Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
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The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbian: Савезна Република Југославија / Savezna Republika Jugoslavija) or FRY was a federal state consisting of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), created after the other four republics broke away from Yugoslavia amid rising ethnic tensions. The state existed from 1992 to 2003, when it was reconstituted as a State Union of Serbia and Montenegro which itself was dissolved three years later, when a referendum for independence in Montenegro resulted in the majority of Montenegrins supporting separation from Serbia. This resulted in both Montenegro and Serbia becoming independent countries.
With the separation of other republics from the former SFRY, the FRY was far more ethnically homogeneous. The state's two main ethnic groups, Serbs and Montenegrins, were almost ethnically identical, though nationalist strains amongst Montenegrins claim that they constitute an ethnic derivative of their own, while others, especially those who support union with Serbia claim that Montenegrins are a sub-group of Serbs. Ethnic minorities included Albanians, Hungarians, Romanians, and other smaller groups. Ethnic tensions and conflict between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo was a serious and ongoing problem in the FRY throughout its existence.
The state was not recognized as the official successor to the SFRY and remained unrecognized until 2000. From 1992 to 2000, countries like the United States referred to the FRY as "Serbia and Montenegro" and was often called by its synecdoche "Serbia" due to Serbia having dominant influence in the affairs of the FRY, especially under Slobodan Milošević who, during his term as Serbian President, appeared to have more influence over FRY affairs than the Yugoslav president. Opponents of Milošević and and opponents of the rise of Serb nationalism under his leadership, claimed the FRY under Milošević was a "Greater Serbia".
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[edit] History
With the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991 and 1992, only Serbia and Montenegro agreed to maintain the Yugoslav state, and established a new constitution for a new Yugoslavia in 1992. With the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe, the new state followed the wave of change, and did not revive Communist party structure (which had already been dissolved in 1990). It abandoned communist symbolism: the red star was removed from the national flag, and the communist coat of arms was replaced the with a double-headed eagle with the arms of both Serbia and Montenegro within it. Further changes included the subsequent rebranding of the police, from Milicija (Милиција) as they were hitherto known (lit. militia) to Policija (Полиција); the two republics would each have their respective force. The new state also abandoned the collective presidency of the former SFRY and replaced it with the system consisting of a single president, who would be democratically elected, as well as a democratically elected parliament.
[edit] The FRY and the Yugoslav Wars
The FRY was suspended from a number of international institutions. This was due to the ongoing Yugoslav wars during the 1990s, which had prevented agreement being reached on the disposition of federal assets and liabilities, particularly the national debt. The Government of Yugoslavia supported Croatian and Bosnian Serbs in the wars from 1991 to 1995. Because of that, the country was under economical and political sanctions, which resulted in economical disaster that forced thousands of its young citizens to emigrate from the country.
In a BBC documentary, called the Death of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav official Borisav Jović revealed that the Bosnian Serb army was created to replace the Yugoslav army forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by transferring every Bosnian Serb division of the Yugoslav Army to the Bosnian Serb army as a way to avoid international condemnation of it being an occupation of Bosnia by Yugoslavia. Through this, the Bosnian Serb army received extensive military equipment and full funding from the FRY, as the Bosnian Serb faction alone could not pay for the costs.[1]. Furthermore, Serbian Radical Party founder and paramilitary Vojislav Seselj has publicly claimed that Serbian President Milošević personally asked him to send paramilitaries from Serbia into Bosnia and Herzegovina.[2] Also the Bosnian Serb Army was led by an ex-Yugoslav military commander, Ratko Mladić, an extremely controversial figure, who served the Yugoslav during the Croatian War of 1991 to 1992, who has been accused of committing war crimes in Bosnia.
In 1995, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević represented the FRY and Bosnian Serbs at peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, USA, which negotiated the end of war in Bosnia with the Dayton Agreement.
[edit] Growing Separatism
In 1996, Montenegro severed economic ties with Serbia and formed a new economic policy and adopted the Deutsche Mark as its currency. Subsequent governments of Montenegro carried out pro-independence policies, and political tensions with Serbia simmered despite political changes in Belgrade. Also, separatist Albanian paramilitaries began steady escalation of violence in 1996. The question whether the Federal Yugoslav state would continue to exist became a very serious issue to the government.
[edit] Kosovo War
With Milošević's second and last legal term as Serbian President expiring in 1997, he ran for, and was elected President of Yugoslavia in 1997. Upon taking office, Milošević gained direct control of the Yugoslav military and security forces, and directed them to engage Kosovo separatists. The conflict escalated from 1996 to 1999 and became a civil war, known as the Kosovo War.
From March 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) under the leadership of the United States waged war on Yugoslavia. NATO suspected that the Yugoslav government was committing genocide on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. This suspicion was based on the presence of Serbian ultranationalist and former paramilitary Vojislav Šešelj being Prime Minister of Yugoslavia; a fear of a repeat of atrocities similar to those committed by Serb forces in Bosnia; and suspicion of Milošević's influence in the previous war atrocities. NATO began an air campaign called Operation Allied Force against Yugoslav military forces and positions and suspected Serbian paramilitaries. The NATO campaign came under severe criticism for its attacks and many inaccurate bombings across Yugoslavia which killed many civilians. The Yugoslav government claimed the NATO attacks were a terror campaign against the country while NATO defended its actions as being legal. The air attacks against Belgrade by NATO were the first attacks on the city since World War II. Some of the worst massacres against civilian Albanians by Serbian forces occurred after NATO started its bombing of Yugoslavia. Cuska massacre,[1] Podujevo massacre,[2] Velika Krusa massacre[3] were some of the massacres committed by the Serbian police and paramilitaries during the war. NATO promised to end its bombings of Yugoslavia, when Milošević agreed to end the Yugoslav campaign in Kosovo and a return Kosovo's autonomy. After an array of bombings, Milošević submitted and agreed to end Yugoslavia's anti-separatist campaign in Kosovo and allowed NATO forces to occupy Kosovo.
In June 1999, after the NATO bombings ended, NATO and other troops, entered the province and organized with the controversial Albanian separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) paramilitaries, to maintain order. NATO's decision to cooperate with the Kosovo Liberation Army was seen by Serbs as a pro-separatist stand on Kosovo. The KLA committed a number of atrocities during the Kosovo War. Before the handover of power, some 300,000 Kosovars, mostly Serbs, were ethnically cleansed from the province. The number of Serbs in Kosovo dropped drastically as Serbs fled Kosovo, fearing persecution by the KLA which had integrated into the Kosovo security force called KFOR. Despite the controversy, the United Nations proceeded to created a mandate in Kosovo, in which the province technically remained a part of Serbia (or the FRY as it was then), but was completely autonomous. Kosovo was allowed to have its own law enforcement, its own government, and Yugoslav military forces and Serb paramilitaries were forbidden to enter. The U.N. mandate still remains in place in Kosovo today.
[edit] Ousting of Milošević and the Final Years of the Federal Republic
The aftermath of the Kosovo crisis was originally presented to the Yugoslav public as a success, where-by Kosovo will not be independent; the population soon saw that this meant something far from Kosovo remaining in Yugoslavia with an end to Albanian separatism. Now recognising the war in Kosovo as a complete failure, coupled with allegations of electoral fraud in Yugoslavia's election in 2000, nationals of Yugoslavia revolted in large numbers against the leadership of Slobodan Milošević which led to his resignation shortly afterward. In the aftermath, Vojislav Koštunica became the country's President. With the ousting of Milošević, the FRY was finally re-admitted to the United Nations in 2000 after several years of suspension (with SFRY succession talks still ongoing). Milošević was arrested in March 2001 by Yugoslav authorities for alleged corruption whilst in power, but before he could stand trial for the charges: he was transferred to UN troops on the Bosnian border and flown straight to The Hague, where he was put on trial for war crimes until his death in 2006. He had been indicted back in 1999 during the NATO airstrikes.
[edit] The creation of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro
In 2002, Serbia and Montenegro came to a new agreement regarding continued co-operation, which, among other changes, promised the end of the name Yugoslavia. From February 4, 2003, the federal parliament of Yugoslavia created a loose confederation - State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (similar to the system requested by Croatian and Slovenian communist parties shortly before the downfall of the previous Yugoslavia). A new Constitutional Charter was agreed to provide a framework for the governance of the country. The State Union had a parliament and an army. Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro, became joint official capital alongside Belgrade; as Belgrade was the commercial capital, Podgorica held the position of being the judicial capital. It was agreed that for three years beginning in 2003, neither Serbia nor Montenegro would hold a referendum on the break-up of the union. The EU's high representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana said that he was happy with the agreement, because it stopped the disintegration progress in the former Yugoslav zone. However in 2006, Montenegrins voted in favour of independence, and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro collapsed, with Serbia declaring itself an independent nation shortly afterward, ending the last remnants of a Yugoslavia.
[edit] International Criticism of the Federal Republic
[edit] Criticisms of the State
The United Nations and many individual states, especially the United States, accepted it as constituting a state, but until the fall of Milosevic, they refused to recognize it (or the other republics [4]) as a successor of the former Yugoslavia. The United States and other governments including the state's critics and opponents regarded the FRY under Milosevic's influence and rule as being a "Greater Serbia", and western media often referred to the state as a whole as simply "Serbia" for a number of key reasons:
- It was dominated by Serbia: The Serb population composed a two-third majority, whilst Montenegro contributed little in the way of international political affairs involving the FRY. Moreover, Serb nationalists saw Montenegro as a province of Serbia and saw the Montenegrin nationality as fictious, as the two ethnicities were virtually identical and that years prior, Montenegrins were identified as a sub-group of Serbs. Moreover, Montenegro had a sizable minority of self-proclaimed Serbs whose loyalties resided with Serbia following the collapse of Yugoslavia and concerns of Montenegrin separatism, which Milosevic intended to curtail to protect Serb interests in Montenegro.
- The support of Serb territories breaking away from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia to join the FRY by supplying money and military equipment to Serb forces there, whilst showing little immediate interest in regaining former SFRY areas which contained few or no self-proclaimed Serbs (such as Slovenia, non-Serb parts of Croatia and Macedonia which separated from the SFRY in 1991), was being viewed that the state was a "Greater Serbia".
- Slobodan Milošević - for the 1992 to 1997 period - was seen to be de facto leader of Yugoslavia prior to becoming Yugoslavia's president in 1997. Milosevic had campaigned for strengthening Serb power in Yugoslavia and supported controversial Serb nationalist leaders such as Radovan Karadzić during the Yugoslav wars. While he was President of Serbia, critics regarded Yugoslavia's federal presidents as having little power, and that the only key asset the position had, the authorization of military force, was hampered by Serb numerical hegemony in the military, which made independent military decision-making by the federal government impossible without Serbian approval.
- Momir Bulatović - Critics claimed that Montenegro's president from 1990 to 1998, Momir Bulatović, was a puppet of Milošević. Bulatović had been installed as Montenegrin Communist leader by the aide of pro-Milošević political forces in Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution. Bulatović continuously supported Milošević's policies of strengthening Serb powers in Yugoslavia. After being ousted as President of Montenegro, and replaced by the independence-leaning Milo Đukanović, Bulatović was appointed by Milošević as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. Bulatović actively worked to undermine the authority of Đukanović, declaring that Đukanović was a puppet of the west and a traitor to Yugoslavia.[3]
[edit] Response to Criticisms of the State
The counter to the "Greater Serbia" argument about the FRY include that the new country was a federation which did not annex Montenegro directly part of Serbia when it could have with the rise of nationalism in Serbia. Also, the two republics internally continued to conduct their own affairs; neither interfering with the other (eg. there was a national army, but the two republics had individual police forces). President Bulatović, while allied with Milosevic, was put into power by a popular revolt in Montenegro, though some claim that this was done through the backing of Milosevic and his Serb supporters in Montenegro. However pressure from Serb nationalists of the Serbian Radical Party in Milosevic's coalition government demanded Montenegro's obedience to Serbia.
As Serbs did made up the core of the land, it made sense that Belgrade would offer support to ethnic Serbs in conflict in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the Serbian administered territories of Croatia at all times existed as a separate national entity, rather than an exclave of the Republic of Serbia, though they kept in close contact with the Serbian government and the government of Yugoslavia. The unrecognised Republic of Serbian Krajina functioned as an independent country with its own currency, education system and infrastructure. Also recognition of the Republic of Macedonia by Yugoslavia did not meet with the traditional rhetoric of Serb nationalists who saw Macedonia as unredeemed Serbian territory with no such existence of a Macedonian ethnicity. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's government maintained reasonable diplomatic relations with Macedonia's first president Kiro Gligorov.
The diplomatic scenario in the early to mid 1990s between Serbian President Milosevic and Yugoslav officials had shown that Milosevic clearly was the dominant figure in Yugoslavia, as foreign officials often met with Milosevic rather than Yugoslavia's presidents. Also, Yugoslav officials who on paper had greater authority than Milosevic, such as Borisav Jovic who was associated with the federal Yugoslav government, often relied on Milosevic's permission before putting through actions, as Jovic himself spoke of Milosevic's decisions in the Yugoslav crisis, including decisions made after the FRY's inception in 1992, as Jovic described the events during the BBC documentary, the Death of Yugoslavia.[4] Milosevic himself was not a hardline nationalist, but had been a member of the communist establishment of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. During his rise to power, he had coupled degrees of Serb nationalism and populism into his political affairs and had promised to protect the Serb people across Yugoslavia from persecution and injustice, this went beyond his official duties as the leading official of the territory composing Serbia.
[edit] Macedonia
Some analysts have noted that Milosevic kept close relations with Macedonia and officially claimed to recognize its independence and that no war was waged on Macedonia which Greater Serbian nationalists perceived as being "South Serbia". Other perceive that no war was declared on the Republic of Macedonia due to the presence of peacekeepers at the border of it and Serbia, as recommended by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to prevent an invasion from Serbia. Furthermore, unlike Bosnia and Croatia, there was no substantial Serb presence in Macedonia for Milosevic to be able to make any legal territorial claim to the area. Close relations between the FRY and Macedonia may have been an attempt by Milosevic to draw Macedonia back into the state, as Macedonians were very culturally similar to Serbs and Macedonia itself was facing similar problems as Serbia in regards to ethnic Albanian separatism. The name of the state itself, "Yugoslavia", and Yugoslavia's territorial history was sufficient enough for the government to lay a legally justifiable claim to any region of the former SFRY that wanted to remain part of the country, and those areas were largely populated by Serbs. Therefore, change in the structure of the country was unnecessary, as the name "Yugoslavia" itself could be used to entitle the Serb-dominated FRY government to lay claim to any region of the former SFRY where it was known that the population was in favour of remaining within, rather than the debatable borders of what a Greater Serbia would constitute. As Macedonia faced political problems with separatist Albanian forces in the west and Greece to the south, Milosevic warned that Macedonia could not survive on its own,[5] and proposed in 1995 that the FRY, Macedonia, and Greece join into a confederation for security and trade.[6] Milosevic attempted to foment an irredentist claim to Macedonia, as Serbia's state press at the time claimed that there were significant numbers of Serbs in Macedonia, claiming that the number was ten times more than what the Macedonian government had claimed.[7] It is reported that in 1993, Milosevic told the Macedonian President that he would only recognize Macedonia's independence if it allowed the self-determination of Serbs in northern Macedonia and that it allowed Serbia a transit route to Greece.[8]
[edit] Montenegro
Likewise, the FRY establishment clearly did not wish to aggravate those Montenegrins who supported the Yugoslav state, and believed that a Montenegrin entity could exist alongside Serbia without difficulties, due to the closeness of the two republics' peoples in the past, as well as the internal demand of the sizable number of self-proclaimed Serbs who wanted Montenegro to remain in Yugoslavia. Montenegro eventually severed economic ties with Serbia in the 1990s after Bulatovic resigned, new leader and former Milošević ally Milo Đukanović began negotiating with the U.S. and western countries. This caused the legitmacy of the Yugoslav government to be highly questionable as it operated by a Serbian hegemony. However, Montenegro's non-participation in federal issues from 1996 onward was voluntary.
[edit] Territorial Divisions
The FRY was composed of four principal political units, consisting of two republics and two subordinate autonomous provinces:
- Republic of Serbia (capital: Belgrade)
- Vojvodina – autonomous province within Serbia (capital: Novi Sad)
- Kosovo and Metohia – autonomous province within Serbia. Under United Nations administration after Kosovo War (capital: Priština)
- Republic of Montenegro (capital: Podgorica)
[edit] Politics
The Federal Assembly of FRY was composed out of two Domes: the Council of Citizens and the Council of Republics. Whereas the Council of Citizens serves as an ordinary Assembly, representing the people of FRY, the Council of Republics was made equally by representatives from the Federation's constituent republics, to ensure Federal equality.
Under the FRY, the old collective presidency of the SFRY was dissolved and a single president was elected. The status of leadership of the Federal Yugoslav president was unstable with no president lasting more than four years in office. The first president from 1992 to 1993 was Dobrica Ćosić, a former communist Yugoslav partisan during World War II and later one of the writers of the controvserial Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Despite being head of the country, Ćosić was forced out of office in 1993 due to his opposition to Serbian President Milosevic. Ćosić was replaced by Zoran Lilić who served from 1993 to 1997, and then followed by Milosevic becoming Yugoslav President in 1997 after his last legal term as Serbian president ended in 1997. The presidential election in 2000 was accused of being the result of vote fraud. Yugoslav citizens took to the streets and engaged in riots in Belgrade demanding that Milosevic be removed from power. Shortly afterward Milosevic resigned and Vojislav Koštunica took over as Yugoslav president and remained president until the FRY's dissolution in 2003.
[edit] Economy
Mismanagement of the economy, an extended period of economic sanctions, and the damage to Yugoslavia's infrastructure and industry caused by the Kosovo War left the economy only half the size it was in 1990. Since the ousting of former Federal Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition government has implemented stabilization measures and embarked on an aggressive market reform program. After renewing its membership in the International Monetary Fund in December 2000, Yugoslavia continued to reintegrate into the international community by rejoining the World Bank (IBRD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The smaller republic of Montenegro severed its economy from federal control and from Serbia during the Milošević era. Since then, the two republics had separate central banks, different currencies - Montenegro adopted the euro, while Serbia used the Serbian dinar as official currency.
The complexity of the FRY's political relationships, slow progress in privatisation, and stagnation in the European economy were detrimental to the economy. Arrangements with the IMF, especially requirements for fiscal discipline, were an important element in policy formation. Severe unemployment was a key political economic problem. Corruption also presented a major problem, with a large black market and a high degree of criminal involvement in the formal economy.
[edit] References
- ^ Justice for Kosovo - Massacre at Cuska
- ^ CBC News Indepth: Balkans
- ^ BBC News | Inside Kosovo | Velika Krusa
- ^ White, Mary Jo (2000). 767 Third Avenue Associates v. United States: BRIEF FOR AMICUS CURIAE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SUPPORTING APPELLEES AND SUPPORTING AFFIRMANCE IN PART AND REVERSAL IN PART. “Since 1992, the United States has taken the position that the SFRY has ceased to exist, that there is no state representing the continuation of the SFRY, and that five successors have arisen -- the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) (“FRY(S&M)”), the Republic of Slovenia ("Slovenia"), the Republic of Croatia ("Croatia"), the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina ("Bosnia-Herzegovina"), and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ("FYROM")”
