Macedonia Violence Touches a Nerve in Unstable Bosnia

The weekend violence in Macedonia has sent a wave of anxiety across the volatile Balkan region - and the ripple effect seems greatest in Bosnia, which remains troubled by its own recent militant attack.

Less than two weeks before violence erupted in Kumanovo, Macedonia, a radical Islamist attacked a police station in the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik.

"Although these are separate and unrelated developments, they are a part of the same trend: things are getting more and more complicated in the Balkans," Mumahed Jusic, a Balkans and Middle East analyst, told BIRN on Tuesday.

The authorities in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska - in which Zvornik is located - then launched mass arrests, which have only exacerbated political and ethnic tensions.

Police raided 32 locations across the entity, seized weapons, ammunition and other military equipment, and arrested 30 Bosniaks [Muslims], 19 of whom they since released while 11 were handed over to prosecutors.

Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said in Banja Luka on Monday that the violence in Macedonia was "a consequence of the unfinished process of the break-up of former Yugoslavia".

More ominously, in reference to Bosnia, he accused Bosniak political leaders of "protecting those who are close to the organized crime and terrorism".

Bosniak political representatives have meanwhile accused the Bosnian Serb government of using "anti-terrorist" activities as a cover to launch another intimidation campaign against its own non-Serb population.

Experts warned that the Bosnian Serb police operation carried a separate danger. By undertaking the operation without informing, let alone cooperating with, Bosnia's own state institutions, the...