Yugoslavia A Fractured Peace Essay Example

Yugoslavia: A Fractured Peace Essay Yugoslavia is a country that is synonymous with ethnic conflict and violence. Under the dictatorial regime of Josip Broz Tito, ethnic strife was suppressed but not resolved. Consequently, his demise ensued Yugoslavia’s bloody fracturing into six independent countries and two sovereign provinces within Serbia. Yugoslavia: A Fractured Peace Since it became the birthplace of World War I, Yugoslavia has been traditionally associated with ethnic conflict and violence. Although these were temporarily suppressed under the dictatorial regime of Josip Broz Tito, they resurged after the fall of the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, as a result, was divided into six independent countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia. Two sovereign provinces within Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina, were likewise formed. We will write a custom essay sample on Yugoslavia: A Fractured Peace specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Yugoslavia: A Fractured Peace specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Yugoslavia: A Fractured Peace specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Yugoslavia under Tito (1943-1991) Yugoslavia was in a state of chaos shortly before and during World War II. The establishment of the country on December 1, 1918 united the Balkans’ three major ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats and Muslims (Dilger, 2003). However, the fledgling leadership of Yugoslavia was characterized with ethnic strife (Roberts, 1987). The Croats served in important military and civilian positions. But King Alexander, a Serb, controlled the executive, military and the police (Dilger, 2003). Consequently, the country’s political parties were divided along ethnic lines (Dilger, 2003). Politicians and intellectuals discussed national issues in terms of how these will affect their respective ethnic groups. Increasing resentment over perceived ethnic inequality eventually led to violence. Alexander, for one, was assassinated by Croatian nationalists in Marseilles, France on October 9, 1934 (Roberts, 1987). World War II further deepened the historical consciousness of both Serbs and Croats. Germany’s occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941 resulted in the creation of an independent Croatian state that included most of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Macedonia was brought under Bulgarian control. Kosovo, meanwhile, was conquered by Italy (Dilger, 2003). In addition, the Nazis incited hatred and bloodshed among Yugoslavia’s various ethnic groups. Ante Pavelic, the leader of the new state of Croatia, was likewise the head of the Ustashe, a Croatian fascist organization that massacred Jews, Gypsies and Serbs in Krajina and Bosnia. Serb nationalists, in retaliation, slaughtered Croats and Muslims who had allied themselves with Croatia (Dilger, 2003). The Nazis were very much aware that they will remain in power as long as the Yugoslavs were fighting and killing each other. Reunification of Yugoslavia By the end of World War II, the idea of a unified and independent Yugoslavia was already considered impossible. But this belief was debunked when the Yugoslav monarchy-in-exile appointed Tito, the Croat leader of the Yugoslav Communist Party, as prime minister in March 1945. He envisioned Yugoslavia as a federation of six national republics. Although each republic was considered â€Å"sovereign,† all of them ceded political power to Tito and the Communists (Dilger, 2003). Under Tito, the political power of the Serbs had considerably decreased. Most of the latter’s territories were either converted into autonomous states or were merged with regions predominated by other ethnic groups. Southern Serbia, for instance, became Macedonia. Montenegro, on the other hand, was transformed from a former Serb kingdom into a nation (Dilger, 2003). Two independent regions within the Serb republic – Kosovo and Vojvodina – were also established. Kosovo’s population was predominantly Albanian. Vojvodina, meanwhile, had a citizenry that was composed of different ethnic groups, including Hungarians, Slovaks and Romanians. Bosnia-Herzegovina was declared a multinational republic in order to put an end to the competing claims of Serbs, Croats and Muslims to the area (Dilger, 2003). Hindrances to Genuine Unification Despite government attempts at urbanization, modernization and geographic integration of nationalities, Tito’s goal of turning Yugoslavia into a single Communist federation remained elusive. This was mainly because his regime failed to develop a Yugoslav identity that would take the place of all existing ethnic or religious identities. Most people continued to identify themselves as â€Å"Serbs,† â€Å"Croats,† or â€Å"Muslims† rather than â€Å"Yugoslavs.† Such a manner of identification would later culminate in the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the war in Bosnia in 1992 (Dilger, 2003). Demoralizing Economic Decline. In 1965, Tito came up with his own brand of â€Å"market socialism† – a broad economic reform that removed administrative price controls (UdoviÄ ki and Ridgeway, 2000). Consequently, Yugoslavia enjoyed the highest standard of living among all Socialist countries throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. During these decades, it was not uncommon for ordinary Yugoslavs to own cars and vacation houses. They also had access to the same appliances found in American homes, such as television sets, VCRs and washing machines (Franz, 2005). But the above-mentioned signs of economic prosperity were merely facades. Because of its expulsion from the Soviet bloc in 1948, Yugoslavia managed to obtain cheap foreign loans in the 1970s. The republics, granted centralist power by the 1974 constitution, squandered these mortgages under the guise of â€Å"self-management.† As a result, their respective vital industries were severely neglected (UdoviÄ ki and Ridgeway, 2000). Bosnia and Herzegovina, for instance, became a net importer of food, although its agriculture was almost entirely in private hands and was therefore assumed to be prosperous (Franz, 2005). Resurgence of Ethnic Strife. The dismal economic situation of Yugoslavia in the 1960s and the 1970s reignited nationalistic sentiments among the country’s various racial groups. The wealthier republics, for one, â€Å"resented the increasing economic burdens of the poorer ones† (Dilger, 2003). Thus, the Yugoslav elites were divided between those who called for economic reforms and those who opposed them to avoid marginalizing the poorer republics. In addition, minority groups began working towards improving their political and economic status (Dilger, 2003). Muslims in the Bosnian League of Communists, for instance, appealed to the federal government to raise their status from â€Å"national minority† to â€Å"constituent nation.† In response, the 1974 constitution granted Yugoslav Muslims constituent nation status. However, ethnic divisions continued to increase as the years progressed. When Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in the late 1980s, the Serbs and the Croats â€Å"increasingly focused on other groups as the enemy† (Dilger, 2003). After Tito Tito’s death in 1980 spelled the beginning of the end for Yugoslavia. Without a leader bearing a potentially unifying ideology, the state began to unravel. Dissent likewise started to increase as the governments of the republics used their constitutionally-mandated powers to advance the interests of a few. Corruption and social injustice became very rampant and were interpreted as the results of ethnic inequality (Judah, 2003). In Kosovo, Serbs accused ethnic Albanians of discrimination and persecution. The Albanians, in turn, called for the merging of Kosovo with Albania. The Croats and the Slovenes, meanwhile, resented the federal government’s usage of the revenue that they generated from tourism in order to financially support poorer republics such as Kosovo (Judah, 2003). With Communism in its dying days in Yugoslavia, long-ignored animosity among the country’s various ethnic groups threatened to explode into violence. Serbian politician Slobodan Milosevic took advantage of the country’s aforementioned condition in order to put himself into power (Judah, 2003). He capitalized mainly on the issue of Kosovo, brandishing an ideology of Serbian nationalism which he claimed to be the best replacement to Communism. Milosevic’s own brand of Serbian nationalism appealed to all Serbs to use violence to protect Serbian national identity and to avenge whatever injustice they may have experienced in the hands of the Yugoslavia’s other racial groups. As a result, he quickly became popular among the country’s Serbs, especially those from Kosovo (Weitz, 2003). Milosevic became the de facto president of Serbia after overthrowing Ivan Stambolic in December 1987. The former used his newfound position to revive and intensify old racial hostilities. In 1988, the Titoist leadership of Vojvodina was replaced with Milosevic loyalists. The Serbian constitution was amended in 1989 in order to impose direct Serbian rule over Kosovo and Vojvodina. In effect, the autonomy of both provinces was abolished (Weiner, 1994). Milosevic further strengthened Serbian dominance over Kosovo by disbanding its parliament in 1990. The province’s independent-minded leadership was arrested and instruction in the Albanian language was banned. Milosevic loyalists were eventually appointed to the government of Montenegro. These steps assured Milosevic a landslide victory in Serbia’s presidential elections in 1989 (Weiner, 1994). The Breakup of Yugoslavia Milosevic’s control over Kosovo, Vojvodina and Montenegro allowed him to virtually paralyze the federal government. Opposition from his regime resulted in the resignation of Federal President Stipe Mesic (a Croat) on December 5, 1991 and Federal Prime Minister Ante Markovic on December 20, 1991. Yugoslavia’s other republics, in response, began to declare their independence. What ensued were years of bloody civil war (Weiner, 1994). Croatia (1991) Croatia’s 1990 parliamentary and presidential elections resulted in the victory of the Croatian Democratic Community and its leader, former general and military historian Franjo Tudjman. These developments caused fear among the Serbs, who constituted about 12% of the republic’s population. Their apprehension later proved to be well-founded – Tudjman’s government removed Serbs from Croatia’s civil service and police force. Consequently, Serbs in Croatia formed the autonomous region of Krajina and called for secession and unification of all Serbs under Milosevic’s â€Å"Greater Serbia† (Weiner, 1994). The Yugoslav People’s Army (YPA) came to their aid by driving out or murdering Croatia’s non-Serb populace – a process that was later known as ethnic cleansing. The civil war in Croatia only came to a halt when the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) managed to negotiate a ceasefire between the Serbs and the Croats in January 1992. In March 1992, the UN dispatched 14,000 peacekeeping troops to Croatia (Weiner, 1994). Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995) Bosnia-Herzegovina also held their parliamentary and presidential elections in 1990. The Muslim Party of Democratic Action (PDA) and its leader, Alija Izetbegovic, both won landslide victories. Izetbegovic initially expected that Bosnia-Hezegovina would remain associated with federal Yugoslavia – Bosnia-Herzegovina, after all, was a multiethnic state composed of Muslims, Serbs and Croats. But this belief was shattered when Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its sovereignty on February 29, 1992 (Weiner, 1994). This did not sit well with the republic’s Serbs, who had already proclaimed their own Republic of Serbska in Bosnia-Herzegovina on December 21, 1991. The Croats, in response, declared their own Republic of Herzog-Bosna on July 3, 1992. They and the Muslims likewise formed an alliance against the common Serbian enemy (Weiner, 1994). But the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina took a bloody turn when the YPA assisted the Serbian forces in the republic. This development proved to be very detrimental for the lightly-armed Muslims, as an arms embargo instituted by the UN Security Council rendered them unable to increase their firepower. The war resulted in a death toll that was estimated to be between 120,000 and 200,000 (Weiner, 1994). In the process, the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, acquired an international reputation as one of the most war-torn and dangerous places across the globe. Kosovo (1998-1999) Although Serbs constituted only about 10% of the entire population of Kosovo, the province is of immense historical and emotional importance to them. For the Serbs, Kosovo is â€Å"the cradle of their culture, religion and national identity† (BBC.co.uk, 2006). After Tito’s death, the region’s Serbs began calling for independence due to their experiences of persecution from the Albanian majority. Motivated by political opportunism, Milosevic took advantage of this situation by presenting himself as a champion of Serbian nationalism. Upon becoming Yugoslav president in 1989, he established Serbian rule over Kosovo by stripping the region of its sovereignty (BBC.co.uk, 2006). The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian rebel movement, was formed in the mid-1990s as a response to Serbian rule over Kosovo. By 1998, even ordinary Albanians were already staging mass demonstrations against Serbian control. As a result, police and army reinforcements from Yugoslavia had to be deployed to Kosovo to defeat the KLA. Many ethnic Albanians accused of being KLA sympathizers were killed in the process (BBC.co.uk). Despite widespread international outrage, Milosevic continued to persecute Kosovo Albanians. He even went as far as rejecting an armistice that was negotiated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Consequently, NATO launched air strikes in Serbia and Kosovo in March 1999. The bombings led to the displacement of about 750,000 ethnic Albanians. More than two months later, Milosevic was forced to pull out his troops from Kosovo. He also became the first head of state that was tried in the international war crimes tribunal in Hague while still in office (BBC.co.uk). Conclusion The most enduring legacies of Yugoslavia are ethnic conflict and violence. This is because the country’s leaders never fully resolved the underlying causes of ethnic strife. Tito, for one, simply assumed that imposing Communism on the people was enough to unify them. He did not do anything about the real impediments towards national unity, such as discrimination, lack of opportunities, corruption, etc. Thus, Yugoslavia collapsed after his death. Slobodan Milosevic, an opportunistic and power-hungry individual, used ethnic conflict as a means of rising into supremacy. To keep himself in power, he goaded the Serbs to kill their own fellow Yugoslavs. Failure to address the reasons behind ethnic inequality plunged Yugoslavia into a cycle of violence that ultimately destroyed it.