|
|
 |
| Separation of Yugoslavia The death of Marshal Tito caused insecurity and uncertainty throughout Yugoslavia. Tito knew that his death would lead to this. He devised a plan, a collective leadership comprising a rotating eight-member state presidency. All officials would be elected on the basis of equal representation from six states and two provinces. This, however, was an unstable system because of an absence of a dominant figure. The different republics started taking about wanting Independence. Meanwhile, in Serbia, a new political leader was rising into power. This was Slobodan Milosevic. He made a speech in Kosovo amidst a Serb audience and told them "No one will dare to beat you again." It was a rule in Yugoslavia not to make speeches or public talks against an ethnic group or favoring another. With this the Serb crowd went crazy. In 1989, Milosevic became president in Serbia. The first ting he did was to remove the autonomous status from the two provinces. Many Albanians were fired form jobs, since almost all places of work were government properties. Protesting and boycotting followed as Kosovar Albanians were angry of the changes. This did not just anger the Albanians, but all the other Republics which thought that they might be next. Yugoslavia became very unstable during this time, and on June 25 1991, Slovenia and Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia followed. The next year, in 1992, Serbia followed by fighting for territory in Croatia, bombing the cities of Vukovar and Dubrovnik. The war then moved into Bosnia where the three major ethnic groups; the Croats, the Serbs and the Muslims fought for possession of this historically multiethnic region. Before the war, the Muslims were the majority of the population, with Serbs and Croats following closely. These three groups have tried to protect their interests in Bosnia, and the most important being the safety of the people and territorial control. During the war, many people were forced to flee Bosnia as a part of the Serbian "ethnic cleansing". These were mostly Bosnian Muslims. Serb forces, that same year, surrounded Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and set a blockade on the people during a harsh winter. Many people died from hunger, and from Serbian civilian building bombings. Currently, the Serbs control the majority of the territory. Several plans have been considered to partition Bosnia according to ethnic dominance. A cease-fire was reached February, 1994. On March, an agreement was signed to create a Muslim-Croat confederation. Fighting continued in 1995 but the balance of power shifted toward the Muslim-Croat alliance. Massive air strikes at Bosnian-Serb targets brought about a new round of peace talks and the siege of Sarajevo ended. These new talks created an agreement to create autonomous regions within Bosnia. Largely, the military actions of the Bosnians and Croatians were defensive. They were not involved in ethnic cleansing as were the Serbs. By 1995 the world recognized the independent states of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia was assiisted in achieving a democratic and peaceful transition to independence with a state constitution that allowed rights to its minorities. Late that year, an agreement started in Dayton, Ohio was signed in Paris leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia. NATO troops moved in to police the accord. Meanwhile, a UN tribunal began bringing charges against suspected war criminals. Elections were held on fall 1996, for a three-person collective presidency, for seats in a federal parliament, and for regional offices. |