BALKANS

In the recent past most of this region was a single country - Yugoslavia. Civil war and a series of national secessions have resulted in Tito's federal state being fragmented into smaller constituent countries: Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herezegovina and Slovenia. UN-administered Kosovo remains technically a part of Serbia for the time being. Albania was a separate country but languished in isolation from the rest of the world during the repressive years of Enver Hoxha's regime. With obvious signs of the recent hostilities evident in some quarters it is little wonder that the term 'Balkanisation' was coined in this region.