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History of Yugoslavia 1948-1998
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The ``Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia'', or SFRY, was officially established in June
1948 by Josip Broz-Tito (more commonly referred to as ``Tito''). However,
the birth of SFRY really occurred at the November 1943 meeting of the
Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ).
Tito was instrumental in formally creating a government which AVNOJ proclaimed
to be the supreme legislative body for the entire country. This declaration
proclaimed the establishment of a federation and prohibited the return
of King Peter II. A new constitution was drawn up in 1946 and, in 1953,
Tito was officially elected president; he represented the Communist Party
of Yugoslavia (CPY).
Under the Yugoslav constitution, there was a federal (or central) government
based in Belgrade, of which Tito was president. Within the SFRY were six
``republics'' and two ``autonomous'' regions: Slovenia; Croatia; Bosnia-Herzegovina;
Montenegro; Macedonia; and Serbia. The Republic of Serbia was sub-divided
into two ``autonomous regions'': Vojvodina and Kosovo. These two regions
had a measure of local self-rule, more-or-less at the municipal level.
Each republic had its own government and president and they were each
allocated reasonably broad-reaching powers. This was essentially Tito's
method for accommodating the various ethnic minorities within Yugoslavia.
In the early years of independence, Tito's government promoted a strict
policy of isolationism. He went to great efforts to cut all Soviet ties;
in fact, until Belgrade's break with Moscow in 1948, Yugoslavia had been
one of the most ``Sovietised'' countries in Eastern Europe. Although relations
developed between Yugoslavia and other aligned countries, for instance,
India and Egypt, Tito still maintained a policy of non-alignment.
In an effort to prevent a single strongman from emerging in Yugoslavia,
Tito suggested a rotational system whereby the presidents of each region
would take turns as the central government president. This idea was placed
in the constitution in 1974, but was never implemented. Tito died in 1980.
By 1987, Slobodan Milosevic had become leader of the League of Communists
of Serbia. He quickly exploited the growing discontent among Serbs who
regarded nationalist sentiment in other ethnic groups, unleashed by the
more liberal political climate, as a threat to their dominant position
in the federation. Nowhere was this fear more acute than in Kosovo, the
Serbian spiritual heartland. The Serb population in Kosovo had declined
to the point that Serbs had become a small minority which felt threatened
by the Albanian majority.
Milosevic abolished the autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina in 1989 and repressive
measures were instituted against the ethnic Albanians. As nationalist
pressures grew throughout Yugoslavia, Serbian nationalists embraced the
traditional nationalist concept of a Greater Serbia - the unification
of all areas with Serb populations so that no Serb community would be
left under the control of another nation.
In 1990, the first multi-party elections were held in the former Yugoslavia.
Six leaders emerged: Milan Kucan (Slovenia), Franjo Tudjman (Croatia),
Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia), Alija Izetbegovic (Bosnia), Momir Bulatovic
(Montenegro) and Kiro Gligorov (Macedonia).
In Croatia and Slovenia, the election of nationalists intensified the
trend towards secession from the federation. By 25 June 1991, both Croatia
and Slovenia had announced their intention to seek independence.
In response, the former People's Yugoslav Army (JNA), with the tacit approval
of the federal government and the strong backing of the Serbian government
led by Milosevic, tried to isolate Slovenia by forcibly seizing all border
crossings with neighbouring countries. The JNA was humiliated following
its failure to defeat the much smaller and poorly equipped Slovenian territorial
forces. The JNA was forced to agree to leave Slovenia, but without its
heavy weapons. That withdrawal was completed by October 1991.
In the meantime, Milosevic and the JNA's leadership decided to use a large
minority of Serbs in Croatia to seize as large a part as possible of Croatia
and, eventually, to overthrow the democratically elected regime in Zagreb.
By late July, the JNA had become heavily engaged in supporting local Serb
irregulars in Slavonia, Baranja, Banija and Krajina. By the end of December
1991, Serbs controlled about 30 per cent of Croatia's territory. The cease-fire
signed in Sarajevo on 3 January 1992 formally ended the hostilities in
Croatia.
The Serbian-dominated federal government in Belgrade and the JNA's leaders
encouraged and supported the Bosnian Serbs to secede and establish their
own autonomous region, the `Serbian Republic' (Republika Srpska). The
JNA's troops deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina also secretly armed Bosnian
Serbs. Hostilities broke out in the first week of April, shortly after
the European Community (EC, now commonly referred to as the EU) recognised
the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian Serbs, with the
active participation of JNA forces, seized about 70 per cent of the republic
in the first few weeks of fighting. The federal presidency in Belgrade
formally declared all federal troops had to leave the territory of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, except for those born in that republic. However, some
60,000 JNA officers and men remained in Bosnia and were formally transferred
to the control of the Serbian Republic.
On 27 April 1992, Serbia and Montenegro formally announced the establishment
of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). They also laid a claim that
the new state was to be the successor to the former Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). By early May 1992, JNA forces had been
formally withdrawn from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. However,
the JNA and its successor, the Yugoslav Army (JA), remained involved in
the war in Bosnia until the hostilities there formally ended in November
1991. As a consequence of FRY's involvement in the war in Bosnia, the
UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions on FRY in May 1992. These
sanctions were progressively tightened to force Belgrade to give up its
support for the Bosnian Serbs.
In 1994, Milosevic formally broke all links with the Serbian leadership.
However, Milosevic's apparent change of policy was aimed at lifting economic
sanctions against FRY. International inspectors (but not UN officials)
were allowed to monitor the 48 border crossings between FRY and the Serbian
Republic in 1994.
Belgrade continued with its political and propagandist support of the
Bosnian Serbs. The JA continued to provide the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS)
with weapons, equipment, fuel, ammunition and training. Moreover, all
Bosnian Serb officers remained on the JA's payroll for the duration of
the conflict in Bosnia. International monitors reported in March-April,
during the Bosnian cease-fire, that petroleum and possibly ammunition
was passing across the Drina into Bosnian Serb hands. Some JA units also
took part in the VRS attack on Srebrenica in July 1991.
Milosevic's policy towards the Serbs in Bosnia and Krajina hardened in
mid- and late 1991. He did not do anything to save the Serbs in Croatia
from suffering decisive defeat at the hands of the Croatian Army (HV),
losing control of western Slavonia in May and the Banija, Kordun and Krajina
regions in August. Nor did the JA intervene to save the VRS from losing
large parts of western Bosnia to the advancing Croatian troops and their
Bosnian Muslim allies.
Following the NATO air attacks on the Bosnian Serbs carried out in August-September
1995, Milosevic played an important role in securing the release of NATO
hostages. In November, he represented the Bosnian Serbs in the peace negotiations
in Dayton, Ohio, which resulted in a formal peace treaty signed in Paris
on 14 December. Milosevic's role in the Bosnian peace process is directly
linked to his domestic policy of freeing FRY from the dire effects of
the UN-imposed economic sanctions.
The ``inner wall'' of the UN sanctions against FRY were lifted in 1991.
However, the ``outer wall'' is still in place, pending FRY's co-operation
with the Hague International War Crimes Tribunal. At the end of August
1997, the prospects of lifting these sanctions appeared remote because
of the continuing lack of co-operation on the part of the regime in Belgrade
in carrying out the stipulations of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Milosevic manipulated the constitution and succeeded Zoran Lilic as president
of FRY in mid-1997. He was elected to that post by the federal parliament
(Skupstina), dominated by his ruling coalition and the ultra-nationalist
Serbian Radical Party led by Vojislav Seselj. Milosevic and his supporters
want to change the federal constitution to increase the authority of the
president. Until now, that post was filled by a weak and ineffective Lilic
and was largely symbolic, the real power residing with the post of the
Serbian presidency occupied by Milosevic. However, the ruling faction
of the Montenegrin Socialists led by Milo Djukanovic is almost certain
to strongly oppose any amendment of the federal constitution.
President Milosevic put his regime at risk in January 1998 with the attempt
to undermine the position of the new Montenegrin President, Milo Djukanovic,
in favour of his predecessor Momir Bulatovic; he went further in March
1998 in his decision to send police to attack Albanian separatists in
Kosovo. By doing this, Milosevic has undermined the political legitimacy
of moderate Kosovo Albanians and strengthened the hard liners, who have
anyway grown in number in the wake of the brutality of the repression.
The war in Kosovo, waged by Police and Military units since March 1998,
has reached levels of ferocity and plain barbarism not seen since the
worst days of the war in Bosnia. Civilians have been targeted for simply
living in villages where KLA activity has taken place; whole families
have been wiped out on the presumption of guilt by association. To FRY
authorities, most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are, by definition, suspect
in their loyalties.
Jane's Sentinel
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