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Miloš Nešović

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Miloš Nešović (Serbian Cyrillic: Милош Нешовић; born 2 May 1937) is a Serbian politician and administrator. He was the leader of the Kosovo District from 1996 to 1998 and a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 1997 to 2004. During his political career, he was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS).

Private career

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Nešović has a bachelor's degree in engineering, in the field of labour organization.[1]

Administrator in Kosovo

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Nešović was deputy leader of the Kosovo District in the mid-1990s, working under Aleksa Jokić in 1995 and 1996.[2][3][4] During this period, Serbian political life was dominated by the authoritarian rule of SPS leader Slobodan Milošević, and most Kosovo Albanians were boycotting Serbian state institutions in favour of parallel institutions established under Ibrahim Rugova's leadership. Nešović's appointment coincided with a brief period of relative improvement in relations between leaders of the communities.[5] In June 1996, Jokić and Nešović were present at the opening of the United States Information Center in Kosovo, as was Rugova.[6]

Nešović was promoted to leader of the Kosovo District in late 1996.[7] The Kosovo insurgency grew over the next year and a half, as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) increased its presence as a militant force in the province. In a New York Times article written by Chris Hedges in February 1997, Nešović was quoted as saying, "These terrorist groups are well trained and well equipped. The police have just broken a terrorist cell with dozens of armed militants. They found automatic weapons, explosives and sophisticated communications equipment."[8] In the same month, Nešović told representatives of a European Parliament delegation to Kosovo and Metohija that Kosovo was an integral part of Serbia and Yugoslavia, and that conflict in the province should be resolved through negotiations.[9] He was replaced as leader of the Kosovo District by Veljko Odalović in early 1998, as the Kosovo War was beginning.

Parliamentarian and Telekom administrator

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Nešović was given the lead position on the Socialist Party's electoral list for the Kraljevo division in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected when the list won two seats.[10][11][12] The SPS formed a coalition government with the far-right Serbian Radical Party (Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS) and the Yugoslav Left (Jugoslovenska Levica, JUL) after the election, and Nešović served as a government supporter. In January 1998, he was chosen as deputy chair of the committee for traffic and communications.[13]

He was also appointed as the first general manager of Telekom Srbija in 1997, soon after the company's founding. In May 1999, he said that the Kosovo War and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia had caused an estimated one billion Deutschemarks worth of damage to the company, which he added was still operating full-time and carrying out its responsibilities as well as possible under the circumstances. He noted that Telekom Srbija was in constant contact with state authorities in Kosovo and Metohija and was working to restore its links in the province.[14] Most of Kosovo ultimately fell beyond Serbia's control after the war.

Nešović was given further responsibilities as head of the Moravica District in this period and worked to find housing for Kosovo Serb refugees in late 1999.[15] Various Serbian officials were placed under international sanctions in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, and in March 2000 Nešović was included on a list of officials unable to obtain visas from European Union countries.[16]

Slobodan Milošević was defeated by Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS) candidate Vojislav Koštunica in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics. The new administration demanded Nešović's resignation as general manager of Telekom. He initially refused to leave, saying that he had "always worked in a very professional manner" irrespective of his political affiliation.[17] He ultimately stood down on 7 November 2000 after a strike by the company's workers, and he was formally removed from office the following week.[18][19][20]

Serbia's government fell after Milošević's defeat in the Yugoslavian election, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was called for December 2000. Prior to the vote, Serbia's electoral laws were changed such that the entire country became a single electoral division and all mandates were assigned to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.[21] Nešović appeared in the 154th position out of 250 on the SPS's list, which was mostly alphabetical, and was given a mandate for a new term when the list won thirty-seven seats.[22][23] The DOS won a landslide majority victory, and the SPS served in opposition in the parliament that followed. During his second term, Nešović was a member of the committee for traffic and communications.[24] He did not seek re-election in 2003, and his parliamentary tenure ended in January 2004.

Since 2003

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Nešović was named as one of Kraljevo's honorary citizens of the year in 2017.[25]

References

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  1. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (21 Краљево), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 9 September 2021.
  2. ^ Perica Vucinic & Dragan Todorovic, "United Differences", Vreme, 20 February 1995, accessed 6 December 1995.
  3. ^ REPORT on Albanian asylum-seekers from Kosovo, Council of Europe, 22 December 1995, accessed 5 December 1995.
  4. ^ Yugoslav Daily Survey, 96-10-31, Hellenic Resources Network, accessed 5 December 2022.
  5. ^ See Florian Bieber, Zidas Daskalovski, ed., Understanding the War in Kosovo, (London, 2003), pp. xi–xii.
  6. ^ Newsline – June 6, 1996, Radio Free Europe, 5 December 2022.
  7. ^ "DAS GROßE PECH, NACH HAUSE ZU KOMMEN," Süddeutsche Zeitung, 27 November 1996.
  8. ^ Chris Hedges, "Resistance to Serbia Turns Violent in Kosovo," The New York Times, 17 February 1997, p. 3.
  9. ^ Yugoslav Daily Survey, 97-02-25, Hellenic Resources Network, accessed 5 December 2022.
  10. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (21 Краљево), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 9 September 2021.
  11. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године (Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997.) године, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  12. ^ PRVA SEDNICA, 03.12.1997., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 12 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Tomic predsednik, Nikolic zamenik", Naša borba, 14 January 1998, accessed 6 December 2022.
  14. ^ "NATO strikes cause DM1bn damage to Serbian telecoms – Tanjug," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 23 May 1999 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1328 gmt 23 May 99).
  15. ^ "Kosovo Serbs agree to be placed in collective housing," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 9 September 1999 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1618 gmt 9 Sep 99).
  16. ^ "Prosireni spisak lica koja ne mogu dobiti vize za zemlje EU", B92, 1 March 2000, accessed 6 December 2022.
  17. ^ "Telecom Serbia rejects accusations against its executives," Agence France-Press, 1 November 2000.
  18. ^ "Telekom Srbija boss resigns, others offer to quit," Reuters News, 7 November 2000.
  19. ^ "Nova moda prenošenja ovlašćenja", Glas javnosti, 10 November 2000, accessed 6 December 2022.
  20. ^ "Smenjeni direktori PTT-a i Telekoma", Glas javnosti, 14 November 2000, accessed 6 December 2022.
  21. ^ Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017.
  22. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 Социјалистичка партија Србије – Слободан Милошевић), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 2 July 2021.
  23. ^ PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 1 December 2022.
  24. ^ ДЕТАЉИ О НАРОДНОМ ПОСЛАНИКУ: НЕШОВИЋ , МИЛОШ, Archived 22 April 2003 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, 22 April 2003, accessed 6 December 2022.
  25. ^ "POČASNI KRALJEVČANIN MILOŠ NEŠOVIĆ", Krug, 7 October 2017, accessed 6 December 2022.