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This book deals with the institutional framework in post-socialist, after-empire spaces. It consists of nine case studies and two contributions of a more theoretical nature. Each of these analytical narratives sheds some light on the micro-politics of organised violence. After 1990, Serbs and Croats were competing over access to the resources needed for institution building and state building. Fear in turn triggered ethnic mobilisation. An 'unprofessional' riot of Serbs in the Krajina region developed into a professional war between Serbs and Croats in Croatia, in which several thousand died and several hundred thousand people were forcefully expelled from their homes. The Herceg-Bosnian style of resistance can be surprisingly effective. It is known that most of the heroin transported along the Balkans route passes through the hands of Albanian mafia groups; that this traffic has taken off since summer 1999. The concept of Staatnation is based on the doctrine according to which each 'nation' must have its own territorial State and each State must consist of one 'nation' only. The slow decline and eventual collapse of the Soviet and the Yugoslav empires was partly triggered, partly accompanied by the quest for national sovereignty. Dagestan is notable for its ethnic diversity and, even by post-Soviet standards, its dramatic economic deprivation. The integrative potential of cooperative movements at the republican, the regional and the inter-state level for the Caucasus is analyzed. The book also offers insights into the economics of ending violence. Finally, it addresses the question of reconciliation after ethnic cleansing.
3 A neglected dimension of conflict: the Albanian mafia Xavier Raufer The Albanian mafia: a real mafia at the heart of the Balkans? of 1999, the Kosovo daily newspaper Koha Ditore decided to break the law of silence: ‘Drugs are flowing into Kosovo where we are witnessing the birth of a powerful mafia network’, the province is gradually becoming ‘a Colombia at the heart of Europe’ (Koha Ditore 23 December 1999). On 10 March 2000 the special UN human rights investigator returned from a ten-day tour of the Balkans. What Jiri Dienstbier said is, if possible
-Sievers, 2008 [ 2004] ). Nowadays tabloids, such as The Sun , unabashedly connect Albanian crimes in the UK with the concept of ‘The Albanian Mafia’ and an allegedly all-prevailing ( kanun ) code of silence, reminiscent of the Sicilian omerta : besa , in an attempt to explain violence, ruthlessness and internal cohesion (e.g. Allen, 2018 ). The term ‘Albanian mafia’, commonly
Significantly, the poverty and breakdown of law and order in Albania also led families to seek employment in neighbouring countries. The incremental migration that had been ongoing since the end of the Cold War gathered pace, giving Albanian groups a foothold in Italy and more generally across Europe. This created a network of Albanian groups, some of whom were involved in criminality. The trafficking of people, arms and drugs meant the Albanian mafia quickly became influential in the region, providing a clandestine support network and secretive clan-based organisation rooted
the last two years Gabriel has been in prison. Now that he has been released he wants to go straight. But his friends, and particularly Bobby, do not make this easy for him. Bobby starts to work for the Albanian mafia but when a gun deal he tries to pull off goes wrong, he finds himself in deep trouble, which finally drags Costa and Gabriel down with him, bringing death or exile to all of them. The film’s neo-noir credentials
these guys were. But I also had a lot of trouble with smugglers and people traffickers who were smuggling refugees across the borders. Of course they did not want me to come flying with my drone, taking pictures. But I was going to a lot of remote places to tell the stories that nobody else cared about, of refugees getting killed or turning up dead somewhere – which brought me to these troublesome routes with not-nice people. For instance, I had a couple of close calls with the Kosovo-Albanian mafia. One of them was at this small road from Macedonia to Serbia. When