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Article: ALBANIANS IN MACEDONIA : Quit while you're ahead.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- September 14, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Peace in Macedonia and balance in the rest of the Balkans depend on whether the ethnic Albanian forces in Macedonia, having won, will know when to stop. Otherwise, another war may follow. To stop when you are ahead, however, is an act of wisdom rarely displayed, especially in situations where ethnic feeling and anger are as intense as in Macedonia.
The Albanians' victory was originally launched from the diaspora, from Switzerland, Germany, and the United States. It is compromised by a long-standing complicity with Albanian mafias implicated in all the sordid trades of the war-wracked Balkans: the traffic in girls, drugs, cigarettes, stolen cars, arms, refugees, ...