The goal of Serbians, to reunify the Serbian people of the former Yugoslavia, has all but been accomplished. Efforts by the Bosnian Muslim government to draw UN troops into the Bosnian civil war have, mercifully, failed.
The UN must now acknowledge the error of premature recognition of Bosnian and Croatian independence, and look forward to the future of southern Europe. In this regard, the continued diplomatic isolation of Yugoslavia can only serve to further destabilize the Balkans.
Croatia and Slovenia will eventually need to re-establish diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia if remaining differences are to be resolved peacefully. Additionally, issues regarding the Albanian minority within Serbia threaten to become the next Yugoslavian flashpoint.
Now is no time for face-saving on the part of the West. All parties to the Yugoslavian civil war must be brought together for diplomatic resolution of their differences and, if necessary, sanctions must be applied uniformly to any that refuses to enter negotiations. To delay and continue the lone isolation of Yugoslavia is a danger Europe and the UN can ill afford.
