Breakup of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia was a south-eastern European country in the Balkans, a region with a long history of sectarian and ethnic conflict. It was a conglomeration of six regional republics and two autonomous provinces that roughly divided on ethnic lines which split up in the 1990s into five independent countries. These eight federal units were the six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, and two provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina. The most important elements which fostered the hatred that split into the civil war are the formation of the first Yugoslavia, the civil war during the Second World War, the overreaching idea of "Greater Serbia" and the Balkan adaptations of Pan-Slavism. The borders dividing the republics were the product of old treaties signed by the great European powers. Among the republics created was ethnically mixed Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia had never been a modern state, moreover, it did not have a clear ethnic majority with “44% Muslims, 33% Serbs, and the remaining population consisting of Croatians and other minorities.” This left "Greater Serbia" open to interpretation, with large tracks of Bosnia and Croatia under dispute as to its proper ownership.

The death of Josip Broz Tito

The death of Tito on 4 May 1980 removed what many Yugoslavs and Westerners saw as the country’s main unifying force. It exposed the preexisting tensions is Yugoslavia’s multi-ethnic population distribution, with no republic being ethnically homogeneous. This resulted in a large Serb minority outside her official borders, which laid the seeds of fear of domination by Croats and Muslims. Ironically these same fears, only inverted, is what pushed Croatia and especially Bosnia-Herzegovina to seceded from Yugoslavia. Moreover, the presence of three competing religions — Catholicism, Islam, and Orthodox Christianity — divided Yugoslavia again, this time on religious lines. This division is significant due to the effect that Yugoslavia’s historical context has upon the religions inter-relations. In Yugoslavia’s case, religion is a more inflamed issue as during WWII Catholics committed genocide against the Orthodox populations. Furthermore, Islam is seen as odd man out by both strands of Christianity, with the Muslims further seen as sympathetic to the Ottoman Empire by the largely Orthodox Christian Serbian population. Religious divides also marked the division between Western-influenced and Catholic Croatia and Slovenia and Russian-influenced Orthodox Serbia.

Reasons for the breakup

Structural problems

Tito’s Yugoslavia was characterised by constant reforms which failed to resolve key national problems. Moreover, the federal system, due to increasing national tensions, and the communist party’s wish to support "national self determination" began to loosen its control. This resulted in the creation of Kosovo, an autonomous region of Serbia, legislated by the 1974 constitution. This constitution broke down powers between the capital and the newly created autonomous regions in Vojvodina (an area of Yugoslavia with a large number of ethnic minorities) and Kosovo (with a large Albanian population). This 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 see Kosovo as the "cradle of the nation," and would not accept the possibility of losing it to the majority Albanian population. Albanians were especially feared because they were both Muslims and non-Slavs.

Kosovo's special significance was due to the defeat of Prince Lazar, the last King of Serbia. It was said that he was betrayed at the Battle of Kosovo Polje against the invading Ottoman Turks. The devastating defeat was the end of the Serbian kingdom and the beginning of 400 years of subjugation under the Ottomans. However, the first records of the battle weren’t created till 100 years after the battle, and then in the form of a poem. The romantic spin given to this episode of history contributed to the sacred and hallowed nature of the region of Kosovo. The significance of Kosovo in the Serbian mindset was so strong that Serbian children were christened as “little avengers of Kosovo.” This emotional attachment to Kosovo was a major reason for the Kosovo War that broke out in 1999.

This loosened version of the federation, essentially made Yugoslavia a de facto confederacy, placing pressure upon the legitimacy of the regime and engendered resentment in the richer republics. Slovenia and Croatia, the most developed republics were continually frustrated by their inability to further lift their standard of living as they had to subsidize the development of the poor republics in what they described as an "economic black hole." It highlighted the vast differences in the quality of life in the different republics. Tito’s death created further problems, 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. Such short terms were highly ineffective. Essentially it left a power vacuum which was left open for most of the 1980s, with only Slobodan Milošević taking the reigns in 1987.

Economic weakness

Along with internal structural problems, Yugoslavia was further undermined by economic factors. Yugoslavia’s non-aligned stance had resulted in access to loans from both superpower blocs. This contact with the West opened up Yugoslavia’s markets sooner than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The 1973 oil crisis coupled with Western trade barriers, dramatically hindered her thirty years of breakneck economic growth. In order to maintain this, Yugoslavia took on a number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and subsequently fell into heavy IMF debt. As a condition of receiving loans, the IMF demands certain "liberalisation" of a country’s market place. During this time Yugoslavia incurred $19.9 billion in foreign debt by 1981. 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. However of real concern was the unemployment rate, at 1 million by 1980. The recession lowered the number of consumer products available, which had always been higher in Yugoslavia than in other socialist states. It illustrated to the general public the incompetence of the communist party to run the system. A decade of tightening belts resulted in growing frustration and resentment against the both Serbian ‘ruling class,’ and the minorities who were seen to benefit from government legislation.

The international climate

Yugoslavia was a unique state, straddling both the East and West. Moreover, Tito was fundamental maker of the third world or "group of 77" which acted as an alternative to the superpowers. More importantly, Yugoslavia acted as a buffer state between the West and the Soviet Union and also prevented the Soviets from getting a toehold on the Mediterranean Sea. However, with the rise of Gorbachev, perestroika and glasnost, the West felt secure enough in the USSR’s intentions that Yugoslavia was no longer of strategic importance. The external status quo, which the Communist Party had depended upon to remain viable was beginning to disappear. Furthermore, the failure of socialism all over Central and Eastern Europe once again brought Yugoslavia’s inner contradictions, inefficiencies and ethno-religious tensions to the surface.

Nationalism

The perceived disadvantage on the part of the Slovenes and Croatians, the inefficacies of the state, and the "disproportionate" majority of Serbs in the state apparatus allowed nationalist leaders such as Franjo Tudjman of Croatia to whip up nationalistic sentiment in order to demand independence. Tudjman’s reinstatement of the Croatian Checkerboard as the symbol of Croat independence ignited fears of a return to the fascist World War II-era Ustaše state, which was compounded further by circulation of a new currency also named after its Ustaše counterpart. Tudjman’s government-controlled press portrayed the Serb population within Croatia as subversive and imperialistic.

Slobodan Milošević was a master demagogue. In 1989, the 600th anniversary of Serbia’s historic defeat at Kosovo Polje, Milošević gave a highly provocative speech to one million Serbs, which made reference to the nation's great historic past. Milošević’s answer to the incompetence of the federal system was to centralize the government. Considering Slovenia and Croatia were looking farther ahead to independence, this was considered unacceptable.

At the Yugoslav conference in late 1989 talks broke down. The leaders could not come to an agreement on how to deal with the rotating presidency. Moreover many members were no longer willing to rescue what they saw as a sunken ship. War soon broke out in Slovenia in 1990. After a week, the Slovenes were victorious and the break up of Yugoslavia had begun.

References

• Almond, Mark, Europe’s Backyard War, William Heinemann Ltd, Great Britain, 1994
• et. al. Duncan, W. Raymond and Holman, G. Paul, Ethnic Nationalism and Regional Conflict: The Former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Westview Press Inc, USA, 1994. ISBN 0-8133-8813-9
• Dragosavljevic, Angelija, Slobodan Milosevic: A Study In Charismatic Leadership And Its Distortions 1987-1992, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1993
• Magas, Branka, The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-up 1980–1992, Verso, Great Britain, 1993. ISBN 0-86091-593-X
• Mojzes, Paul, Yugoslavian Inferno: in the Balkans, The Continuum Publishing company, USA, 1994
• Parenti, Micheal, To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, Verso, London, 2000
• Radan, Peter, Break-up of Yugoslavia and International Law, Routaledge, Great Britain, 2002
• Woodward, Susan, L. Balkan Tragedy: Chaos & Dissolution after the Cold War, the Brookings Institution Press, Virginia, USA, 1995