European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 1, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Three Balkan states a primer per capita income Western imports population Bulgaria Romania Yugoslavia per month $200 100 0 in billions. $8_ main Export products textiles and clothing foreign debt agricultural employment in billions France bout tick  Paul Gonzales / los Angeles times winds of change Buffet Balkans by Alison Smale associated press the fall of communism has brought a sense of unravelling to the Balkans where the new democracy holds fragile Sway Over emotional Peoples tormented by ancient ethnic hatreds. Long suppressed nationalism and economic backwardness bedevil the transition throughout the former soviet bloc but nowhere is the danger of National dissolution or even armed conflict so great As in the Balkans. Balkan Peoples have Little tradition of democracy and have endured centuries of brutal outside domination. They Are fiercely proud of their ethnicity and often Settle scores in blood. Scars inflicted by the past Are As fresh As if incurred yesterday. The thirst for revenge runs deep. Quot the past hangs Over the whole of politics As elsewhere in Europe with the difference that in the Balkans there has never been a juridical arrangement of All these matters Quot said Nikolai Todorov one of Bulgaria s Foremost experts on the Region. Quot the heritage is very difficult to overcome because there Are compact masses of nationalities which were included in new states built on the National principle Quot he said alluding to such minorities As Bulgaria s 1 million ethnic turks the 2 million hungarians in Romania and the scattered ethnic groups of Yugoslavia. Before communism arrived Balkan Borders were shifted constantly by Battles Between outside rulers often in the names of their religions the orthodox South slavs the ottoman turks moslem who dominated the Southern Balkans for centuries and the hapsburgs roman catholics from the North. In world War ii fought in most of Europe As a struggle Between democracy and dictatorship Balkan countries gained and lost territory at the whim of outside Powers. In Yugoslavia about 1 million people were killed in largely fratricidal conflict. As recently As 1989, old hatreds drove 300,000 ethnic turks from Bulgaria. It was Europe s biggest emigration in 40 years. Balkan Peoples a accustomed to violence far from Western Europe and often isolated in Mountain valleys a traditionally have Felt secure Only in the very ethnic consciousness that nurtures More conflict. Religion a Folk song ones land or Village exercise a greater hold because they have proved More lasting than the different masters of this strikingly Beautiful Region. It added to the mystical sense of ethnicity Are the legacies of great empires. At one spot in Central Sofia an orthodox Church a mosque a statue of Lenin and a sleek Sheraton hotel face one another. Bulgarians who come from a Complex heritage of ottoman and soviet repression and orthodox acquiescence in the status quo now Are faced with a new order a democracy a Market Economy and concern for human rights. New concepts of Freedom and the modernizing european family Are invoked almost As if they could magically overcome the burdens of history and economic backwardness transforming the Balkans instantly into France. The political impossibility of such rapid change is obvious even in such tangibly european cities As Ljubljana capital of Slovenia the Northern yugoslav Republic next to Austria and Italy. Quot nationalism is Only part of the problem Quot a slovenian journalist said on condition of anonymity. Quot there is also the politics of Small  in Bulgaria for example anti communist protesters set fire to and ransacked the Headquarters of the socialist party formerly the communist party. Police said More than 50 people were arrested in connection with the arson which grew out of an anti communist demonstration. Among the slovenes who number just under 2 million almost All prominent politicians businessman journalists and intellectuals know each other. Graft and intrigue can flourish in such tight circles As they traditionally did in the hapsburg Empire to which Slovenia belonged for centuries. Circumstances like that make it difficult for the often european Zed intellectuals of the Balkans to follow the East european tradition of doubling As far sighted politicians. Romania for instance has suffered since its revolution in december from the refusal of most leading intellectuals to join any political party. An outspoken Independent Media virtually nonexistent in the Balkans is just one aspect of democracy difficult to achieve. The Media often inflame passions rather than i soothing them especially in Yugoslavia whose fragile federation of six quarrelsome republics seems destined to dissolve. A print War Many fear will Lead to shooting is being j waged Between Serbia the largest yugoslav Republic j and the Onty one where communist leaders refuse free elections and Croatia which elected a Center right j government in March. Serbia has demonstrated a readiness to get Tough by its actions in Kosovo a Southern province that was the heart of ancient Serbia and now is dominated by ethnic albanians. Serbia claims Kosovo s population seeks Union with neighbouring Albania. At least 60 ethnic albanians have been killed in confrontations with Security forces. Ethnic albanian Media and institutions have been virtually eliminated. Such tactics by Serbia have encouraged the efforts of relatively prosperous Slovenia and Croatia both roman Catholic parts of the old hapsburg Empire to draw away from the rest of Yugoslavia. Repression in Kosovo also could prove dangerous if democratic Reform took hold in Albania. The province s ethnic albanians about 85 percent of the population then could press in Earnest for Union with Brothers across the  Romania and Bulgaria face the problem of sharing Power with minorities at the political level where daily life is largely determined. Bulgaria holds its first free local elections in october. Ethnic turks Are expected to win in Kur Dzhali and other towns that were paralysed this summer by strikes of ethnic bulgarians who feared turkish domination. In Romania local elections scheduled for next year could give hungarians control of Transylvania the Western Region adjacent to Hungary. Whether the romanian elections even will be held remains a question. There Are increasing rumours in Bucharest that the army is preparing to take Over. Economic chaos everywhere in the Balkans feeds fears of a rapid slide away from democracy. Ante Markovic the Federal Premier of Yugoslavia has curbed inflation but the newly convertible Dinar is overvalued and prices in some areas Are higher than in Austria although pay averages Only 280 dollars a month. Reduced soviet Oil shipments and the latest Middle East crisis have caused an Energy crunch in Bulgaria and Romania. Both introduced rationing of sugar and other Staples in August and everyone seems to expect a hard Winter. Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes