Though Chechenia also witnessed great deal of violence but what happened in Bosnia and now in Kosovo took the cake. One could not imagine that such barbarities could be committed by those who belonged to the same racial and linguistic stock and where religious identities as Christians and Muslims were also not very sharply defined. In fact most of the Muslims became aware of their Muslim identity only after the conflict in Bosnia. Thus it is important to note that the ethnic questions should not be treated lightly specially today when, thanks to the democratic processes, ethnic awareness is becoming ever sharper. The modern nation states are also part of the problem.
Many nation states are just conglomeration of various ethnic groups.
Some of the nation states of Europe came into existence as a result of disintegration of former empires and inherited various ethnic groups like in the former USSR or in Yugoslavia. The USSR itself came into existence on disintegration of the Czarist empire which had spread right up to the Central Asia and inherited all the ethnic and religious groups. Same was the case with the socialist Yugoslavia. The former colonies in Asia and Africa also inherited such ethnic conglomeration. Many other Afro-Asian countries are suffering similar fate.