ABSTRACT
The republics of former Yugoslavia are still reeling from the double impact of armed conflict and economic disintegration. Compared to other parts of Central and Eastern Europe, the situation of children here has plummeted from a "best case" to a "worst case" scenario. Thousands of children were killed, maimed, or traumatized in a four-year war notorious for the systematic targeting of children and women. That bitter armed conflict did more than delay social and economic transition, it nearly destroyed the entire social fabric. Today, the difficult process of implementing the Dayton peace accords is under way, but the problems to be surmounted are huge. Children and women still number high among the displaced and among refugees. Basic services are beyond the means of many. And long-standing, unresolved ethnic and political conflicts remain threats. In 1998, armed hostilities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Kosovo province, whose population is 90 percent Albanian, once again put children's lives in danger.
