Vuk Drašković | |
|---|---|
Вук Драшковић | |
.jpg) Drašković in 2010 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia | |
| In office 5 June 2006 – 16 May 2007 | |
| Prime Minister | Vojislav Koštunica |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Vuk Jeremić |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro | |
| In office 3 March 2004 – 5 June 2006 | |
| Prime Minister | Svetozar Marović |
| Preceded by | Goran Svilanović |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia | |
| In office 18 January 1999 – 28 April 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | Momir Bulatović |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1946-11-29)29 November 1946 (age 78) |
| Political party | |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | LLB ofUniv. of Belgrade Fac. of Law |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Writer |
| Signature |  |
Vuk Drašković (Serbian Cyrillic:Вук Драшковић,pronounced[ʋûːkdrâʃkoʋitɕ]; born 29 November 1946) is a Serbian writer and politician. He is the co-founder and former leader of theSerbian Renewal Movement, serving as president from 1990 to 2024. He also served as thewar-time Deputy Prime Minister of theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 during the rule ofSlobodan Milošević and theMinister of Foreign Affairs of bothSerbia and Montenegro andSerbia from 2004 to 2007.
He graduated from theUniversity of Belgrade Faculty of Law in 1968. From 1969 to 1980, he worked as a journalist in the Yugoslav news agencyTanjug. He was a member of theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia and worked as the chief of staff of the Yugoslav PresidentMika Špiljak.
Drašković was born in the small village of Medja in theBanat region to a family of settlers fromHerzegovina. He was three months old when his mother, Stoja Nikitović, died.[1]
His father, Vidak, remarried and had two more sons - Rodoljub and Dragan; and three daughters - Radmila, Tanja and Ljiljana with Dara Drašković, meaning that young Vuk grew up with five half-siblings.[1]
Shortly after Vuk's birth, the entire family went back toHerzegovina where he finished primary school in the village ofSlivlje. He graduated high school inGacko.[1]
At his father's insistence, Drašković considered studying medicine inSarajevo; however, the city was too "uptight and cramped" for his liking, so he went to study law inBelgrade instead.
In 1968, Drašković participated in anti-bureaucratic student revolts in Yugoslavia.[2] AfterJosip Broz Tito promised reforms, Drašković initiated people to dance the Kozaračko kolo at the Faculty of Law.[2][3] Drašković was a member of the Communist Youth Organization and later joined theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia.[4]
Between 1969–78, he was involved with journalism. He first worked for the state news agencyTanjug as its African correspondent stationed inLusaka, Zambia. He was discharged from his post after publishing misleading information regarding theRhodesian Bush War, creating a diplomatic incident.[4]
He then took a job as press adviser to the Yugoslav Union of Trade Unions (Savez Sindikata Jugoslavije) and then became editor-in-chief ofRad, a trade union paper.[4] During his time as press adviser, Drašković spent some time as the personal secretary to the organisation's presidentMika Špiljak.
In 1981, Drašković published his first novelSudije (Judges) which described a judge resisting political pressure.[4]
In 1982, Drašković was expelled from the Communist party after he published his second novelNož (Knife).[2] The novel tells the story of a man who is raised as a Bosnian Muslim who comes to believe that Serbs killed his family, only to later learn that his ethnic heritage is Serbian and that his adoptive family was guilty of murdering his birth-family. The book caused controversy as it reignited divisive ethno-nationalist issues which Tito and the Communist Party tried to suppress.[2] The party condemned and subsequently banned the book, which was also published in English.[5] The book was made into a movie in 1999 entitledThe Dagger orThe Knife in English.[6]
His novelsMolitva 1–2 (Prayer 1–2, 1985) andRuski konsul (Russian consul, 1988) also explored the suffering of Serbs during World War II, whileNoć generala (The General's Nights) published in 1994 dealt withDraža Mihailović's last days.[4]
In March 1989, Drašković along withMirko Jović andVojislav Šešelj founded the Sava Association. The group dedicated itself to the protection of the Serbian language and the defense ofKosovo and Metohija.[7] In the late 1980s, Drašković was in agreement with Šešelj's sentiments about deporting Albanians from Kosovo and suggested that "a special fund" was needed "to finance therepopulation of Kosovo by Serbs".[8] However, Jović, Šešelj and Drašković disagreed with each other and their party split into three. The Sava Association became theSerbian National Renewal Party under the leadership of Jović in January 1990.[7] Drašković founded theSerbian Renewal Movement (Srpski Pokret Obnove, SPO, a democratic nationalist party) in March, and then in February 1991 Šešelj created hisSerbian Radical Party.[7][9]
On 26 September 1990, Drašković declared that his armed "volunteers" would be willing to defendKrajina Serbs, and three days later in an interview withDelo, Drašković stated: "Serbia must obtain all territories in what is todayHerzegovina,Bosnia,Slavonia,Dalmatia, in these parts of Croatia where the Serbs made a majority of the population until 6 April 1941, when the Ustasha genocide against them began...Wherever the Serb blood was shed by the Ustashas knives, wherever there are our graves there are our borders".[10] He also claimed that most Bosnian Muslims are"burdened with Serbian origin" and that"they run away from themselves because they know that they are Orthodox and Serbs".[11] The Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) participated in the first post-communist democratic elections, held on 9 December 1990, but finished a distant second amidst the total blackout from the pro-Milošević state media.[12] Following that failure Drašković kept pressure on Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević via street protests, organizing massdemonstrations in Belgrade on 9 March 1991. The police intervened, and clashed with demonstrators with some damage to public buildings resulting in theYugoslav People's Army being brought in. Clashes between police and protesters resulted in the deaths of a student and an officer, and injuries to over 200 people.[13] Demonstrations ended after the government agreed to concessions.[14]
Drašković became a leading opponent of Milošević. His fiery and emotional speeches[15] earned him the moniker "Czar of the Streets".[16][17]
While Drašković was a nationalist, he also held pro-Western and anti-war views.[15] His plan was to rapidly transform the biggest and most populous part of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia) according to Western standards so that eventual international involvement in the Yugoslav crisis would favour Serbian interests and produce a peaceful solution.[citation needed] His ideological opponents often cite his strong nationalist feelings (including attempting rehabilitation of Serb-nationalist Chetniks) as contradictory to his insistence on peaceful solutions.[15] Political opponents have claimed Drašković's political engagement at this early stage of his political career was full of inconsistencies and diametrically opposing views and actions. According to Drašković, his stance as pro-Western and peaceful never wavered, from the start of the political crisis in Yugoslavia. He insisted that a Serbian government should promote radical democratic shift, and renew traditional alliances with Western nations (including entry into NATO) as a way of preserving some form of Yugoslav confederation rather than pursuing direct confrontation with the Croats.[citation needed]
His party SPO organized a paramilitary unit called theSerbian Guard, led by former criminals such asĐorđe "Giška" Božović and Branislav "Beli" Matić. Božović died in Croatia in October 1991. Matić was killed by Milošević's secret police in April 1991. Although Drašković initially claimed that this militia was an incitement to Serbian authorities to form a non-ideological national armed force other than theYugoslav People's Army, he eventually distanced himself from the paramilitary formation altogether.[15]
According to historian Dubravka Stojanović, while Drašković's anti-war views were sincere, he also supported a nationalist program little different in its goals to those of Milošević, and he and his party were never able to reconcile these opposing currents.[18]
His anti-war views came to the fore in mid to late 1991, particularly in November of that year when he wrote a passionate condemnation of the bloody siege ofVukovar in the Serbian dailyBorba.[19]
In early 1992, he called on all citizens of Bosnia to reject nationalism. In 1993, he and his wifeDanica Drašković were arrested, beaten and sent to a high-security prison following street riots in Belgrade.[2] His hunger strike, and international outrage over the situation, pressured the government to release the couple.[20]
In 1996, SPO formed an opposition allianceZajedno ("Together") with theDemocratic Party ofZoran Đinđić and theCivic Alliance of Serbia underVesna Pešić, which achieved major successes in the local elections in November of that year, but later split.[15]
Drašković's SPO participated on its own at the September 1997 election, boycotted by his former partners despite an array of local electronic media outlets being in opposition hands.[citation needed]
In January 1999, SPO, a parliamentary party, was asked to join a coalition with Milošević'sSocialist Party of Serbia as tension with US and NATO increased, in order to use his influence with Western politicians. In early 1999, Drašković became the deputy prime minister of theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia. He did so in response to Milošević's appeal for national unity in the face of Albanian uprising in Kosovo and a looming confrontation with NATO.[21] He was sacked by the Prime MinisterMomir Bulatović on 28 April 1999.[22]
There were two attempts to assassinate Drašković: on 3 October 1999 on theIbar highway when four of his close associates were murdered,[23] and on 15 June 2000 inBudva.[24]
In 2005,Milorad Ulemek was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of Đinđić andIvan Stambolić and for the assassination attempt on Drašković in 2000.[25]
In what he himself later termed "a bad political move", Drašković kept his SPO out of the wide anti-MiloševićDemocratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition that formed in 2000; his candidate in the 24 September 2000 federal presidential elections, Vojislav Mihailović, achieved little success, and the SPO was unsuccessful in the subsequent parliamentary election which theDOS won overwhelmingly. Because of this, Drašković and his party were marginalized over the next three years.[citation needed]
In the fall of 2002, he attempted a comeback as one of eleven candidates in a Serbian presidential election; this election was later declared invalid due to low voter turnout. Despite a polished marketing campaign that saw Drašković change his personal appearance and tone down his fiery rhetoric, he ended up with only 4.5% of the total vote, well behindVojislav Koštunica (31.2%) andMiroljub Labus (27.7%), both of whom moved on to the second-round runoff.
His next chance for political redemption came in late 2003. Fully aware of SPO's weak political standing (as well as his own) after more than 3 years in political oblivion, Drašković entered his party into a pre-election coalition withNew Serbia (NS), thus reuniting with old party colleagueVelimir Ilić. Joining forces for the2003 parliamentary election, they achieved limited success, but did manage to get into the coalition that formed the minority government (along withDSS,G17 Plus), providing it with critical parliamentary seats to keep the far-right radicals (SRS) at bay.
In the subsequent division of power, Drašković became foreign minister, a position he held until May 2007.[15] In response toMontenegro's vote for independence, Drašković called for a restoration ofSerbia's monarchy: "This is an historic moment for Serbia itself, a beginning which would be based on the historically-proven and victorious pillars of the Serbian state and I am talking about the pillars of a kingdom."[26]
In August 2010, Drašković argued in favour of changing theSerbian Constitution of 2006 to remove references toKosovo as a part ofSerbia because according to him "Serbia has no national sovereignty over Kosovo whatsoever. All of Serbia knows that Kosovo is not really a province within Serbia, that it is completely beyond the control of the government and the state of Serbia".[27]
Drašković is married to Danica (née Bošković). The two met in 1968 duringstudent protests.[2]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New seat | Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Montenegro 1999 – 1999 With:Zoran Lilić Jovan Zebić Nikola Šainović Danilo Vuksanović Vladan Kutlešić | Succeeded by |
| Succeeded by | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro 2004 – 2006 | Union of Serbia and Montenegro abolished |
| New ministerial post | Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia 2006 – 2007 | Succeeded by |
3 March 2004 – 15 May 2007 | ||
| Prime Minister |  | |
| Deputy Prime Ministers | ||
| Cabinet members | ||
* resigned | ||
