"Divide And Fall?" by Radha Kumar--Chapter Four [2]

CHAPTER FOUR: ...TO DIVIDE AND FALL?

The second half of Chapter Four details the rather depressing story of the Dayton-sanctioned elections which were (I would say rashly) planned within a few months after the war ended.

Again, my review is very perfunctory, but only because there is little use in summarizing a blow-for-blow version of Kumar's very well-written and comprehensive account; I have no intention of creating a Reader's Digest/Cliff Notes version of her book. I strongly recommend reading it; it's a quick and worthy read.

The elections went about as badly as one would expect given the circumstances; I will only add that the main two sticking points ended up being Mostar, where the Herzegovinan mafia HDZ hardliners were still busy finishing the ethnic cleansing of their half of the city; and Brcko, where the the demographics had been completely altered by ethnic cleansing in favor of Serbs but the Croats and Bosniaks* teamed up, even from exile.

Apologies again if my review has been so brief as to be nearly useless, but I have no qualms with Kumar's analysis or major themes, and the book is rather narrative in format.


*Don't think I'm not reading your comments, Daniel!