FT.com - Fear returns to Bosnia - by Neil MacDonald and Stefan Wagstyl

For the complete report from the FT.com click on this link

Fear returns to Bosnia - by Neil MacDonald and Stefan Wagsty

While Kosovo is making headlines, diplomats in the Balkans say the real threat to peace could lie in another troubled corner of the former Yugoslavia - Bosnia.Janez Jansa, Slovenian prime minister, told the FT: "Bosnia is the most difficult case in this region - much more difficult than Kosovo." The country of about 4m people is split into two opposing "entities". In the Serb-dominated republic, citizens see neighbouring Serbia as their mother country and feel no loyalty to the weak multi-ethnic state where Bosniak Muslims form the largest group. Belgrade backs its ethnic kin. Within the other entity, the Croat-Bosniak federation, Croats rely on cumbersome administrative safeguards to prevent Bosniak domination.Western officials say there was no risk of an all-out war. Rear Admiral Hans-Jochen Witthauer, commander of the EU-led force, says the main risk is "localised ethnic clashes", although even then that risk is low. But he commands just 2,500 troops compared with the 60,000 Nato soldiers in the late 1990s.