DOSSIER ON THE RIGHTS AND PROTECTION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA, MACEDONIA, SERBIA, MONTENEGRO, AND CROATIA

Introduction:

Introduction

The status of ethnic minorities and protection of their rights is a specific indicator of social relations in every country, in general, but in the states created on the territory of former Yugoslavia were and still are the question of life and death, since wars were waged, among other, because of ethnic and national rights. Although ethnic (national?) interests were too often just a pretext for the accomplishment of other war objectives, even the most morbid ones, they nevertheless remain the factor of stability, and instability, in the space of the dissolved state. Just a partial review of the achieved ethnic minority rights in four state communities that emerged on the territory of former SFRY testifies of the long road these states have yet to pass before they reach the level of development of social relations in which the status of ethnic minorities will certify that they have truly qualified to join democratically developed countries. For the time being, in all these states it is more or less better to be anything else but a member of ethnic minorities marked as a factor that causes instability in the newly created states, because they were established primarily as ethnic, and not as democratic states.