Yugoslav Tremors: A Report

The Dayton accords are in trouble. Their only virtue—it is not a small one—is that they stopped the organized fighting in the former Yugoslavia. But they also partitioned Bosnia and left the consequences of “ethnic cleansing” intact. The major war criminals and their chief henchmen are unlikely to be punished. The three new “entities” in Bosnia are now unashamedly based on ethnic homogeneity, real or imagined. For that matter, Croatia itself is close to being ethnically homogeneous, with a broad consensus among Croatian parties that this is a good thing.

Dayton did achieve one aim brilliantly— keeping the lid on the former Yugoslavia until Clinton’s re-election. Along the way, Serbia’s Slo...