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The Failure of Europe in Bosnia

And the continuing infiltration of Islamic extremists.

Jun 20, 2005, Vol. 10, No. 38 • By STEPHEN SCHWARTZ
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Sarajevo

WHILE FRENCH AND DUTCH VOTERS are only now venting their discontent with the European Union, the Bosnians have held Brussels in contempt since the onset of their civil war, some 13 years ago. Back then, Europe actively obstructed Bosnian self-defense. The British and French instigated a U.N. weapons embargo that prevented the Bosnians from legally importing arms. A staggering 250,000 people were killed in the ensuing war (out of a population now around 4.5 million). In the decade since the massacre at Srebrenica, where Serbs slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and boys, Brussels has ruled Bosnia, as provided for under the U.S.-orchestrated Dayton Accords.

This has been a disaster for Bosnians, whether Muslim, Serb, or Croat. European humanitarian colonialism has burdened the country with staggering unemployment (at least the official rate, 44 percent), severely retarded privatization and reconstruction, and perpetuated the partition between a Serbian-occupied zone and a shaky Muslim-Croat federation.

Muslim Bosnia and neighboring territories also face growing Islamist extremism. Wahhabi missionaries, promoting the ultraradical cult financed by Saudi Arabia, have come back to the Balkans after their expulsion from Sarajevo in the aftermath of September 11. Bosnian authorities acted then with admirable speed in cracking down on the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a center of al Qaeda activity.

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