The owner of a campaigning newspaper was killed yesterday along with a colleague when his car was blown up outside his Zagreb office in Croatia. It is almost certain that Ivo Pukanic was murdered because of his newspaper’s regular exposure of Croatia’s criminal underworld. This is not an isolated incident. Earlier this month the daughter of a prominent lawyer defending a general accused of stealing $5 million of diamonds used to fund Croatian militias was assassinated. Public outrage forced the resignation of the justice and interior ministers.
These crimes are, however, not confined to Croatia. Much of the Balkans has become a hunting ground for local mafias, often working together to smuggle Afghan narcotics, asylum seekers, sex-trade slaves, weapons and cigarettes into Europe. Because many of their hoodlums served in Balkan wars’ militias, they have the arms, explosives and technical know-how to constitute a formidable challenge to the forces of law and order. Worse still, some of the key politicians in these countries used to be militia leaders themselves and are now, with some justice, suspected of maintaining links with their former comrades.
How is the EU reacting to this sinister lawlessness on its Balkan doorstep? Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania are already EU members, Croatia and Macedonia are candidate countries and membership is being dangled in front of Serbia if it hands over Ratko Mladic and other war crimes suspects. In time Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania will also demand entry. Can Brussels afford the original Italian Mafia to be supplemented by ruthless Balkan gangs willing to murder their enemies to protect their drugs and prostitution rackets?
This is not a new issue. Organized crime flourished after the collapse of communism. In recognition of this, as long ago as 1998 Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania signed a deal to combat the criminals, which unfortunately has had little apparent success. The flow of largely Afghan narcotics through Turkey and the Balkans has certainly increased and with it the price in death and misery visited on many countries, not merely in Europe. But worse than this, mafias with abundant funds to suborn politicians and the power to murder those who will not be bribed, challenge the rule of law and the prosperity of every country in which they are established.
The very existence of unchecked organized crime rots the fabric of a state and turns ordered society into a jungle. If Balkan politicians are serious in their condemnation of these ruthless thugs, they must act now before the cancer of bribery and violence eats into the bones of their countries. There is no future for any state that tolerates these dealers in narcotics, death and prostitution. It is clearly time that the European Union woke up to the challenge and did more than just deplore the growing Balkan lawlessness. Despite their own economic troubles, EU member states must resolve to help immediately Balkan politicians of good will to crush the new mafias, who will otherwise surely feed greedily on the extra opportunities thrown up by recession.
