SAFE IN SERBIA. The Balkans region is, surprisingly, one of the safest places in Europe, according to a United Nations report which came out on 29 May 2008 in Belgrade After a decade of war and turmoil, the region has a relatively low crime rate and enduring stereotypes of the region which see it as a hotbed of organized crime and violence are false, says the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC. "People are as safe, or safer, on the streets and in their homes as they are in most parts of the world," UNDOC report says. "The vicious circle of political instability leading to crime, and vice versa, that plagued the Balkans in the 1990s has been broken," said the Executive Director of UNODC Antonio Maria Costa. The Balkans region covered by the UN report includes Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province which unilaterally declared independence in mid-February. For the first time in decades major crime-related indicators in Balkans, including murder, rape, robbery, theft and assault fell way below figures seen in Western Europe. "The Balkans is departing from an era when demagogues, secret police and thugs profited from sanctions busting, and the smuggling of people, arms, cigarettes and drugs," the report says.-