The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia

Transcription

1 The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia

2 Also by Aleksandar Pavkovic CONTEMPORARY YUGOSLAV PHILOSOPHY: An Analytic Approach (editor) NATIONALISM AND POSTCOMMUNISM: A Collection of Essays (co-editor) SLOBODAN JOVANOVIC: An Unsentimental Approach to Politics

3 The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia Nationalism and War in the Balkans Aleksandar Pavkovic Associate Professor in Politics Macquarie University Sydney Second edition pal grave macmillan

4 Published in Great Britain by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, LLC, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y ISBN Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pavkovic, Aleksandar. The fragmentation of Yugoslavia : nationalism and war in the Balkans I Aleksandar Pavkovic. - 2nd ed. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (pbk.) 1. Yugoslavia-History Yugoslavia-History Yugoslavia-History Yugoslav War, Diplomatic history. 5. Nationalism-Yugoslavia. I. Title DR 1282.P '02-dc21 99-{)51697 Aleksandar Pavkovic 1997, 2000 First edition 1997 Second edition 2000 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP OLP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

5 Contents List of Maps Preface to the Second Edition Guide to Pronunciation PART I A COMMON HOMELAND OF THE SOUTH SLAVS 1 Yugoslavia at the Crossroads of Competing National Myths The Creation of a United Kingdom The Competing National Myths The Yugoslav Idea: a Belated National Myth Towards a Yugoslav State: World War I 2 The First Yugoslavia 3 World War II The Uprisings Against the Axis and the Civil War National Ideologies at War The Partisans and the Allies: Towards Victory The Legacy of War 4 The Second Yugoslavia A Federation and its Internal Borders Communist Mobilisation and Control of the Population The Yugoslav Road to Socialism The Yugoslav Road to Defence PART II THE HOMELAND FRAGMENTED 5 From a Centralised State to a Semiconfederation Intellectuals and the Revival of Old National Demands New Communist National Elites in Action New Nations and New National Movements A Semi confederation under Tito's Personal Rule vm IX xiii v

6 VI Contents The Semiconfederation and the Conflicting National Demands 70 Tito's Fragmentation of Yugoslavia 73 6 The Loss of Legitimacy The Twilight Years of Tito's Rule 75 The Economic Crisis and the Loss of Legitimacy 77 Kosovo: the Hardest Test of the Yugoslav Federation 80 7 The Rise ofnationalism: From Dissidence to Power Kosovo Albanian Nationalism 86 Serb Nationalism 88 Slovene Nationalism 90 Croat Nationalism 92 Muslim Nationalism 94 The Conflict of Nationalisms 97 8 The Rise of New National Elites Economic Reform in a Disintegrating Federation 101 MiloseviC's Mass Mobilisation of the Serbs 103 Slovenia: the Rise of the Dissidents 109 The Dissidents' Takeovers in Other Republics 112 Serbia and Montenegro: the Victory ofex-communist Parties 120 The Outcome of the Elections On the Road to War: On the Road to Secession: Slovenia and Croatia 125 The Serb Insurrection in Croatia 128 The Fragmentation of the Yugoslav Federal Army Wars for Independence: Slovenia and Croatia Slovenia 135 National Liberation through a Public Relations Campaign 135 The EC's Quick Intervention 138 The Outcome: National Liberation with a Little Struggle? 140 Croatia 141 Croatia and Serb Krajina: Two Homelands, Two Liberation Wars? 141 The Urge to Intervene: the Media, the EC and the UN 147 A Homeland Destroyed: the End of Serb Krajina 153 International Management of National Liberation Wars: a Model 154

7 Contents Vll Bosnia-Hercegovina: an Unfinished National Liberation? 157 From Secession(s) to War National Liberation or Conquest (or both): Military Operations National Liberation On Hold: the Limits of Humanitarian Intervention? 168 NATO Military Intervention: to Impose a Partition? 176 Under NATO's Protection: an Unfinished National Liberation? 181 Kosovo: National Liberation Through Foreign Intervention National Liberation Through Passive Resistance: the Democratic League of Kosovo National Liberation Through Armed Struggle: Kosovo Liberation Army in Action The First International Intervention: to Monitor a Ceasefire or to Expose Atrocities? 191 Making Kosovo Safe for Kosovo Albanians: NATO's Liberation of Kosovo 194 Kosovo between the KLA and NATO: from National Liberation to an International Protectorate 197 Epilogue: National Liberations: is there an End to Them? 201 Further Reading 211 Notes and References 213 Index

8 List of Maps 1. Yugoslavia at the time of its creation Distribution of national groups by republic and province (1991) Yugoslavia in Serbs in the population of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina by Commune (1981) Dayton Agreements division of Bosnia-Hercegovina Map of Kosovo/Kosova 186 Vl!l

9 Preface to the Second Edition The story which I set out to write was the story of how ideas - national ideologies- shaped the creation as well as the destruction ofyugoslavia, the common homeland of the South Slavs. Many years ago, when studying Yugoslav history, I thought that the emergence of Yugoslavia in 1918 presented a fine example of how nineteenth-century ideas shaped the political map of twentieth-century Europe; I could not have imagined, at that time, that its destruction would offer yet another example of the same kind. Only when I first wrote the story did I realise that it is a story of ideas and of war - of how national ideologies, through warfare, shaped the twentieth-century map of the Balkans. The Yugoslav idea, one of the many national ideologies of the nineteenth-century Balkans, inspired the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June The same idea influenced the war aims of the Kingdom of Serbia in World War I and provided the basis for the Corfu declaration of 1917, the wartime constitutional blueprint of the future Yugoslav state. National ideologies also shaped the war aims, policies and practices of the two, mutually opposed, resistance movements in as well as of the pro-axis Croat Ustasha movement during the first fragmentation of Yugoslavia in World War II. National ideologies of a similar kind - but of quite different content - shaped the war aims and policies of various national movements and parties during the second fragmentation, which started in 1991 with the wars in Slovenia and Croatia and which, perhaps, has not ended as yet. A war, fought for the realisation of the Yugoslav national idea, created Yugoslavia in 1918 and a series of wars, starting in 1991, inspired by quite different national ideas and blueprints, destroyed it. While the ideas and beliefs which inspired national leaders and, to some extent, fighters in these wars differ greatly in content, they all belong, I believe, to the same broad category - that of national liberation ideologies. Ideologies of this kind purport to identify the foreign oppressor or oppressors of the national group which they address and then call for its liberation, by armed force if necessary, from this foreign oppression. Living under foreign rule is regarded as an unbearable and continuous personal humiliation; the liberation from it, all the ideologies of this kind assume, is a primary duty of every individual. This focus on the (alleged) primary duty of individuals to act in defence of their (and their families') personal dignity and freedom makes the lx

10 X Preface to the Second Edition national liberation ideologies powerful instruments of political mobilisation: these ideologies call upon every individual of a particular national group to support, by his or her action, a political programme which allegedly leads to the liberation from foreign oppression and thus to a free and dignified life for all the individuals in this group. In short, they identify the culprit for the key grievances (as defined by the ideology in question) and propose a plan of collective action for removing the culprit. This model of political action and thought is, for obvious reasons, highly suitable for war mobilisation as well: the principal culprit is always placed outside of the national group and is, thus, an easily identifiable target for the use of force; the destruction or removal of the culprit, so placed, presents no loss to the national group; and any action against such a culprit is always presented as an act of defence of freedom and dignity. Thus, the use of force to remove the foreign culprit responsible for national oppression is easily justified as an act of defence which can lead to no loss to the national group. In this book I attempt to outline, briefly, the national liberation ideologies involved in the processes of the creation and fragmentation of Yugoslavia and to relate them, in a very general and thus imprecise manner, to the political and war aims of the political movements and parties which were engaged in warfare in former Yugoslavia. The ideologies with I outline are espoused - and sometimes constructed - by the leaders of the political movements and parties; I do not explore, in any systematic way, the extent to which these ideologies were accepted - and how they were interpreted - by their rank- and-file supporters. In particular, I fail to examine how and why in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the new political parties inspired by anti-communist dissident national ideologies came to draw such wide support among all the national groups in former Yugoslavia. This question, I think, warrants a separate comparative study of this crucial period in the spread of national ideologies. Furthermore, I am attempting to provide only a partial framework for understanding the ideological motivations which political and/ or military leaders had in pursuing their political programmes and policies. As a result, the book fails to address the central question in contemporary discussions of the disintegration of Yugoslavia: how to identify and how to rank the causal factors involved in the disintegration. As I am not attempting to offer a causal explanation either for the creation or the disintegration of Yugoslavia, my focus on national ideologies is not an attempt to rank them as a causal factor relative to other causal factors which could be used to explain the Yugoslav disintegration.

11 Preface to the Second Edition xi Moreover, I do not discuss the questions of responsibility for (and the morality of) war and the acts of violence against civilians and captured soldiers. The focus on national ideologies in Yugoslavia as well as the limitations of space restricted my examination of the politically motivated violence to its narrowly functional aspect: how such violence contributed to the realisation of the goals set by national ideologies. In evaluating the historical experience of 'its' national group, each dissident national ideology - articulated in the period between 1970 and predictably minimised the extent and importance of the violence which the members of 'its' national group committed against civilians in World War II and other wars, and strongly condemned the violence committed against 'its' group. In this respect these national ideologies differ little from others of the same kind or from each other. But unlike some national ideologies of the World War II period, none of these dissident national ideologies - which helped to define the war aims of various parties since offer an explicit justification for political violence against the civilians of the opposing national group. In consequence, these formerly dissident national ideologies offer no explicit justification of the forced expulsion of civilian populations so widespread in the most recent wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo. Other factors, including military objectives and motives, may be of more help in understanding the motivation for this and other kinds of violence against civilians than the national ideologies discussed in the book. No political ideology nor military objective can easily explain, I think, many other aspects of violence - such as the widespread torture and sexual abuse ofboth civilians and soldiers- characteristic of some recent wars as well as of World War II; violence of this kind requires, I believe, explanations outside the scope of political science or history. This book, however, attempts no systematic account of any aspect of politically motivated violence against civilians in any period under study. My approach - as well as the limitations of space - does not allow for the 'voices from below' to be heard - the opinions and sentiments of non-elite, ordinary men and women, who have suffered most from the fragmentation of, and wars in, Yugoslavia. The book does not tell their story and offers little if any insight into their attitudes and views. As a result, to most people who have lived through - and to those who are still living through - the horrors of the recent wars in former Yugoslavia, the story told in the book must appear somewhat unreal. This book is dedicated to the victims of the wars in Yugoslavia whose voices and suffering it fails to record.

12 Xll Preface to the Second Edition Note on the second edition: For this edition, chapters 10, 11, 12 and the epilogue of the first edition have been rewritten. Minor modifications and additions have been also made in the rest of the text. In preparing the second edition, I received help from Steven Kosovich, Robert F Miller, Peter Radan, Steven K. Pavlowitch, Dejan Dokic, Dejan Jovic, Kyril Drezov and Bulent Gokay. Macquarie University provided a research grant and Clare Hall, Cambridge, a friendly ambience which both helped me to complete my work. As before, my family endured with patience my absences, both mental and physical, which the writing of this book entailed. To all my heartfelt thanks. Aleksandar Pavkovic

13 Guide to Pronunciation SERBO-CROATIAN C, c and C, c are pronounced as 'ch' in cheque or chew. Dz, dz and Dj, dj or D, dare pronounced as 'dz' injazz or joy (dj and d are alternative transcriptions of the same letter; thus 'Tudjman' is often spelled as 'Tudman'). Lj, lj is pronounced as 'lj' in million. Nj, nj is pronounced as nj in onion. S, s is pronounced as 'sh' in she. Z, z is pronounced as 'zh' in leisure or treasure. ALBANIAN C pronounced as 'ts' in rats. ~ pronounced as 'ch' in church. E pronounced as 'a' in sofa (as well as in other ways, depending on the region). R prounounced as 't' in city. X prounounced as 'dz' in adze or 'ds' in heads'. X111