Slovenia
Review: The Scars of the Erasure

Review: The Scars of the Erasure

On June 25, 1991, Slovenia achieved its independence. As the new state took form, citizens of the former Socialist Republic of Slovenia gained immediate citizenship, retaining their economic and social rights in a fresh homeland. But all citizens of other republics of the former Yugoslavia, with permanent addresses in Slovenia, were granted only six months to file for citizenship. If they failed to act within this timeframe, their permanent resident status was revoked immediately. This arbitrary act of abjuration resulted in the “erasure” of 25,671 people from the registry of permanent residents in Slovenia.

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Postcard from…Ljubljana

Postcard from…Ljubljana

The huge yellow banners on the façade of the building under renovation contain short statements that could be part of an advertising campaign or perhaps a conceptual art project. But the stories that are now appearing on this building (pictured) and bus shelters throughout downtown Ljubljana, the capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia, are far more subversive than that.

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Kosovo: A New Versailles?

The torching of the U.S. embassy in Belgrade was a violent sideshow during the massive peaceful demonstrations against Kosovo’s declaration of independence in the Serbian capital on February 18th. Few approved of these thuggish acts, either in Serbia or in the wider world. But the vandalism distracts from more significant facts about the Belgrade demonstrations and the Kosovo declaration that sparked them. The U.S. embassy was not a random target; nor was it the only target. Protesters had already marched toward the U.S. embassy on the first day of the protests. When police blocked their way, they headed instead toward the Slovenian embassy, which was not guarded, and vandalized it. That was not a random target either.

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The Slovenia Summit: Bush Meets Putin

The first Bush-Putin meeting will not take place in a vacuum. Their one-day summit in Slovenia will come after Bush concludes a swing through Spain, Belgium, Poland, and Sweden (which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union). President Vladimir Putin will have already assessed the new U.S. president personally through psychological profiling and consultations with European leaders who have met him. He already has his agenda, which is to use the meeting to influence European elite and public opinion, which is already skeptical about Washington’s plans for National Missile Defense (NMD).

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