ABSTRACT
Many security threats are present on South-east Europe's borders. The risk of conflict has lessened since the surrender of Slobodan Milosevic in 2001 but not disappeared; political and ethnic discontents focus on disputed borders; and criminal gangs and illegal migrants cross them. Caches of arms and ammunition are hidden along Albania's northern borders, which are isolated by bad roads, mountains and rural poverty, while attempts by Macedonia's security forces to clamp down on the gangs running smuggling routes between Macedonia and Serbia increase political tensions in Kosovo and Serbia and Montenegro. Regional politics are overshadowed by allegations of illegal trafficking. Border guards control migration, demonstrate sovereignty, and often represent an important source of state budgetary income, but until recently their role was seen as being of technical interest only.
