They have little interest in peace agreements or the return of the rule of law. West Mostar has spun out of control. Croatian gangsters and political leaders have also scuttled efforts to cement the federation between the Bosnian Croats and Muslims. The federation, hammered out by Washington two years ago to stop the war between the Croats and Muslims, was supposed to create a joint government, army, police, judiciary and tax structure. The center of Mostar is a bleak, bombed-out shell.
Sporadic shootings punctuate the uneasy peace.
Despite the accord's promise of freedom of movement, few people dare to venture from one zone to the other. Muslim men who tried to go over at the beginning were all picked up by the Croat police and badly beaten. They say that in the last 18 months they have registered some 6,000 stolen vehicles from Italy and Germany, many still bearing foreign license plates, but are powerless to recover them. The criminals, they say, also do a brisk business in forged visas, drugs, liquor and cigarettes, as well as recruiting prostitutes for work in Germany and the Netherlands. Store owners who do not promptly pay monthly protection money have their shops burned.