Yugoslavia
Country in SE Europe, with a SW coastline on the Adriatic Sea, bounded
W by Bosnia-Herzegovina, NW by Croatia, N by Hungary, E by Romania
and Bulgaria, and S by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
and Albania.
Government
The present constitution was adopted in 1992 for the `rump federation´
of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro. There is a two- chamber
federal assembly, the Savezna Skupstina, consisting of a 138-member
Chamber of Citizens - 108 of whose members are directly elected
from Serbia and the rest from Montenegro - and a 40-member Chamber
of the Republics, with 20 members selected by each republic to
reflect party strengths. The combined assemblies elect a federal
president, who chooses a prime minister to head a cabinet of some
15 members. The constitution provides for the president and prime
minister to be drawn from different republics.
The two constituent republics, Serbia and Montenegro, have their
own presidents and assemblies. The federal assembly is supreme
in defence matters and can declare a state of emergency in a constituent
republic. However, in practice, the authority of the individual
republics, which function as virtually independent states, is
greater than that of the federal government.
History
Originally inhabited by nomadic peoples from the central Asian plateau,
and later by Slavs, the country came under the rule of the Greek
and then Roman empires. During the early medieval period the future
republics of Yugoslavia existed as substantially independent bodies,
the most important being the kingdom of Serbia. During the 14th
and 15th centuries much of the country was conquered by the Turks
and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, except for mountainous
Montenegro, which survived as a sovereign principality, and Croatia
and Slovenia in the NW, which formed part of the Austro-Hungarian
Habsburg empire.
Anti-Ottoman uprisings secured Serbia a measure of autonomy
from the early 19th century and full independence from 1878, and
the new kingdom proceeded to enlarge its territory, at Turkey
and Bulgaria's expense, during the Balkan Wars 1912-13. However,
not until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end
of World War I were Croatia and Slovenia liberated from foreign
control. A new ` Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes´ was
formed in Dec 1918, with the Serbian Peter Karageorgevi c (Peter
I) at its helm, to which Montenegro acceded following its people's
deposition of its own ruler, King Nicholas.
Peter I died in 1921 and was succeeded by his son Aleksander,
who renamed the country Yugoslavia (`nation of the South Slavs´)
and who, faced with opposition from Croatians at home and from
Italians abroad, established a military dictatorship in 1929.
He was assassinated in Oct 1934. Aleksander's young son Peter
II succeeded, and a regency under the latter's uncle Paul (1893-1976)
was set up that came under increasing influence from Germany and
Italy. The regency was briefly overthrown by pro-Allied groups
in March 1941, precipitating an invasion by German troops. Peter
II fled, while two guerrilla groups - proroyalist, Serbian -based
Chetniks, led by General Draza Mihailovic, and communist partisans,
led by Josip Broz (Marshal Tito) - engaged in resistance activities.
Tito established a provisional government at liberated Jajce
in Bosnia-Herzegovina in Nov 1943 and proclaimed the Yugoslav
Federal Republic in Nov 1945 after the expulsion, with Soviet
help, of the remaining German forces. Elections were held, a communist
constitution on the Soviet model was introduced, and remaining
royalist opposition crushed. Tito broke with Stalin in 1948 and,
with the constitutional law of 1953, adopted a more liberal and
decentralized form of communism centred around workers self- management
and the support of private farming. Tito became the dominating
force in Yugoslavia and held the newly created post of president
from 1953 until his death in May 1980.
In foreign affairs, the country sought to maintain a balance
between East and West and played a leading role in the creation
of the nonaligned movement of 1961. Domestically, the nation experienced
continuing regional discontent, in particular in Croatia where
a violent separatist movement gained ground in the 1970s. To deal
with these problems, Tito encouraged further decentralization
and devolution of power to the constituent republics. After Tito's
death in 1980 a system of collective leadership and regular rotation
of office posts was introduced to prevent the creation of regional
cliques. However, the problems of regionalist unrest grew worse
during the 1980s, notably in Kosovo (see Serbia and Bosnia), where
Albanian and Islamic nationalism respectively were strong.
This regionalist discontent was fanned by a decline in living
standards from 1980, caused by mounting foreign debt, the service
of which absorbed more than 10% of GNP, and a spiralling inflation
rate, which reached 200% in 1988 and 700% in 1989. From 1987 to
1988 the federal government under the leadership of Prime Minister
Branko Mikulic, a Bosnian, instituted a ` market socialist´ programme
of prices and wages control and the greater encouragement of the
private sector and foreign `inward investment ´. The short-term
consequence of this restructuring programme was a period of increased
economic austerity and a rise in the unemployment rate to 15%.
Following a wave of strikes and mounting internal disorder, Mikulic
was replaced as prime minister in Jan 1989 by Ante Markovic, a
reformist Croatian.
The unity of the ruling Communist Party began to crumble in
1988-90 as both personal and ideologically based feuds developed
between the leaders of its republican branches. Slobodan Milos
evic, the hardline Serbian party chief, waged a populist campaign
against Kosovo's and Vojvodina's autonomous status securing their
reintegration within Serbia. This led to a violent ethnic Albanian
backlash in Kosovo (1989-90) and to growing pressure in more liberal,
propluralist Croatia and Slovenia for their republics to break
away from the federation. The schism within the Communist Party
was confirmed in Jan 1990 when its congress had to be abandoned
after a walkout by the Slovene delegation. In Sept Kosovo and
Vojvodina were effectively stripped of their autonomy when a new
multiparty constitution came into effect in Serbia.
In multiparty elections held in Serbia in Dec 1990, Slobodan
Milosevic was elected president and his Serbian Socialist Party
(the renamed communists) achieved an assembly majority. In Bosnia-Herzegovina
the League of Communists was voted out and the three Muslim, Serb,
and Croat nationalist parties formed a coalition. In Macedonia
the multiparty election held in Nov 1990 resulted in a hung parliament.
In Montenegro, the League of Communists held on to power. Concerned
at the rising tide of ethnic conflict and political disintegration,
Prime Minister Markovic founded the Alliance of Reform Forces
in July 1990 which aimed to preserve Yugoslav unity within a pluralist
federation.
Slovenia's call for secession In July 1990 the Slovenian assembly
proclaimed full sovereignty and in Feb 1991 called for secession
from Yugoslavia.
In Croatia, ethnic tension between majority Croat and minority
Serb populations increased following the election in April-May
1990 of a right- wing Croat nationalist government led by Franjo
Tudjman.
Fearing a resurgence of ethnic persecution, Serbs held, in Aug,
an unofficial referendum on the issue of cultural autonomy. In
the same month there was an anti-Croat uprising in the Serb-dominated
town of Knin in the west. In Feb 1991 the Croatian assembly called
for secession from Yugoslavia on the same terms as Slovenia. Serb
militants in Krajina in turn demanded secession from Croatia and
held a referendum, a week ahead of a referendum on sovereignty
throughout Croatia. In Krajina, 90% of electors voted `to remain
part of Yugoslavia with Serbia and Montenegro and others who want
to preserve Yugoslavia´. In Croatia, 93% voted for the republic
to become a sovereign and independent country.
In March 1991 there were anticommunist demonstrations against
the autocratic rule of Serbia's leaders who had taken control
of the media and used the police to suppress anticommunist opposition.
On 15 March 1991 the state president, Borisav Jovic, a Serbian,
dramatically resigned, after his plan to introduce martial law
failed to gain support. There were fears that his departure might
presage a military takeover in Yugoslavia. Croatia's representative
on the state presidency, Stipe Mesic, a noncommunist committed
to the abolition of the federal structure, was formally elected
to the collective state presidency in June 1991 after three months
of political uncertainty. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, there was increasing
civil disorder from the spring of 1991.
On 25 June 1991 both Slovenia and Croatia issued declarations
of independence from Yugoslavia. The lack of recognition from
other nations precipitated, from June 1991, bloody military confrontations
between the federal army and republican forces.
A European Community (EC) delegation of foreign ministers brokered
a cease-fire at the end of June but it soon fell apart when the
Slovenian parliament overruled the decision of the republic's
president, Milan Kucan, to suspend independence for a three-month
period. However, threatened with the suspension of EC monetary
aid to Yugoslavia it was agreed that the Yugoslav national army
would withdraw from Slovenia, which seemed set to secure its independence.
But between July and Sept 1991 civil war intensified in ethnically
mixed Croatia. It became uncertain who (politicians or the military)
now controlled Yugoslavia at the federal level. Furthermore, the
Yugoslav national army had become fractionalized, with many units
refusing to heed President Mesic's call for a return to barracks.
A new cease-fire was ordered by the federal presidency on 7
Aug 1991, after the EC, which viewed Serbia as the real aggressor,
threatened to apply economic sanctions against the republic. However,
the cease-fire again failed to hold and by Sept around a third
of Croatia was under Serb control. Oil- rich Croatia responded
by imposing an oil supply blockade on Serbia and attacked federal
army barracks within the republic. Another EC- brokered cease-fire
of 2 Sept 1991 collapsed. Both Serbia and Croatia called for international
peacekeeping troops to be deployed and further efforts (including
an economic embargo) were made by the EC to achieve a settlement
in Nov 1991.
In Aug 1991 Serbia revealed plans to annex the SE part of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, causing ethnic clashes within the republic. From
Sept 1991 border areas began to fall to the Serbs, who established
autonomous enclaves. In Oct 1991 the republic's sovereignty was
declared but this was resisted by the ethnic Bosnian Serbs. In
Macedonia a referendum on independence held in Sept 1991 received
overwhelming support, despite being boycotted by the Albanian
and Serbian minorities. In Kosovo, an unofficial referendum on
sovereignty held in Sept 1991 came out overwhelmingly in favour.
Between Sept and Oct 1991 Croat and Slovene representatives
resigned from federal bodies and Bosnian and Macedonian representatives
withdrew from the federal presidency. In effect, Serbia was left
dominating a `rump´ Yugoslavia. On 5 Dec 1991 Stipe Mesic resigned
from the presidency, declaring that ` Yugoslavia no longer exists´.
On 20 Dec the federal prime minister, Ante Markovic, also resigned.
In early Jan 1992 a United Nations (UN) peace plan was successfully
brokered in Sarajevo which provided for an immediate cease-fire
in Croatia. This accord was disregarded by the breakaway Serb
leader in Krajina, Milan Babic, but recognized by the main Croatian
and Serbian forces.
Croatia's and Slovenia's independence was recognized by the
EC and the USA on 15 Jan 1992.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Muslims and Croats held a referendum
in Feb 1992 and voted overwhelmingly in favour of seeking EC recognition
of independence, despite a boycott by the Serbs. Official recognition
was granted by the EC and the USA in April 1992. Serb opposition
to independence continued, with several hundred people killed
in violent clashes. Macedonia declared its independence in Jan
1992 and immediate recognition was accorded by Bulgaria, but not
by Serbia or neighbouring Greece. In an unofficial referendum
held in the same month, Macedonia's Albanian community voted for
autonomy.
Concern for ethnic minorities in Serbia and Serbia's planned
`carve- up´ of the newly independent Bosnian republic prompted
the EC and the USA to deny recognition of a new Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, announced by Serbia and Montenegro in April 1992.
The UN withdrew its ambassadors from Belgrade in May and international
sanctions were imposed against Serbia and Montenegro. Dobrica
Cosic became president in June and Milan Panic was made prime
minister in July. The US demand for Yugoslavia's expulsion from
the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was met in
the same month. In Sept Yugoslavia's membership of the UN was
suspended because of Serbia's alleged backing of atrocities carried
out by Bosnian Serbs against Muslims and Croats, the policy of
` ethnic cleansing´, and the suspected existence of Serbian-run
concentration camps in Bosnia.
In Dec 1992 Slobodan Milosevic was re-elected Serbian president,
defeating opposition leader Milan Panic, who was subsequently
ousted on a vote of no confidence. Radoje Kontic was named prime
minister of Yugoslavia in Feb 1993. In April Macedonia was awarded
UN membership under the provisional name of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia. In June 1993 Cosic was removed from office
by the Yugoslav parliament, reputedly at the instigation of Milos
evic, and replaced by Zoran Lilic.
Yugoslavia's economy was badly affected by international sanctions.
Industrial production contracted sharply and by Oct 1993 inflation
had reached a monthly rate of 2,000 %, with fuel in increasingly
short supply. Despite this hardship, President Milosevic's Socialist
Party secured a slim majority in parliamentary elections in Dec
1993. In Oct 1994 international sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro
were eased after Milosevic, responding to UN pressure, ordered
a blockade of the Bosnian Serbs. Appeals for military aid from
the respective leaders of the Bosnian and Krajina Serbs were rejected
in Aug 1995, and from Sept Serbia played a key role in negotiations
leading up to the US-brokered Dayton peace accord for Bosnia-Herzegovina,
finally agreeing to recognize the separate existence of Croatia
and Bosnia- Herzegovina in Nov 1995. The following month the USA
lifted its economic sanctions against Serbia. In Aug 1996 Serbia
and Croatia agreed to restore diplomatic relations. In Oct the
UN Security Council voted to end economic sanctions against Serbia.
In Oct 1996 full diplomatic relations were opened with Bosnia-
Herzegovina
In early Nov 1996 the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS)-dominated
United List secured victory in elections to the 138-member Chamber
of Citizens, the lower house of the two-chamber Federal Assembly.
The List won 64 seats and the allied Democratic Party of Socialist
of Montenegro (SDPCG), 20 seats. Concurrent elections to the Republican
Assembly in Montenegro were won by the SDPCG, with 45 seats out
of 71.
From late Nov 1996 there were mounting mass demonstrations,
particularly in Belgrade, involving students, academics, and trade
unionists, against the government of Slobodan Milosevic as a result
of government-sanctioned malpractices in the Nov municipal elections
to prevent the Zajedno (Together) opposition alliance winning
in 14 of the republic's largest 18 cities, including Belgrade.
The nationalist Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), led by Vuk Draskovic
and part of Zajedno, spearheaded the protests. 250,000 marched
in Belgrade in Dec 1996, but from late Dec riot police launched
a crackdown. Marches were officially banned, but daily student-led
protests continued throughout Jan 1997. In Dec a report by a delegation
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
called on the government to accept Zajedno's victories in the
municipal elections. The Serbian parliament responded in Feb 1997
by passing legislation to recognise the Zajedno municipal victories.
This brought opposition demonstrations to an end.
In July 1997 elections Slobodan Milo sevic was elected to the
Yugoslav presidency despite the protests of the pro-democratic
movement.
Election results from the presidential elections held in Yugoslavia
in Oct 1997 confirmed that a far-right nationalist came ahead
of his pro- government opponent. However, a combination of apathy
and resentment of the two candidates led to fewer than 50% of
the electorate voting. The election was therefore found invalid
and would have to be held again, possibly with different candidates.
In March 1998, following civil unrest in Kosovo, sanctions were
imposed on Yugoslavia by the Contact Group (the UK, USA, France,
Italy, Russia, and Germany) who agreed to ban exports of equipment
that could be used for internal repression. The UN Security Council
imposed an arms embargo on Yugoslavia end March 1998.
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