Ethnic Passion: SLOVAKS AND CZECHS
WHEN THEY jeered and jostled Vaclav Havel, Slovak nationalists were giving a demonstration of the overheated ethnic passion that has become the leading threat to their country. Mr. Havel, the president of Czechoslovakia and a genuine democrat, is regarded in the West as a hero. But to Slovaks, or at least to some of them, he has become a much resented symbol of Czech influence and, as a Marxist would say, hegemony. The nationalists are now calling for secession Is this going to be the fate of...
Ethnic Passion: RWANDA'S ETHNIC ROAD TO RUIN
Starting in the 1970s, Rwanda used to be a favorite laboratory for international aid. Largely because it was so small, it was considered a fine place to test how effective various development strategies could be in a land with a cooperative government and good transportation.Now it is a laboratory of a different sort - a microcosm from which to learn what can happen when politicians seek to ride sectarian forces of hate. This is, after all, not a question just for a tiny country in East...
Ethnic Passion: EASTERN EUROPE'S IDENTITY CRISIS
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Rallies and marches in Slovenia and Serbia in Yugoslavia. Popular protests and popular fronts in Soviet Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Flight from Romania's Transylvania. Riots in Azerbaijan.The fires of nationalism are being rekindled this year in Eastern Europe, from the Baltic to the Balkans and east to the Caspian Sea. The sparks carry a defiant message for communist governments. "Simple," says Milovan Djilas, the most...
Ethnic Passion: SOME WORKERS OF THE WORLD REFUSE THE OLD CALL TO UNITE
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Rallies in Slovenia. Marches in Serbia. Tension in Kosovo. Protests in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Flight from Romania's Transylvania. Riots in Azerbaijan.The fires of nationalism are being rekindled this year in Eastern Europe, from the Baltic to the Balkans and east to the Caspian Sea. The sparks carry a defiant message for the communist governments."Simple," says Milovan Djilas, the most prominent dissident in...
Ethnic Passion: Powell was link to reality
COLIN POWELL'S departure from the State Department and Condoleezza Rice's arrival deepen the uncertainty that lies over what is to be expected of the new Bush administration's foreign policy. Colin Powell was a heavyweight in Washington. In 1996, he could have had the Republican presidential nomination, had he wanted it. His had been the most prominent American military career since the Vietnam War.He had successfully redefined the terms of U.S. foreign...