Amid the agonizing tragedy of civil war in a splintered Yugoslavia, there are dire predictions of the breakup of still another small Balkan nation. This time it is Czechoslovakia that may be sundered, although without the gruesome fighting that is devastating Yugoslavia.
Another round of talks late this week between Czech and Slovak leaders ended in deadlock, and while neither side has declared the nation officially divided, time is rapidly running out.A new government is supposed to be formed this month. If it cannot be patched together, a breakup seems certain.
The driving force behind the possible Czechoslovakian breakup is not so much ethnic hatreds as it is economic differences.
The differences arise out of the struggle to carry out free-market reforms after the 1989 revolution ousted the communist government. Like other former East-bloc nations, Czechoslovakia is finding the transition difficult.
Things have gone reasonably well in the Czech republic, the western two-thirds of the country, which is more populous and industrialized. The reforms have been much harder in poorer Slovakia, where unemployment is four to five times higher.
Yet it is hard to see how splitting the country apart would improve things in Slovakia. Much of the industrial base would then be in a different nation, instead of just another region of the same nation. That hardly seems to be a recipe for economic recovery and success.
In elections over the past weekend, Slovak nationalists - running on a platform of sovereignty and slower reforms - swept to victory in the eastern portion of the country. The opposing right-wing party of Prime Minister-designate Vaclav Klaus won handily in the Czech-dominated west.
It appears that Slovakian nationalists are worrying first about autonomy and only then will be ready to consider some loose links with the Czech republic. That might not work and certainly would leave the Slovaks in a weaker bargaining position.
Preliminary talks aimed at keeping the two segments of the country together failed earlier this week, and Klaus was widely quoted on state radio as saying, "The federation is lost."
In the meantime, nobody is quite sure how to put a federal government together. The Federal Assembly is supposed to meet June 25. Both sides are split over the election of a president, an office presently held by poet and folk-hero Vaclav Havel.
The president says he will not seek re-election if the federation is split or economic reforms are threatened. That would be a loss because Havel is a popular and unifying figure.
Czechoslovakia was stapled together after World War I, a new nation created from pieces of the old Austro-Hungarian empire. Then came the Nazis in the 1930s, followed by Soviet forces after World War II. Communism held sway until 1989.
Thus Czechoslovakia has had little experience as a free country. It would be disheartening to see it fall apart while trying to overcome all the wounds and scars of the past.
The West should encourage unity. Czechoslovakia has the potential to be a strong little country. Breaking into smaller pieces would not serve the long-term interests of either the Czechs or the Slovaks. They deserve better.