The Symbiosis of War Crimes and Organized Crime in the Former Yugoslavia
The Symbiosis of War Crimes and Organized Crime in the Former Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: Although the focus in both academic research and international criminal prosecutions related to the recent wars in the former Yugoslavia has been on war crimes, these cannot be fully understood without studying their relationship to organized criminal conduct. By considering the history of the security services in Yugoslavia’s last decades, it is possible to detect troubling antecedents for the engagement of criminal elements by the state concerning the destruction of the country. Opportunistic and nationalist elites devised a strategy of using paramilitary organizations to ethnically cleanse opponents in order to establish homogenous nation-states. In the short term, this strategy proved catastrophically effective, but it carried with it a large number of negative externalities that undermined democracy, the rule of law and market economics in the newly independent states.

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