The Republic of Serbia is a small landlocked country in eastern Europe, known for constant conflicts. Its fight for independence at the beginning of the 20th century led to the Black Hand assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, an act which precipitated the First World War. The war was blamed on Germany though, in the Treaty of Versailles.
In recent years, it has been fighting to retain control over Kosovo, a province that Serbians believe to be part of their traditional homeland. In 2005, a narc named Dana Baker (who happened to be the daughter of Senator Tom Baker) infiltrated an Albanian drug cartel that was sending money to Kosovar separatist groups. She was murdered a year later when Eric Lund, the Chief of Staff of Jonathan Prescott, her father's archnemesis, leaked her name to reporter Veronica Drake. Lund's original intent was merely to make it look as though Sen. Baker's longstanding commitment to higher wages for cops was due to his daughter being a cop, but Drake ran a photo with her story on Dana, and thus one of the Albanian mobsters, Ratko Petrovich, recognized her and killed her. (L&O: "Kingmaker")
Two years later, in 2008, Kosovo gained independence from Serbia, much to the vexation of Serbs.
Simon Matic
It is also the home of Simon Matic, who served quite proudly in the Serbian Volunteer Guard and would later use the terror techniques learned during that time to forge a successful career as a professional kidnapper. (CI: "Homo Homini Lupis")