THE DISSOLUTION of YUGOSLAVIA (1990) Chaired by Jake Morris
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THE DISSOLUTION OF YUGOSLAVIA (1990) Chaired by Jake Morris Session XXII The Dissolution of Yugoslavia (1990) Topic A: The End of Communism in Yugoslavia Topic B: E thnic Conflict in the Balkans Committee Overview Parliamentary Procedure As Yugoslavia enters the 1990s, The Parliamentary Procedure used communism is collapsing across Eastern in this committee will be uniform Europe and by January 1990, the throughout the entire conference, although Communist Party of Yugoslavia ceases to because it is a crisis committee, sometimes exist. It is up to you the determine the parliamentary procedure may be future of Yugoslavia, a federal republic that overlooked to keep the fast pace of the has just lost the only party that has led it committee. In the event of crises, delegates since World War II. Will you usher in a new may change Parliamentary Procedure to era of liberal democracy or will you attempt reflect the urgency of said crisis. to bring back the Communist party? Especially if democracy is the goal, how will you reconcile the different hopes and dreams of the many ethnic and religious groups within Yugoslavia? Sensing a looming crisis in the Balkans, the Americans and Soviets have invited you to a special summit to determine the future of Yugoslavia on February 1st, 1990. Besides the tensions surrounding the collapse of the Communist party, many are worried about ethnic and religious conflict destroying the fragile state. Your job is to work diligently to preserve peace while also protecting your political ideology and ethnic/religious group. Delegates should prepare for foreign interference, economic calamity, and other unforeseen challenges. – 1 – Delegate Biogra phies Slobodan Milošević Franjo Tuđman 7th President of the Socialist Republic of Serbia 1st President of the Croatian Democratic Union In 1984, Milošević became the leader of the local Tuđman had a long history of causing Communist organization in Belgrade, walking problems for the Yugoslav government in the footsteps of his mentor, Ivan Stambolic. through the collapse of communism in January He was a populist leader who appealed directly 1990. After becoming one of the youngest to Serbians and called for an Antibureaucratic generals in the Yugoslav army in 1960, he revolution. This revolution eventually toppled shortly left the military to pursue a career in his mentor, Stambolic, and ushered in a more academia. His frequent criticism of the nationalist era of Serbian politics where government’s exaggeration of crimes Milošević was adamant that Kosovo and committed by the Croatian Nazis during World Vojvodina should be fully part of the Serbian War II got him kicked out of the Communist republic. Even at a time of intense economic Party in 1967 and he was later arrested twice. disruption, Milošević was a defender of In 1989, he founded the Croatian Democratic traditional socialist values of heavy state Union, or HDZ.2 intervention in the economy.1 Alija Izetbegović Milan Kučan Founder of the Democratic Party of Action in Former Leader of the League of Communists of Bosnia Slovenia Izetbegović was a Bosnian politician and a Long a politically active Slovenian, Kučan devout Muslim nationalist, a problem in a quickly worked his way up the ranks of the republic where 1/3rd of the population was not League of Communists of Slovenia and their Muslim, but Christian, many of whom saw civil society organization, the Socialist Alliance themselves more as Croats or Serbians. Earlier of Working People. In 1978, he became in his life, under Yugoslavia’s Communist president of the assembly of the Republic of oneparty rule, he was imprisoned for his Slovenia and in the early 80s, he was Slovenia’s Islamic beliefs.3 main representative in Belgrade before returning to Ljubljana in 1986. On his return to Slovenia, he became the republic’s Communist leader, a position he used to place Slovenia on the path towards reform and ever closer connections with Western Europe.4 1 John B Allcock, “Slobodan Milošević,” E ncyclopædia Britannica , last accessed August 25, 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/SlobodanMilosevic. 2 Ibid. 3 David Binder. “Alija Izetbegovic, Muslim Who Led Bosnia, Dies at 78.” T he New York Times, Oct. 20, 2003, www.nytimes.com/2003/10/20/world/alijaizetbegovicmuslimwholedbosniadiesat78.html. 4 Milan Kučan. “Biography of Milan Kučan.” www.bivsipredsednik.si/uprs/20022007/bpmk.nsf/ostalo/Biography. – 2 – Janez Drnovšek Borisav Jović 12th President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia 3rd Serbian Representative in the Yugoslav Drnovšek was an active member of the Presidency Communist Party of Yugoslavia and served as Jović was a longtime senior aide to Slobodan an economic advisor at their embassy in Cairo Milošević in Belgrade and onetime Serbian during the 1980s. In 1989, he was allowed to representative to the rotating collective contest the Slovenian government’s preferred presidency of Yugoslavia.20 During the late 80s, candidate in an election to appoint the he helped Milošević gain power in the Slovenian representative to Belgrade. He Antibureaucratic Revolution. soundly defeated the government’s candidate and is currently serving as the Chairman of the Veljko Kadijević Collective Presidency of Yugoslavia. He also 5th Federal Secretary of People’s Defense of used his foreign connections to preside over the 5 Yugoslavia summit of nonAligned nations in 1989. A general in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and the Minister of Defense in the Yugoslav Mate Boban government since 1988. While he had both BosnianCroat Businessman Serbian and Croatian ancestry, he selfidentifies Croat nationalist in Bosnia who came from a as a proYugoslav Serb.21 He has been a background in business and economics.6 He member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia had joined the League of Communists of since the 1940s and has been active in the Yugoslavia in 1958, but was at onepoint military for most of that time.22 arrested on charges of business fraud, a charge he claimed was due to his support of Croat nationalism. By the end of the 1980s, he began Momir Bulatović to enter the political arena.7 Leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro The leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists Milan Martić of Montenegro (DPS CG) since 1989, the SerboCroat Leader successor party to the League of Communists Croatian Serb who started his career as a of Montenegro. Being a close ally of Milošević policeman in Sibenik, a coastal town in Croatia helped him stage his successful coup against before becoming the chief of the Public Security the leadership of the League of Communists of Station in Knin, a strategic town located Serbia in 1989. Advocated for a close 8 between Zagreb and the coast. By the end of relationship between Montenegro and Serbia the 1980s, he was becoming an increasingly and supported Milošević’s denouncements of vocal supporter of Serbian nationalism within autonomy for Kosovo and Vojvodina.23 Croatia. 5 “Janez Drnovsek.” T he Telegraph, February 25 2008, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1579738/JanezDrnovsek.html. 6 “CONTROVERSIAL CROAT NATIONALIST MATE BOBAN DIES AT 57.” The Washington Post, July 8 1997, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/07/08/controversialcroatnationalistmatebobandiesat57/390e9616936940058b83ae3c5 2d5d2cc/?utm_term=.296f190fbc6d. 7 Mark Almond, "Expert Testimony". Review of Contemporary History. 36, no. 1 (December 2008): 177–209. 8 Bakone Justice Moloto, “Prosecutor v Milan Martic Judgement.” U nited Nations, June 12 2007, 7. http://www.icty.org/x/cases/martic/tjug/en/070612.pdf. 20 Roger Cohen. “To His Death in Jail, Milosevic Exalted Image of Serb Suffering.” T he New York Times , March 12 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/world/europe/tohisdeathinjailmilosevicexaltedimageofserbsuffering.html. 21 Thomas S. Szayna and Michele Zanini. "The Yugoslav Retrospective Case". In I dentifying Potential Ethnic Conflict: Application of a Process Model, 83. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2000. 22 Matjaž Klemenčič and Mitja Žagar. T he Former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook . Santa Barbara: ABCCLIO, 2004. 23 “Momir Bulatovic,” Wikipedia . Last modified May 6 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momir_Bulatovi%C4%87. – 3 – Stane Dolanc Ivica Račan Former VicePresident of the Presidency of 12th President of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia Croatia One of the most influential leaders in federal Račan started his political career in the 1960s as Yugoslav politics during the 1970s and 80s, and a member of the League of Communists of a close ally of Tito before his death. In the 1980s, Croatia and the leader of his local youth besides being the Vice President, he was also Communist league. He entered the central the Secretary of the Interior from 1982 to 1984. committee of the League of Communists of Long after Tito’s death, Dolanc still had Croatia in the 1970s and was elected in 1986 to reservations about reform in his native Slovenia represent Croatia in the rotating presidency of and went as far as to call himself the “last Yugoslavia.24 In Fall 1989, as tensions were Titoist” in 1989.9 rising with Milošević, Croatian Communists elected Račan as their leader since he had Ciril Ribičič promised to defend the very autonomy that Chairman of the Slovenian Delegation at the Milošević was threatening.25 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia Rrahman Morina Son of Mitja Ribičič, the leader of the feared 14th President of the League of Communists of Yugoslav secret police in Slovenia. By the late Kosovo 1980s, he was seen as a reformist leader of the In 1981, Morina was appointed Interior League of Communists of Slovenia and a close Minister of Kosovo, in effect becoming the most ally of Milan Kučan.