The civil wars that broke out in Yugoslavia and Rwanda during the 1990s showed the world that the spectre of fascism has not disappeared.

Yugoslavia started to break up in the late 1980s with a discredited regime unable to end a worsening economic crisis. In order to remain in power and stop the rising tide of protest movements, the various state hierarchies played the nationalist card by pointing the finger of blame for their problems onto the other provinces. The region had experienced civil war 50 years previously. With the left discredited by the collapse of communism, and aided and abetted by competing imperialist powers, it was relatively easy for the fascist forces, especially the Croatian and Serbian ones, to organize the people along cultural/religious grounds. The resultant civil war brought devastation to millions of people, thousands died in barbaric acts of ethnic cleansing, the big winners being the black marketeers and arms merchants.

Now, in Serbia's capital Belgrade, fascist skinheads murder gypsies on the streets and are rarely prosecuted.
With the unleashing of the civil war in Rwanda in 1994, the world witnessed the most 'efficient' slaughter of people in history, with up to a million people killed in just two months of fighting. The region had been unstable for years, with the ex-colonial powers of France and Belgium each supporting their own factions. However the 1994 massacre of non-fascist Hutus and Tutsi was a carefully masterminded operation by nationalist and authoritarian forces, who used the excuse of the death of the country's president, Mr Habyarimana, to act on their plan. The Interahamwe' was the main militia group that did the killings. They were organized and trained for this task by the country's national soccer coach. While the Interahamwe' were defeated, the people of Rwanda are still recovering, with reports of human rights abuses still common.

---

 

---