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Break Up Of Yugoslavia Essay Research Paper (стр. 1 из 2)

Break Up Of Yugoslavia Essay, Research Paper

THE BREAK-UP OF YUGOSLAVIA

The Part Played by Serbia

From the moment it was promulgated the Yugoslav Constitution of 1974 forced fierce opposition ftom Serbian nationalists of various political complexions – mainly on account of its confederal element, especially the considerable degree of autonomy granted to Vojvodina and Kosovo. A programme for the revocation of the 1974 Constitution and for the formation of a unitarian state was drawn up in the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU). It was they who in 1986 composed what has come to be called the “Memorandum”, outlining a policy for the creation of “Greater Serbia”. It clearly describes a plan for the political union of Serbs in Serbia and those outside the Serbian border, and for the abolition of autonomy in Vojvodina and Kosovo. As a political manifesto the Memorandum was a device for the destruction of Yugoslavia, promoting, as it did, the idea of the “total national and cultural integration of the Serbian people”, regardless of where they lived. It envisaged all Serbs in one state, whether it was called Greater Serbia or Yugoslavia. This policy was a direct threat to all the non- Serbian peoples in Yugoslavia. The Memorandum was a blueprint for the division and disintegration of the country. The man who was to put the plan into practice emerged in the person of Slobodan Milosevic, who became the leader of the Serbian Communist Nationalists at the eighth session of the Central Committee of the League of Communist of Serbia in 1987.

With his arrival the policy of the Memorandum began to be put into practice. As a first step a populist and nationalistic movement was started, made up of members of the Serbian League of Communists, various extreme nationalist groups, intellectuals, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the media. It made use of mass meetings to bring pressure to bear on all those who opposed it or did not subscribe to its aims. It was in fact an alliance of left- wing (government) forces and right-wing forces which had just begun to organize openly.

The first aim of the populist movement was to reconstruct Serbia within the federation. To this end strong political and moral pressure was brought to bear on politicians in the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina through mass meetings under the guise of an anti-bureaucratic revolution. Meetings of this kind were held throughout Serbia during 1988 and 1989 and inflamed Serbian nationalist sentiment.

On 28 March 1989, on the crest of this wave, amendments to the Serbian constitution were enacted, by virtue of which Serbia became a single unitarian state with central authority applying to the entire territory. De facto the autonomy of Hungarians and Albanians was abolished by the abolition of the autonomous status of Vojvodina and Kosovo, and the federal constitution of 1974 was thus abrogated. On 28 June 1989, in a speech in Kosovo, Slobodan Milosevic declared that any opposition to this vision of a new order in Yugoslavia would be crushed by force of arms. On 29 September 1989 a new constitution was approved and the federal constitution of Serbian 1974 was finally buried. In the formal legal sense, by its new constitution, Serbia dealt a fatal blow to the Yugoslav federation. It was through this violent, unilateral change to the 1974 constitution by Serbia that Yugoslavia ceased to exist and not because of secession by Slovenia and Croatia – a Serbian argument that has been accepted by some people in the West. There now followed an attempt to reconstruct Yugoslavia on Serbian lines, an attempt to realize the plan outlined in the Memorandum, by the expansion of Serbia. Following the national homogenization within Serbia, the Serbian leadership set about homogenizing the Serbian population throughout the territory of Yugoslavia (”All Serbs in one state”), regardless of the ethnic structure and the rights of other nations.

The Position of Croatia

The Communist leadership in Croatia did not react to the Serbian political offensive until the end of 1989, inhibited no doubt by the high proportion of Serbs in the state and Party apparatus (”the Croatian silence”). At the end of 1989, however, it was decided to allow multi-party elections in Croatia, and consequently a set of democratic, non- communist parties emerged: the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) – the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and a number of other smaller parties. The Croatian Peasant Party was revived, along with a number of other parties. On 15 February 1990 the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) passed a motion calling for multi-party parliamentary elections, and on 20 February issued a declara-tion on electoral principles. Voting took place in two rounds in April and May, and the Croatian Democratic Union gained a majority. Thus, a democratically based regime was established.

Even in the run-up to the elections Belgrade had launched statements concerning the “threat” to Serbs in Croatia the aim being to mobilize the Serbs in Croatia to oppose the new government and use them to realize the Greater Serbia plan. The Serbian minority was organized in the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), which gained five parliamentary seats in the first multi-party elections. To begin with it seemed as if these members, in spite of their extreme political views, would respect the rules of parliamentary procedure. But the SDS soon declared that it was boycotting such procedure and hence-forth had recourse to terrorist tactics, instigating an armed rebellion of the Serbian minority against the democratically elected authority of the Republic of Croatia. The first open sign of rebellion was the obstruction of road and rail communication in all those parts of Croatia where there was a sizeable proportion of Serbs (known as the “barricade revolution”).

Discussions on the Restructuring of Yugoslavia

The political crisis in Yugoslavia grew increasingly acute as Serbian pressure to alter the constitutional structure of the rigidly centralized state mounted. The leadership in Slovenia and Croatia drafted and proposed a confederative model for restructuring the country. It became increasingly obvious, however, that Serbia meant to impose its will by force. The threat of force seemed all the more real in that Serbia had long held a dominant position in the Federation, especially in the Army and the police.

The Presidium of Yugoslavia several times discussed posible constitutional changes. At one of these sessions in the middle of September 1990 a joint Croatian and Slovene proposal for a confederation was rejected. Any discussion on the reorganization of Yugoslavia in fact turned out to be fruitless. Serbia was determined to impose its own solution at any price, refusing to envisage any solution of the position of Serbian ethnic communities outside Serbia other than their inclusion in a single sovereign state, federative in form, butcentralistic in effect, and under Serbian domination. The Serbs would not consent to any other arrangement for the restructuring of Yugoslavia.

Croatian Reaction to Serbian Threats of Aggression

Through its intervention Serbia radicalized relations within Croatia, and exploited the terrorist wing of the Serbian minority in the interests of the Greater Serbia plan.

At the end of December 1990 a new constitution was promulgated in Croatia which declared the Republic of Croatia to be “an integral and indivisible democratic social state in which power is derived from the people and belongs to the people as a community of free and equal citizens” (Article 1). On 21 February 1991, in view of the increasingly real prospect of an attack on Croatia by the Yugoslav National Army, the Croatian parliament passed a motion on the defence of constitutional order in the Republic of Croatia and a resolution accepting a procedure for secession from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which envisaged the possibility of association within a union of sovereign republics.

Serbia now began to intervene more and more openly in the internal affairs of the Republic of Croatia, especially by exerting influence on the Serbian minority. For this reason, on 17 April 1991, the Republic of Croatia published a declaration accusing the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia of interfering in its internal affairs, and the following month, on 2 May 1991, a motion approving a referendum on the sovereignty and independence of Croatia. This referendum was duly held on 19 May 1991. It consisted of two questions.

1. “Are you in favour of the Republic of Croatia as a sovereign and independent state which guarantees cultural autonomy and all civil rights to Serbs and members of other nationalities in Croatia, entering into a union of sovereign states with other republics (in line with the proposal put forward by the Republic of Croatia and Slovenia as a means of resolving the political crisis in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)?”

2. “Are you in favour of the Republic of Croatia remaining in Yugoslavia as an integral federal state (in line with the proposal put forward by the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro as a means of resolving the political crisis in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)?”

93.24% of votes were cast for the first proposal and no more than 5.38% for the second, i.e. for Croatia remaining in Yugoslavia.

On the basis of the referendum the following motions were passed:

1. “The Republic of Croatia, as a sovereign and independent state quaranteeing cultural autonomy and all civil rights to Serbs and members and other nationalities, may enter into a union of sovereign states with other republics. 2. The Republic of Croatia will not remain within Yugoslavia as an integral federal state.” On 25 June 1991, the parliament of the Republic of Croatia (at the same time as the Slovene Assembly) passed a constitutional motion declaring the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Croatia, and this motion became Article I of the constitution. By this motion, Croatia began the process of dissociation from the other federal republics of Yugoslavia. It also began the process which was to lead to international recognition. Henceforth, only the legislation of the Republic of Croatia was valid in Croatia. In this way Croatia reclaimed all those rights and obligations which, under the constitution of Croatia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, had been surrendered to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was stated that “the procedure for the transfer of rights and obligations will be regulated by a constitutional bill”.

The constitutional motion was accompanied on 25 June 1991 by a Declaration proclaiming Croatia to be a sovereign and independent Republic, and a Charter of the rights of Serbs and other ethnic groups within the Republic of Croatia. This motion and the Declaration of the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Croatia were in response to the aggressive attitude of the Republic of Serbia and the Yugoslav National Army towards Croatia and the Croatian people during 1989, 1990 and 1991.

Opposition to the authority of the Republic of Croatia by members of the Serbian minority intensified, especially in the so-called Krajina which according to the Serbian plan was supposed to become part of Greater Serbia. Terrorist groups from the militant wing of the Serbian Democratic Party openly aided and abetted the operations of the Yugoslav National Army, which was increasingly becoming a Serbian army. Armed conflict that had started in the spring of 1991 escalated at the beginning of August in the same year. In Croatia open warfare was knocking at the door. Terrorists of the minority attacked Croatian towns, police stations and other institutions. The Army, i.e. the Yugoslav National Army, acted the part of “impartial peacemaker”, but in fact supplied the insurgents with arms and every other kind of equipment.

Soon what had been terrorist gangs became official organizations. With the aid of the Yugoslav Army and extremists among the Serbs in Croatia, Serbia now embarked on a war of conquest. It was not a civil war, but simply a campaign of conquest in which the Yugoslav National Army and other Serbian forces began the systematic destruction of Croatia. In September 1991 the Yugoslav Minister of Defence, General V. Kadijevic, despatched the first armoured column from Belgrade into Croatia, and by the end of September 1991 all-out war was raging in the country. The Serbian army bombed and shelled Croatian towns and cities by land, sea and air – Vukovar, Osijek, Vinkovci, Sisak, Karlovac, Gospic, Zadar and Sibenik. For days on end the whole of Croatia was subject to air raid warnings and general alerts.

The Army and Serbian rebels wrecked hospitals, nursery schools, schools, industrial plants and power stations. They burned down entire villages and murdered the Croatian inhabitants. In September Osijek was shelled heavily for 36 hours on end, and Vinkovci suffered the same fate. Vukovar was persistently and systematically destroyed until nothing was left but ruins. Other places in eastern and western Croatia, in Lika, Banija and Dalmatia were similarly attacked. Cultural treasures and historical cities like Dubrovnik were treated in the same ruthless manner: Serbs and Montenegrins bombarded Dubrovnik with every weapon. In September, October and November 1991 Croatia found itself fighting for bare survival.

In response to the aggression, and in order to ensure its own survival, the Croatian parliament on 8 October 1991 declared that it was severing all official and legal ties with Yugoslavia. This political act of self-defence was necessary to preserve the collective existence of Croatia faced with a combined military attack by the Yugoslav Army, the Republic of Serbia and part of the Serbian minority in Croatia the aim being to keep Croatia in Yugoslavia by force. After this attack and all that Croatia suffered as a result, it could not possibly remain in a common state with Serbia.

The Croatian leadership did all it could through its long- standing offer of a confederative agreement to resolve the Yugoslav crisis. But Serbia and the Yugoslav Army were now on the way of establishing Serbia. The war soon made abundantly clear what Serbian and Yugoslav war aims really were. Their prime object was to force Croats and other non- Serbian inhabitants of Croatia to mass exodus through brutal terror and the burning or demolition of Croatian villages and towns. The Serbian Fascist leader, Vojislav Segelj, proposed the use of napalm bombs in the battle against the Croats. A second war aim was the destruction of cultural monuments in order to obliterate the Croatian national identity and destroy any evidence that Croats had ever existed on the territory of Croatia. A further object was to destroy the economic and ecological conditions essential to the life in Croatia. The ultimate aim was to set up a rump Yugoslav state or Greater Serbia that would incorporate occupied Croatian territory. In this way Serbia tried by force to redefine the frontiers between the republics of a Yugoslavia that in fact no longer existed.

Croatia’s International Situation

On 7 July 1991, following a brief war between the Yugoslav National Army and Slovenia, a ministerial delegation of the European Community arrived in Yugoslavia. The ministers held discussions with representatives of all the republics. This was the start of the internationalization of the Yugoslav political crisis. The ministerial trio were meant to prepare the way for discussions between the conflicting parties. On 7 July 1991 a joint declaration was issued (the Brioni declaration) laying down the principles for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. A codicil to the declaration envisaged the presence in Yugoslavia of a group of observers from the European Community. Their first task was to supervise the withdrawal of the Yugoslav National Army from Slovenia. Croatia, faced with the imminent threat of war, asked for the observer’s mission to be extended to include Croatia. This was done by a memorandum of agreement involving the extension of the observer’s activities and their missions in Yugoslavia from 1 September 1991 on the basis of the Brioni agreement of 7 July 1991. The course of events suggested that Europe would not be able simply to stand aside. A Declaration on Yugoslavia was issued at an extraordinary meeting of the European Community on 3 September 1991 in the Hague. Stating that “the Community and its member states call on all parties strictly to observe their obligations under the cease-fire agreement and the Memorandum of Agreement. On the basis the Community and its member states will convene a Conference on Yugoslavia under its auspices in the Peace Palace in the Hague, on 7 September 1991, and will simultaneously establish arbitration procedure”. In this declaration the extension of the European Community’s observer mission to Croatia was confirmed. Who was to be present at the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia? In the first place, the Presidium of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the federal government and the presidents of the republics. The proceedings were to be chaired by a British diplomat, Lord Carrington. The task of the Conference was to adopt an arrangement that would satisfy the conflicting aspirations of “the Yugoslav republics on the basis of the following principles: the inadmissibility of unilateral changes in frontiers through the use of force, the protection of the rights of all nations of Yugoslavia, taking full account of their aims and aspirations”. The international Conference on Yugoslavia then got under way. Thus, on 4 November 1991 the Hague Convention, better known as the Memoranda on the Convention (the fourth version of the EC Convention of the Hague Conference, Den Haag, 4 November 1991) was passed. The first Article of the First Chapter stated: