This article is about the events entailing the 1991 and 1992 dissolution of the Yugoslav state. For key dates of the dissolution, seeTimeline of the breakup of Yugoslavia. For the partition of Yugoslavia by Axis occupiers in World War II, seeInvasion of Yugoslavia.
Animated series of maps showing the breakup of theSFR Yugoslavia and subsequent developments, from 1989 through 2008. The colors represent the different areas of control.
Following theAllied victory inWorld War II, Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines:Bosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia,Macedonia,Montenegro,Serbia, andSlovenia. In addition, two autonomous provinces were established within Serbia:Vojvodina andKosovo. Each of the republics had its own branch of theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia party and a ruling elite, and any tensions were solved on the federal level. The Yugoslav model of state organisation, as well as a "middle way" betweenplanned andliberal economy, had been a relative success, and the country experienced a period of strong economic growth and relative political stability up to the 1980s, underJosip Broz Tito.[1] After his death in 1980, the weakened system of federal government was left unable to cope with rising economic and political challenges.
In the 1980s,Kosovo Albanians started to demand that Serbian autonomous province Kosovo and Metohija be granted the status of a full constituent republic, starting with the1981 protests. Ethnic tensions between Albanians andKosovo Serbs remained high over the whole decade, which resulted in the growth of Serb opposition to the high autonomy of provinces and ineffective system of consensus at the federal level across Yugoslavia, which were seen as an obstacle for Serb interests. In 1987,Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia, and was met with opposition by party leaders of the western constituent republics of Slovenia and Croatia, who also advocated greater democratisation of the country in line with theRevolutions of 1989 inEastern Europe. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia dissolved in January 1990 along federal lines. Republican communist organisations became the separate socialist parties.
During 1990, the socialists (former communists) lost power toethnic separatist parties in thefirst multi-party elections held across the country, except inMontenegro and inSerbia, where Milošević and his allies won. Nationalist rhetoric on all sides became increasingly heated. Between June 1991 and April 1992, four constituent republics declared independence while Montenegro and Serbia remained federated.Germany took the initiative and recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia, but the status of ethnic Serbs outside Serbia and Montenegro, and that of ethnic Croats outside Croatia, remained unsolved. After a string of inter-ethnic incidents, theYugoslav Wars ensued, with the most severe conflicts beingin Croatia,Bosnia and Herzegovina. The wars left economic and political damage in the region that is still felt decades later.[2] On 27 April 1992, the Federal Council of the Assembly of the SFRY, based on the decision of theAssembly of the Republic of Serbia and theAssembly of Montenegro, adopted theConstitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which formally ended the breakup.
The important elements that fostered the discord involved contemporary and historical factors, including the formation of theKingdom of Yugoslavia, the first breakup and subsequent inter-ethnic and political wars and genocide duringWorld War II, ideas ofGreater Albania,Greater Croatia andGreater Serbia and conflicting views aboutPan-Slavism, and the unilateral recognition by a newly reunited Germany of the breakaway republics.
BeforeWorld War II, major tensions arose from the first,monarchist Yugoslavia's multi-ethnic make-up and relative political and demographic domination of the Serbs. Fundamental to the tensions were the different concepts of the new state. TheCroats andSlovenes envisaged afederal model where they would enjoy greater autonomy than they had as a separatecrown land underAustria-Hungary. Under Austria-Hungary, both Slovenes and Croats enjoyed autonomy with free hands only in education, law, religion, and 45% of taxes.[3] The Serbs tended to view the territories as a just reward for their support of the allies inWorld War I and the new state as an extension of theKingdom of Serbia.[4]
Tensions between the Croats and Serbs often erupted into open conflict, with the Serb-dominated security structure exercising oppression during elections and the assassination in theNational Assembly of Croat political leaders, includingStjepan Radić, who opposed the Serbian monarch'sabsolutism.[5] The assassination and human rights abuses were subject of concern for theHuman Rights League and precipitated voices of protest from intellectuals, includingAlbert Einstein.[6] It was in this environment of oppression that the radical insurgent group (later fascist dictatorship) theUstaše were formed.
The Ustaše resolved that the Serbian minority were afifth column of Serbian expansionism and pursued a policy of persecution against the Serbs. The policy dictated that one-third of the Serbian minority were to be killed, one-third expelled, and one-third converted toCatholicism and assimilated as Croats. Conversely, Serbian RoyalistChetniks pursued their own campaign of persecution against non-Serbs in parts ofBosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia andSandžak per theMoljević plan ("On Our State and Its Borders") and theorders issues byDraža Mihailović which included "[t]he cleansing of all nation understandings and fighting".
The official Yugoslav post-war estimate ofvictims in Yugoslavia duringWorld War II was 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historiansVladimir Žerjavić andBogoljub Kočović showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million. Of that number, 330,000 to 390,000 ethnic Serbs perished from all causes in Croatia and Bosnia.[7] These same historians also established the deaths of 192,000 to 207,000 ethnic Croats and 86,000 to 103,000 Muslims from all affiliations and causes throughout Yugoslavia.[8][full citation needed][9]
Prior to its collapse, Yugoslavia was a regional industrial power and an economic success. From 1960 to 1980, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 6.1 percent, medical care was free, literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72 years.[10] Prior to 1991, Yugoslavia's armed forces were amongst the best-equipped in Europe.[11]
Yugoslavia was a unique state, straddling both the East and West. Moreover, its president,Josip Broz Tito, was one of the fundamental founders of the "third world" or "group of 77" which acted as an alternative to the superpowers. More importantly, Yugoslavia acted as abuffer state between the West and theSoviet Union and also prevented the Soviets from getting a toehold on theMediterranean Sea.
The central government's control began to be loosened due to increasing nationalist grievances and the Communist's Party's wish to support "nationalself determination". This resulted in Kosovo being turned into an autonomous region of Serbia, legislated by the1974 constitution. This constitution broke down powers between the capital and the autonomous regions inVojvodina (an area of Yugoslavia with a large number of ethnic minorities) and Kosovo (with a large ethnic-Albanian population).
Despite the federal structure of the newYugoslavia, there was still tension between the federalists, primarily Croats and Slovenes who argued for greater autonomy, andunitarists, primarily Serbs. The struggle would occur in cycles of protests for greater individual and national rights (such as theCroatian Spring) and subsequent repression. The 1974 constitution was an attempt to short-circuit this pattern by entrenching the federal model and formalising national rights.
The loosened control basically turned Yugoslavia into ade factoconfederacy, which also placed pressure on the legitimacy of the regime within the federation. Since the late 1970s a widening gap of economic resources between the developed and underdeveloped regions of Yugoslavia severely deteriorated the federation's unity.[12] The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected attempts to limit their autonomy as provided in the 1974 Constitution.[12] Public opinion in Slovenia in 1987 saw better economic opportunity in independence from Yugoslavia than within it.[12] There were also places that saw no economic benefit from being in Yugoslavia; for example, the autonomous province of Kosovo was poorly developed, and per capita GDP fell from 47 percent of the Yugoslav average in the immediate post-war period to 27 percent by the 1980s.[13] It highlighted the vast differences in the quality of life in the different republics.
Economic growth was curbed due to Western trade barriers combined with the1973 oil crisis. Yugoslavia subsequently fell into heavy IMF debt due to the large number ofInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) loans taken out by the regime. As a condition of receiving loans, the IMF demanded the "market liberalisation" of Yugoslavia. By 1981, Yugoslavia had incurred $19.9 billion in foreign debt. Another concern was the level of unemployment, at 1 million by 1980. This problem was compounded by the general "unproductiveness of the South", which not only added to Yugoslavia's economic woes, but also irritated Slovenia and Croatia further.[14][15]
Since the SFR Yugoslav federation was formed in 1945, the constituent Socialist Republic of Serbia (SR Serbia) included the two autonomous provinces of SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina. With the 1974 constitution, the influence of the central government of SR Serbia over the provinces was greatly reduced, which gave them long-sought autonomy. The government of SR Serbia was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. The provinces had a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency, which was not always cast in favor of SR Serbia. In Serbia, there was great resentment towards these developments, which the nationalist elements of the public saw as the "division of Serbia".The 1974 constitution not only exacerbated Serbian fears of a "weak Serbia, for a strong Yugoslavia" but also hit at the heart of Serbian national sentiment. A majority of Serbs saw – and still see – Kosovo as the "cradle of the nation", and would not accept the possibility of losing it to the majority Albanian population.
In an effort to ensure his legacy, Tito's 1974 constitution established a system of year-long presidencies, on a rotation basis out of the eight leaders of the republics and autonomous provinces. Tito's death would show that such short terms were highly ineffective. Essentially it left a power vacuum which was left open for most of the 1980s. In their bookFree to Choose (1980),Milton Friedman and his wifeRose Friedman foretold: "Once the aged Marshal Tito dies, Yugoslavia will experience political instability that may produce a reaction toward greaterauthoritarianism or, far less likely, a collapse of existing collectivist arrangements". (Tito died soon after the book was published.)
On 4 May 1980, Tito's death was announced through state broadcasts across Yugoslavia. His death removed what many international political observers saw as Yugoslavia's main unifying force, and subsequentlyethnic tension started to grow in Yugoslavia. The crisis that emerged in Yugoslavia was connected with the weakening of theCommunist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of theCold War, leading to the fall of theBerlin Wall in 1989. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, officially called theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia, had lost its ideological base.[16]
In 1986, theSerbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) contributed significantly to the rise of nationalist sentiments, as it drafted the controversialSANU Memorandum protesting against the weakening of the Serbian central government.
The problems in the SerbianSocialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo betweenethnic Serbs andAlbanians grew exponentially. This, coupled with economic problems in Kosovo and Serbia as a whole, led to even greater Serbian resentment of the1974 Constitution. Kosovo Albanians started to demand that Kosovo be granted the status of a constituent republic beginning in the early 1980s, particularly with the1981 protests in Kosovo. This was seen by the Serbian public as a devastating blow to Serb pride because of the historic links that Serbians held with Kosovo. It was viewed that that secession would be devastating to Kosovar Serbs. This eventually led to the repression of the Albanian majority in Kosovo.[17][not specific enough to verify]
Meanwhile, the more prosperous republics ofSR Slovenia andSR Croatia wanted to move towards decentralization and democracy.[18]
The historianBasil Davidson contends that the "recourse to 'ethnicity' as an explanation [of the conflict] is pseudo-scientific nonsense". Even the degree of linguistic and religious differences "have been less substantial than instant commentators routinely tell us".[citation needed] Davidson agrees withSusan Woodward, who found the "motivating causes of the disintegration in economic circumstance and its ferocious pressures".[19] Likewise, Sabine Rutar states that, “while antagonistic representations of the ethnic-national past indeed were heavily (mis-)used during the conflict, one must be careful not to turn these forceful categories of practice into categories of historical analysis”.[20]
As President, Tito's policy was to push for rapideconomic growth, and growth was indeed high in the 1970s. However, the over-expansion of the economy causedinflation and pushed Yugoslavia intoeconomic recession.[21]
A major problem for Yugoslavia was the heavy debt incurred in the 1970s, which proved to be difficult to repay in the 1980s.[22] Yugoslavia's debt load, initially estimated at a sum equal to $6 billion U.S. dollars, instead turned out to be equivalent to $21 billion U.S. dollars, which was a colossal sum for a poor country.[22] In 1984, theReagan administration issued aclassified document,National Security Decision Directive 133, expressing concern that Yugoslavia's debt load might cause the country to align with the Soviet bloc.[23] The 1980s were a time ofeconomic austerity as theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed stringent conditions on Yugoslavia, which caused much resentment toward the Communist elites who had so mismanaged the economy by recklessly borrowing money abroad.[24][failed verification] The policies of austerity also led to uncovering much corruption on the part of the elites, most notably with the "Agrokomerc affair" of 1987, when theAgrokomerc enterprise of Bosnia turned out to be the centre of a vast nexus of corruption running all across Yugoslavia, and that the managers of Agrokomerc had issued promissory notes equivalent to almost US$1 billion[25] without collateral, forcing the state to assume responsibility for their debts when Agrokomerc finally collapsed.[24][failed verification] The rampant corruption in Yugoslavia, of which the "Agrokomerc affair" was merely the most dramatic example, did much to discredit the Communist system, as it was revealed that the elites were living luxurious lifestyles, well beyond the means of ordinary people, with money stolen from the public purse during a time of austerity.[24][failed verification] The problems imposed by heavy indebtedness and corruption had by the mid-1980s increasingly started to corrode the legitimacy of the Communist system, as ordinary people started to lose faith in the competence and honesty of the elites.[24][failed verification]
A wave of major strikes developed in 1987–88 as workers demanded higher wages to compensate for inflation, as the IMF mandated the end of varioussubsidies, and they were accompanied by denunciations of the entire system as corrupt.[26][failed verification] Finally, the politics of austerity brought to the fore tensions between the well off "have" republics like Slovenia and Croatia versus the poorer "have not" republics like Serbia.[26][failed verification] Both Croatia and Slovenia felt that they were paying too much money into the federal budget to support the "have not" republics, while Serbia wanted Croatia and Slovenia to pay more money into the federal budget to support them at a time of austerity.[27][failed verification] Increasingly, demands were voiced in Serbia for more centralisation in order to force Croatia and Slovenia to pay more into the federal budget, demands that were completely rejected in the "have" republics.[28]
Therelaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union afterMikhail Gorbachev becameGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the top position in 1985, meant that western nations were no longer willing to be generous with restructuring Yugoslavia's debts, as the example of a communist country outside of theEastern Bloc was no longer needed by the West as a way of destabilising the Soviet bloc. The external status quo, which the Communist Party had depended upon to remain viable, was thus beginning to disappear. Furthermore, the failure of communism all overCentral and Eastern Europe once again brought to the surface Yugoslavia's inner contradictions,economic inefficiencies (such as chronic lack of productivity, fuelled by the country's leaderships' decision to enforce a policy offull employment), and ethno-religious tensions. Yugoslavia'snon-aligned status resulted in access to loans from both superpower blocs. This contact with the United States and the West opened up Yugoslavia's markets sooner than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The 1980s were a decade of Western economic ministrations.[citation needed]
A decade of frugality resulted in growing frustration and resentment against both the Serbian "ruling class", and the minorities who were seen to benefit from government legislation. Real earnings in Yugoslavia fell by 25% from 1979 to 1985. By 1988, emigrant remittances to Yugoslavia totalled over $4.5 billion (USD), and by 1989 remittances were $6.2 billion (USD), making up over 19% of the world's total.[14][15]
In 1990, US policy insisted on theshock therapy austerity programme that was meted out to the ex-Comecon countries. Such a programme had been advocated by the IMF and other organisations "as a condition for fresh injections of capital."[29]
Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević's unequivocal desire to uphold the unity of Serbs, a status which was threatened by each republic breaking away from the federation, in addition to his opposition to the Albanian authorities in Kosovo, further inflamed ethnic tensions.
In 1987, Serbian officialSlobodan Milošević was sent to bring calm to an ethnically driven protest by Serbs against the Albanian administration of SAP Kosovo. Milošević had been, up to this point, a hard-line communist who had decried all forms of nationalism as treachery, such as condemning theSANU Memorandum as "nothing else but the darkest nationalism".[30] However, Kosovo's autonomy had always been an unpopular policy in Serbia, and he took advantage of the situation and made a departure from traditional communist neutrality on the issue of Kosovo.
Milošević assured Serbs that their mistreatment by ethnic Albanians would be stopped. He then began a campaign against the ruling communist elite of SR Serbia, demanding reductions in the autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina. These actions made him popular amongst Serbs and aided his rise to power in Serbia. Milošević and his allies took on an aggressive nationalist agenda of reviving SR Serbia within Yugoslavia, promising reforms and protection of all Serbs.
The ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia was theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), a composite political party made-up of eight Leagues of Communists from the six republics and two autonomous provinces. TheLeague of Communists of Serbia (SKS) governed SR Serbia. Riding the wave of nationalist sentiment and his new popularity gained in Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević (Chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) since May 1986) became the most powerful politician in Serbia by defeating his former mentor President of SerbiaIvan Stambolić at the8th session of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia on 23–24 September 1987. At a 1988 rally in Belgrade, Milošević made clear his perception of the situation facing SR Serbia in Yugoslavia, saying:
At home and abroad, Serbia's enemies are massing against us. We say to them "We are not afraid. We will not flinch from battle".
We Serbs will act in the interest of Serbia whether we do it in compliance with the constitution or not, whether we do it in compliance in the law or not, whether we do it in compliance with party statutes or not.
TheAnti-bureaucratic revolution was a series of protests in Serbia and Montenegro orchestrated by Milošević to put his supporters in SAP Vojvodina, SAP Kosovo, and theSocialist Republic of Montenegro (SR Montenegro) to power as he sought to oust his rivals.The government of Montenegro survived a coup d'état in October 1988,[33] but not a second one in January 1989.[34]
In addition to Serbia itself, Milošević could now install representatives of the two provinces and SR Montenegro in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight member Presidency, Milošević could count on a minimum of four votes – SR Montenegro (following local events), his own through SR Serbia, and now SAP Vojvodina and SAP Kosovo as well. In a series of rallies, called "Rallies of Truth", Milošević's supporters succeeded in overthrowing local governments and replacing them with his allies.
As a result of these events, in February 1989ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovoorganized a strike, demanding the preservation of the now-endangered autonomy.[35] This contributed to ethnic conflict between the Albanian and Serb populations of the province. At77% of the population of Kosovo in the 1980s, ethnic-Albanians were the majority.
In June 1989, the 600th anniversary of Serbia'shistoric defeat at the field of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević gave theGazimestan speech to 200,000 Serbs, with a Serb nationalist theme which deliberately evokedmedieval Serbian history. Milošević's answer to the incompetence of the federal system was to centralise the government. Considering Slovenia and Croatia were looking farther ahead to independence, this was considered unacceptable.
Meanwhile, theSocialist Republic of Croatia (SR Croatia) and theSocialist Republic of Slovenia (SR Slovenia), supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for recognition. Media in SR Slovenia published articles comparing Milošević toItalian fascist dictatorBenito Mussolini. Milošević contended that such criticism was unfounded and amounted to "spreading fear of Serbia".[36] Milošević's state-run media claimed in response thatMilan Kučan, head of theLeague of Communists of Slovenia, was endorsing Kosovo and Slovene separatism. Initial strikes in Kosovo turned into widespread demonstrations calling for Kosovo to be made the seventh republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force, and later the federal army (theYugoslav People's Army JNA) by order of the Serbian-controlled Presidency.
In February 1989 ethnic AlbanianAzem Vllasi, SAP Kosovo's representative on the Presidency, was forced to resign and was replaced by an ally of Milošević. Albanian protesters demanded that Vllasi be returned to office, and Vllasi's support for the demonstrations caused Milošević and his allies to respond stating this was a "counter-revolution against Serbia and Yugoslavia", and demanded that the federal Yugoslav government put down the striking Albanians by force. Milošević's aim was aided when a huge protest was formed outside of the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade by Serb supporters of Milošević who demanded that the Yugoslav military forces make their presence stronger in Kosovo to protect the Serbs there and put down the strike.
On 27 February, SR Slovene representative in the collective presidency of Yugoslavia,Milan Kučan, opposed the demands of the Serbs and left Belgrade for SR Slovenia where he attended a meeting in theCankar Hall in Ljubljana, co-organized with thedemocratic opposition forces, publicly endorsing the efforts of Albanian protesters who demanded that Vllasi be released. In the 1995BBC2 documentaryThe Death of Yugoslavia, Kučan claimed that in 1989, he was concerned that with the successes of Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in Serbia's provinces as well as Montenegro, that his small republic would be the next target for apolitical coup by Milošević's supporters if the coup in Kosovo went unimpeded.Serbian state-run television denounced Kučan as a separatist, a traitor, and an endorser of Albanian separatism.
Serb protests continued in Belgrade demanding action in Kosovo. Milošević instructed communist representativePetar Gračanin to make sure the protest continued while he discussed matters at the council of the League of Communists, as a means to induce the other members to realize that enormous support was on his side in putting down the Albanian strike in Kosovo. Serbian parliament speakerBorisav Jović, a strong ally of Milošević, met with the current President of the Yugoslav Presidency, Bosnian representativeRaif Dizdarević, and demanded that the federal government concede to Serbian demands. Dizdarević argued with Jović saying that "You [Serbian politicians] organized the demonstrations, you control it", Jović refused to take responsibility for the actions of the protesters. Dizdarević then decided to attempt to bring calm to the situation himself by talking with the protesters, by making an impassioned speech for unity of Yugoslavia saying:
Our fathers died to create Yugoslavia. We will not go down the road to national conflict. We will take the path ofBrotherhood and Unity.
This statement received polite applause, but the protest continued. Later Jović spoke to the crowds with enthusiasm and told them that Milošević was going to arrive to support their protest. When Milošević arrived, he spoke to the protesters and jubilantly told them that the people of Serbia were winning their fight against the old party bureaucrats. A shout came from the crowd to "arrest Vllasi". Milošević pretended not to hear the demand correctly but declared to the crowd that anyone conspiring against the unity of Yugoslavia would be arrested and punished. The next day, with the party council pushed into submission to Serbia, Yugoslav army forces poured into Kosovo and Vllasi was arrested.
In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to theSerbian constitution that allowed the Serbian republic's government to re-assert effective power over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Up until that time, a number of political decisions were legislated from within these provinces, and they had a vote on theYugoslav federal presidency level (six members from the republics and two members from the autonomous provinces).[37]
A group of Kosovo Serb supporters of Milošević who helped bring down Vllasi declared that they were going to Slovenia to hold "theRally of Truth" which would decry Milan Kučan as a traitor to Yugoslavia and demand his ousting. However, the attempt to replay the anti-bureaucratic revolution inLjubljana in December 1989 failed: the Serb protesters who were to go by train to Slovenia were stopped when the police of SR Croatia blocked all transit through its territory in coordination with the Slovene police forces.[38][39][40]
In January 1990, the extraordinary14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was convened. The combined Yugoslav ruling party, theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), was in crisis. Most of the Congress was spent with the Serbian and Slovene delegations arguing over the future of the League of Communists and Yugoslavia. SR Croatia prevented Serb protesters from reaching Slovenia. The Serbian delegation, led by Milošević, insisted on a policy of "one person, one vote" in the party membership, which would empower the largest party ethnic group, theSerbs.
In turn, the Croats and Slovenes sought to reform Yugoslavia by delegating even more power to six republics, but were voted down continuously in every motion and attempt to force the party to adopt the new voting system. As a result, the Croatian delegation, led by ChairmanIvica Račan, and Slovene delegation left the Congress on 23 January 1990, effectively dissolving the all-Yugoslav party. Along with external pressure, this caused the adoption of multi-party systems in all the republics.
In multi-party parliamentary elections, re-branded former Communist parties were victoriousin Montenegro on 9 and 16 December 1990, andin Serbia on 9 and 23 December 1990. In addition Serbia re-elected Slobodan Milošević as president. Serbia and Montenegro now increasingly favored a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
In Croatia, thenationalistCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was elected to power, led by controversial nationalistFranjo Tuđman, under the promise of "protecting Croatia from Milošević", and publicly advocating Croatian sovereignty.Croatian Serbs were wary of Tuđman's nationalist government, and in 1990Serb nationalists in the southern Croatian town ofKnin organized and formed a separatist entity known as theSAO Krajina, which demanded remaining in union with the rest of the Serb population if Croatia decided to secede. The government of Serbia endorsed the rebellion of theCroatian Serbs, claiming that for Serbs, rule under Tuđman's government would be equivalent to theWorld War II erafascistIndependent State of Croatia (NDH), which committedgenocide against Serbs. Milošević used this to rally Serbs against the Croatian government and Serbian newspapers joined in the warmongering.[43] Serbia had by now printed $1.8 billion worth of new money without any backing of theYugoslav National Bank.[44]
Croatian Serbs inKnin, under the leadership of local police inspectorMilan Martić, began to try to gain access to weapons so that the Croatian Serbs could mount a successful revolt against the Croatian government. In August 1990, Croatian Serb politicians including the Mayor of Knin met withBorisav Jović, the head of the Yugoslav Presidency, and urged him to push the council to take action to prevent Croatia from separating from Yugoslavia, because they claimed that the Serb population would be in danger in Croatia which was ruled by Tuđman and his nationalist government.
At the meeting, army officialPetar Gračanin told the Croatian Serb politicians how to organize their rebellion, telling them to put up barricades, as well as assemble weapons of any sort, saying "If you can't get anything else, use hunting rifles." Initially the revolt became known as the "Log Revolution", as Serbs blocked roads to Knin with cut-down trees and prevented Croats from entering Knin or the Croatian coastal region ofDalmatia. The BBC documentaryThe Death of Yugoslavia revealed that at the time, Croatian TV dismissed the "Log Revolution" as the work of drunken Serbs, trying to diminish the serious dispute. However, the blockade was damaging to Croatian tourism. The Croatian government refused to negotiate with the Serb separatists and instead sent in armed special forces by helicopter to put down the rebellion.
Croatia claimed the helicopters were bringing "equipment" to Knin, but the federalYugoslav Air Force (YAF) intervened and sent fighter jets to intercept them. The YAF ordered the helicopters return to their base or be fired on; the helicopters obeyed. To the Croatian government, this action by the YAF revealed that theYugoslav People's Army was increasingly under Serbian control. SAO Krajina was officially declared a separate entity on 21 December 1990 by theSerbian National Council, headed byMilan Babić.
Following the first multi-party election results, in the autumn of 1990 the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose federation of six republics. Milošević rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats, the Serbs also had a right to self-determination. Serbian politicians were alarmed by a change of phrasing in theChristmas Constitution of Croatia that changed the status of ethnic Serbs of Croatia from an explicitly mentioned nation (narod) to a nation listed together with minorities (narodi i manjine).[clarification needed]
Independence referendums results in Yugoslavia between 1990-1992 and the percentage of votes in favor.[46][47]
In the1990 Slovenian independence referendum, held on 23 December 1990, a vast majority of residents voted for independence:[48] 88.5% of all electors (94.8% of those participating) voted for independence, which was declared on 25 June 1991.[49][50]
In January 1991, the Yugoslav counter-intelligence service,KOS (Kontraobaveštajna služba), displayed a video of a secret meeting (the "Špegelj Tapes") that they purported had happened some time in 1990 between the Croatian Defence Minister,Martin Špegelj, and two other men.[citation needed] Špegelj announced during the meeting that Croatia was at war with theYugoslav People's Army (JNA,Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija) and gave instructions about arms smuggling as well as methods of dealing with the Army's officers stationed in Croatian cities. The Army subsequently wanted to indict Špegelj for treason and illegal importation of arms, mainly fromHungary.[citation needed]
The discovery of Croatian arms smuggling combined with the crisis in Knin, the election of independence-leaning governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia, and Slovenes demanding independence in the referendum on the issue suggested that Yugoslavia faced the imminent threat of disintegration.
On 1 March 1991, thePakrac clash ensued, and the JNA was deployed to the scene. On 9 March 1991,protests in Belgrade were suppressed with the help of the Army.
On 12 March 1991, the leadership of the Army met with thePresidency in an attempt to convince them to declare astate of emergency which would allow for the pan-Yugoslav army to take control of the country. Yugoslav army chiefVeljko Kadijević declared that there was a conspiracy to destroy the country, saying:
An insidious plan has been drawn up to destroy Yugoslavia. Stage one is civil war. Stage two is foreign intervention. Then puppet regimes will be set up throughout Yugoslavia.
Percentage of turnouts during the 1990-1992 referendums in Yugoslavia
This statement effectively implied that the new independence-advocating governments of the republics were seen by Serbs as tools of the West. Croatian delegateStjepan Mesić responded angrily to the proposal, accusing Jović and Kadijević of attempting to use the army to create aGreater Serbia and declared "That means war!". Jović and Kadijević then called upon the delegates of each republic to vote on whether to allow martial law, and warned them that Yugoslavia would likely fall apart if martial law was not introduced.
In the meeting, a vote was taken on a proposal to enactmartial law to allow for military action to end the crisis in Croatia by providing protection for the Serbs. The proposal was rejected as the Bosnian delegateBogić Bogićević voted against it, believing that there was still the possibility of diplomacy being able to solve the crisis.
The Yugoslav presidential crisis reached an impasse when Kosovo'sRiza Sapunxhiu 'defected' his faction in the second vote on martial law in March 1991.[41]Jović briefly resigned from the presidency in protest, but soon returned.[41] On 16 May 1991, the Serbian parliament replaced Sapunxhiu withSejdo Bajramović, and Vojvodina'sNenad Bućin withJugoslav Kostić.[51] This effectively deadlocked the Presidency, because Milošević's Serbian faction had secured four out of eight federal presidency votes, and it was able to block any unfavorable decisions at the federal level, in turn causing objections from other republics and calls for reform of the Yugoslav Federation.[41][52][53]
After Jović's term as head of the collective presidency expired, he blocked his successor, Mesić, from taking the position, giving the position instead toBranko Kostić, a member of the pro-Milošević government in Montenegro.
In theCroatian independence referendum held on 2 May 1991, 93.24% voted for independence. On 19 May 1991, the second round of the referendum on the structure of the Yugoslav federation was held in Croatia. The phrasing of the question did not explicitly inquire as to whether one was in favor of secession or not. Voters were asked if they supported Croatia being "able to enter into an alliance of sovereign states with other republics (in accordance with the proposal of the republics of Croatia and Slovenia for solving the state crisis in the SFRY)?". 83.56% of the voters turned out, with Croatian Serbs largely boycotting the referendum. Of these, 94.17% (78.69% of the total voting population) voted "in favor" of the proposal, while 1.2% of those who voted were "opposed". Finally, theindependence of Croatia was declared on 25 June 1991.
Both Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence on 25 June 1991. This was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Yugoslavia, as the1974 Yugoslav Constitution required unanimity of all republics for the secession of any of the republics (Articles 5, 203, 237, 240, 244 and 281).
On the morning of 26 June, units of theYugoslav People's Army's 13th Corps left their barracks inRijeka,Croatia, to move towardsSlovenia's borders withItaly. The move immediately led to a strong reaction from local Slovenians, who organized spontaneousbarricades and demonstrations against the JNA's actions. There was no fighting, as yet, and both sides appeared to have an unofficial policy of not being the first to open fire.
By this time, the Slovenian government had already put into action its plan to seize control of both the internationalLjubljana Airport and Slovenia's border posts on borders with Italy, Austria and Hungary. The personnel manning the border posts were, in most cases, already Slovenians, so the Slovenian take-over mostly simply amounted to changing of uniforms and insignia, without any fighting. By taking control of the borders, the Slovenians were able to establish defensive positions against an expected JNA attack. This meant that the JNA would have to fire the first shot, which was fired on 26 June at 14:30 inDivača by an officer of the JNA[54]
Whilst supportive of their respective rights to national self-determination, theEuropean Community pressuredSlovenia andCroatia to place a three-month moratorium on their independence, and reached theBrioni Agreement on 7 July 1991 (recognized by representatives of all republics).[55] During these three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out from Slovenia. Negotiations to restore the Yugoslav federation with diplomatLord Carrington and members of theEuropean Community were all but ended. Carrington's plan realized that Yugoslavia was in a state of dissolution and decided that each republic must accept the inevitable independence of the others, along with a promise to Serbian President Milošević that theEuropean Community would ensure thatSerbs outside of Serbia would be protected.
Milošević refused to agree to the plan, as he claimed that the European Community had no right to dissolve Yugoslavia and that the plan was not in the interests of Serbs as it would divide the Serb people into four republics (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia). Carrington responded by putting the issue to a vote in which all the other republics, including Montenegro underMomir Bulatović, initially agreed to the plan that would dissolve Yugoslavia. However, after intense pressure from Serbia on Montenegro's president, Montenegro changed its position to oppose the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Lord Carrington's opinions were rendered moot followingnewly reunited Germany's Christmas Eve 1991 recognition of Slovenia and Croatia. Except for secret negotiations between foreign ministersHans-Dietrich Genscher (Germany) andAlois Mock (Austria), the unilateral recognition came as an unwelcome surprise to most EC governments and theUnited States, with whom there was no prior consultation. International organisations, including theUnited Nations, were nonplussed. While Yugoslavia was already in a shambles, it is likely that German recognition of the breakaway republics—and Austrian partial mobilization on the border—made things a good deal worse for the decomposing multinational state. US PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush was the only major power representative to voice an objection. The extent ofVatican and Federal Intelligence Agency of Germany (BND) intervention in this episode has been explored by scholars familiar with the details, but the historical record remains disputed.
The other significant Serb-dominated entities ineastern Croatia announced that they too would join SAO Krajina. Zagreb had by this time discontinued submitting tax money to Belgrade, and the Croatian Serb entities in turn halted paying taxes to Zagreb. In some places, the Yugoslav Army acted as abuffer zone,[where?] in others it aided Serbs in their confrontation with the newCroatian army and police forces.[clarification needed]
The influence ofxenophobia and ethnic hatred in the collapse of Yugoslavia became clear during the war in Croatia. Propaganda by Croatian and Serbian sides spread fear, claiming that the other side would engage in oppression against them and would exaggerate death tolls to increase support from their populations.[56] In the beginning months of the war, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army and navy deliberately shelled civilian areas ofSplit andDubrovnik, aUNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as nearby Croat villages.[57] Yugoslav media claimed that the actions were done due to what they claimed was a presence of fascist Ustaše forces and international terrorists in the city.[57]
UN investigations found that no such forces were in Dubrovnik at the time.[57]Croatian Armed Forces presence increased later on. Montenegrin Prime MinisterMilo Đukanović, at the time an ally of Milošević, appealed toMontenegrin nationalism, promising that the capture of Dubrovnik would allow the expansion of Montenegro into the city which he claimed was historically part of Montenegro, and denounced the present borders of Montenegro as being "drawn by the old and poorly educatedBolshevik cartographers".[57]
At the same time, the Serbian government contradicted its Montenegrin allies with claims by the Serbian Prime MinisterDragutin Zelenović that Dubrovnik was historically Serbian, not Montenegrin.[58] The international media gave immense attention tobombardment of Dubrovnik and claimed this was evidence of Milosevic pursuing the creation of aGreater Serbia as Yugoslavia collapsed, presumably with the aid of the subordinate Montenegrin leadership of Bulatović and Serb nationalists in Montenegro to foster Montenegrin support for the retaking of Dubrovnik.[57]
InVukovar, ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs exploded into violence when theYugoslav army entered the town. The Yugoslav army andSerbian paramilitaries devastated the town inurban warfare and the destruction of Croatian property. Serb paramilitaries committed atrocities against Croats, killing over 200, and displacing others to add to those who fled the town in theVukovar massacre.[59]
Independence of the Republic of Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
From 1991 to 1992, the situation in multiethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina grew tense due to its mixed demographic structure, which included a plurality ofBosniaks and minorities of Serbs and Croats. This ethnic divide led to the parliament being fragmented along ethnic lines and put the ownership of large areas of the country in dispute. In October 1991,Radovan Karadžić, the leader of the largest Serb faction in the parliament, theSerb Democratic Party, gave a grave and direct warning to thePeople's Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina should it decide to separate, saying:
This, what you are doing, is not good. This is the path that you want to take Bosnia and Herzegovina on, the same highway of hell and death that Slovenia and Croatia went on. Don't think that you won't take Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and the Muslim people maybe into extinction. Because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if there is war here.
In the meantime, behind the scenes, negotiations began between Milošević and Tuđman to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina into Serb and Croat administered territories to attempt to avert war betweenBosnian Croats andBosnian Serbs.[61] Bosnian Serbs held areferendum in November 1991 resulting in an overwhelming vote in favor of staying in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro.
In public, pro-state media inSerbia claimed to Bosnians that Bosnia and Herzegovina could be included a new voluntary union within a new Yugoslavia based on democratic government, but this was not taken seriously by Bosnia and Herzegovina's government.[62]
On 9 January 1992, the Bosnian Serb assembly proclaimed a separate Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the soon-to-beRepublika Srpska), and proceeded to formSerbian autonomous regions (SARs) throughout the state. The Serbian referendum on remaining in Yugoslavia and the creation of SARs were proclaimed unconstitutional by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Areferendum on independence sponsored by the Bosnian government was held on 29 February and 1 March 1992. The referendum was declared contrary to the Bosnian and federal constitution by the federal Constitution Court and the newly established Bosnian Serb government, and it was largely boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs. According to the official results, the turnout was 63.4%, and 99.7% of the voters voted for independence.[63] It was unclear what the two-thirds majority requirement actually meant and whether it was satisfied.
Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence on 3 March 1992 and received international recognition the following month on 6 April 1992.[64] On the same date, the Serbs responded by declaring the independence of theRepublika Srpska andlaying siege to Sarajevo, which marked the start of theBosnian War.[65] TheRepublic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was subsequently admitted as a member state of the United Nations on 22 May 1992.[66]
Five hundred US soldiers were then deployed under the UN banner to monitor Macedonia's northern border with Serbia. However, Belgrade's authorities neither intervened to prevent Macedonia's departure, nor protested nor acted against the arrival of the UN troops, indicating that once Belgrade was to form its new country (theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia in April 1992), it would recognise the Republic of Macedonia and develop diplomatic relations with it. As a result, Macedonia became the only former republic to gain sovereignty without resistance from the Yugoslav authorities and Army.
In addition, Macedonia's first president,Kiro Gligorov, did indeed maintain good relations with Belgrade as well as the other former republics. There have been no problems between Macedonian and Serbian border police, even though small pockets of Kosovo and thePreševo valley complete the northern reaches of the historical region known as Macedonia, which would otherwise have created a border dispute (see alsoIMORO).
State entities on the former territory ofSFR Yugoslavia, 2008.
While France, Britain and most otherEuropean Community member nations were still emphasizing the need to preserve the unity of Yugoslavia,[69] the German chancellorHelmut Kohl led the charge to recognize the first two breakaway republics of Slovenia and Croatia. He lobbied both national governments and the EC to be more favourable to his policies, and also went to Belgrade to pressure the federal government not to use military action, threatening sanctions. Days before the end of the year on Christmas Eve, Germany recognized the independence of Slovenia and Croatia, "against the advice of the European Community, the UN, and US President George H W Bush".[70]
On 15 January 1992, the independence of Croatia and Slovenia was recognized by the international community. Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina would later be admitted asmember states of the United Nations on 22 May 1992. Macedonia was admitted as a member state of the United Nations on 8 April 1993;[73] its membership approval took longer than the others due to Greek objections.[73]
In 1999,Social Democratic Party of Germany leaderOskar Lafontaine criticised the role played by Germany in the break up of Yugoslavia, with its early recognition of the independence of the republics, during his May Day speech.[74]
Some observers opined that the break up of the Yugoslav state violated the principles ofpost-Cold War system, enshrined in theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE/OSCE) and theTreaty of Paris of 1990. Both stipulated that inter-state borders in Europe should not be changed. Some observers, such as Peter Gowan, assert that the breakup and subsequent conflict could have been prevented if western states were more assertive in enforcing internal arrangements between all parties, but ultimately "were not prepared to enforce such principles in the Yugoslav case because Germany did not want to, and the other states did not have any strategic interest in doing so."[75] Gowan even contends that the break-up "might have been possible without great bloodshed if clear criteria could have been established for providing security for all the main groups of people within the Yugoslav space."
In March 1992, during the US-Bosnian independence campaign, the politician and future president of Bosnia and HerzegovinaAlija Izetbegović reached an EC brokered agreement with Bosnian Croats and Serbs on a three-canton confederal settlement. But, the US government, according toThe New York Times, urged him to opt for a unitary, sovereign, independent state.[76]
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia consisted of Serbia and Montenegro.
The independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina proved to be the final blow to the pan-Yugoslav Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 28 April 1992, the Serb-dominatedFederal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) wasformed as arump state, consisting only of the former Socialist Republics of Montenegro and Serbia. The FRY was dominated by Slobodan Milošević and his political allies. Its government claimed continuity to the former country, but the international community refused to recognize it as such. The stance of the international community was that Yugoslavia had dissolved into its separate states. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was prevented by a UN resolution on 22 September 1992 from continuing to occupy the United Nations seat assuccessor state to SFRY.
The question of succession was important for claims on SFRY's international assets, including embassies in many countries. The FRY did not abandon its claim to continuity from the SFRY until 1996.[citation needed] After the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia re-applied formembership in the United Nations and was admitted on 1 November 2000 as a new member.[77] TheAgreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was then signed on 29 June 2001, leading to the sharing of international assets among the five sovereign equal successor states.
The FR Yugoslavia was reconstructed on 4 February 2003 as theState Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was itself unstable, and finally broke up in 2006 when, in areferendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegrin independence was backed by 55.5% of voters, and independence was declared on 3 June 2006. Serbia inherited the State Union's UN membership.[78]
^Rutar, Sabine (2013). "Nationalism in Southeastern Europe, 1970-2000". In Breuilly, John (ed.).The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 526.ISBN978-0-19-876820-3.
^MacDonald, David Bruce (2002). "Tito's Yugoslavia and after".Balkan holocausts? Serbian and Croatian victim-centred propaganda and the war in Yugoslavia. New approaches to conflict analysis. Manchester; New York : New York: Manchester University Press. pp. 183–219.ISBN978-0-7190-6466-1.JSTORj.ctt155jbrm.12.
^"Volitve" [Elections].Statistični letopis 2011 [Statistical Yearbook 2011]. Vol. 15. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. 2011. p. 108.ISSN1318-5403.
^Walsh, Martha (2001). Kumar, Krishna (ed.).Women and civil war: impact, organizations, and action. Boulder: L. Rienner Publishers. p. 57.ISBN978-1-55587-953-2.The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized by the European Union on 6 April. On the same date, Bosnian Serb nationalists began the siege of Sarajevo, and the Bosnian war began
Lukic, Reneo; Lynch, Allen (1996).Europe from the Balkans to the Urals: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-829200-7.
Duncan, Walter Raymond; Holman, G. Paul (1994).Ethnic nationalism and regional conflict: the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Boulder San Francisco Oxford:Westview Press.ISBN978-0-8133-8813-7.
Radan, Peter (2002).The break-up of Yugoslavia and international law. Routledge studies in international law. London; New York:Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-25352-9.
f Annexed by Italy (1941–1943) and Germany (1943–1944). Smaller part annexed by the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1944).
g North Macedonia's official and constitutional name was the Republic of Macedonia until 2019. It was known in the United Nations asthe former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because of anaming dispute withGreece.
h Free Territory was established in 1947. Its administration was divided into two areas (Zone A) and (Zone B). Free Territory was de facto taken over by Italy and SFRY in 1954.
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