Now ethnic feuds, runaway inflation, famine and a gradual disintegration of the social order were fueling the expanding flames.
More than the ethnic feuds of the Balkans hinge on that.
After the meeting, Rohrabacher told the media that, if bloody ethnic feuds were to be resolved in Afghanistan, regional autonomy was essential.
They are among tens of thousands of people killed, wounded or displaced in West Africa's fiercest ethnic feud in recent years.
In the fertile heart of the world's largest cocoa-producing country, a 20-month-long civil war has spawned an ugly ethnic feud over cocoa land.
In northern Canada, historically there were ethnic feuds between the Dene and the Inuit.
Indeed, it was in danger of imploding in a thousand ancient ethnic feuds.
In August, 47 people died in apparently unrelated clashes on the Kenyan coast which the government blamed on ethnic feuds.
The ghost was with us when Yugoslavia disintegrated into savage ethnic feuds.
Not much imagination is required to see how independence for this Serbian province could impact on ethnic feuds in other parts of Europe and the world.