.
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Slobodan
Milošević
facilitated
Karadžić‟s „democratic reply‟ and it
became
the
self-legitimating
justification for Karadžić to proclaim a
Serbian Republic within BosniaHerzegovina. This move pre-emptively
sabotaged
an
internationally
sanctioned referendum on Bosnia‟s
independence in the spring of 1992.
At the very moment Bosnia was
acquiring
recognition
as
an
independent state, it came under
attack by those who viewed it an