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The Yugoslav Drama

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Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com The Yugoslav Drama Mihailo Crnobrnja, official of the former Yugoslav government and former Yugoslavian ambassador to the European Communities, addresses the unfolding drama in Yugoslavia and its possible reso- lution in the Dayton Accord. He begins by explaining the complexi- ties of the country - both those external to the political process and those which derive from it - and their contribution to cracks in the political structure in the pre-Tito and Tito years. The gradually accel- erated deterioration of the federation and the political forces that fostered this process, particularly the politically motivated encourage- ment of nationalism and the absence of democracy, are chronicled and analysed to uncover the dynamics that converted a stable, pros- perous country into a Balkan powder-keg. Crnobrnja discusses in detail the part of the drama most visible to the world - the rapid dissolution of the country following civil war and internationalization. He emphasizes the dichotomy between the lack of compromise among the Yugoslav participants and the nat- ural tendency to compromise that characterizes both the European Communities and the processes and actions of the United Nations and shows how important the participation of the United States has been to achieving a peace accord. In a synthesis of the immediate situation he draws together the threads of the story to consider and analyse possible future sce- narios and place them in a broader Balkan and European context. MIHAILO CRNOBRNJA is former ambassador of Yugoslavia to the European Communities. He works in Montreal as an economic and political consultant and teaches political science at McGill University. Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com This page intentionally left blank www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com The Yugoslav Drama MIHAILO CRNOBRNJA Second Edition McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com McGill-Queen's University Press 1996 ISBN 07735-1429-5 Legal deposit second quarter 1996 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec First edition published 1994 Published simultaneously in Great Britain by I.E. Tauris & Co Ltd Printed in Canada on acid-free paper Reprinted 2002 McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Crnobrnja, Mihailo The Yugoslav drama 2nd ed. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7735-1429-5 1. Yugoslavia - Politics and government -1945-1992. 2. Yugoslavia - Politics and government -1992- 3. Yugoslavia - History - 1980-1992. 4. Yugoslavia - History - 1992- 5. Yugoslav War, 1991- i. Title. 0111313.0751996 949-7O2'4 095-920926-3 Typeset in Palatine 10/12 by Caractera inc., Quebec City www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com To my wife, Gordana, and son, Lav, who lost a country and To Richard Lewis, a friend in need Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com This page intentionally left blank www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com Contents Maps ix Preface xi Preface to the Second Edition xv Introduction 3 PART ONE: THE STAGE 1 A Country of Diversity 15 2 Origins of the Idea and the State 35 3 Inter-War Instability 51 4 The Tito Years 65 PART TWO: THE ACTORS 5 Tito's Successors 81 6 The New Wave of Serbian Nationalism 93 7 Slovenia and Croatia: The Drive to Independence 107 8 The Supporting Cast 115 PART THREE: THE PLOT 9 Changes in Europe 131 10 The Crisis 141 11 The War in Slovenia and Croatia 160 Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com viii Contents 12 The War in Bosnia and Herzegovina 174 13 The European Community Steps In 189 14 A Call for Blue Helmets 205 PART FOUR: THE FINAL CURTAIN 15 Drawing the Threads Together 223 16 The Balkan Endgame 239 17 Is There a Solution? 250 18 A Chance for Peace at Last 266 Notes 285 Further Readings 295 Index 297 www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com Maps 1 The Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, 1945-92 16 2 The impact of empires on the future Yugoslavia 18 3 The ethnic mix in Bosnia before the war; the division of Bosnia according to the Vance-Owen Plan; the division of Bosnia according to the Owen-Stoltenberg Plan 216 Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com This page intentionally left blank www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com Preface The unfolding of the Yugoslav Drama occurred while I was repre- senting the country as ambassador to the European Community. I was therefore constantly faced with the need to answer, officially and unofficially a host of questions: What went wrong? Was Yugo- slavia an artificial country? How could a country with the respect Yugoslavia commanded turn into a nightmare with so much hatred and sorrow? Where does the immense hatred come from? How is it possible to have an ethnic war in Europe at the end of the twentieth century? When and how will it all end? The questions were simple enough, the answers difficult. I found myself probing deeper and deeper, trying to find fuller yet under- standable explanations both for myself and for those who asked. The results of this search gradually accumulated. The fact that I was a participant in the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia while it took place in The Hague in 1991 was an added stimulus to try to combine this political experience with my personal searching for answers. This book is intended to arouse the curiosity of those readers who have, over the past few years, listened to bad and sad news, seen pictures of horror and destruction, wondered about the forces that brought such agony to a people. With so much exposure and cov- erage, it is not surprising that many think they now know the reasons for the Yugoslav drama. This book should help to transform their knowledge into understanding. I have also tried to keep the explanation as simple as the complex phenomena that I am explaining would permit. From the very first moment that the idea to write a book crystallized in my mind, it did so in the form of a slight volume, a "weekend book" that could be read fast and would not tax the patience of the interested reader too much. Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com xii Preface Working within such limits made the difficult issue of maintaining objectivity even more difficult, since I typically do not present to the reader different views and interpretations of events, thus letting her or him be the judge. I attempt to internalize the criteria of objectivity by not taking sides and honestly and strictly adhering to a set of guidelines, the application of which could, in my view, have headed off the drama or at least made it significantly smaller and easier to bear. The story I offer to the public is, therefore, a personal account, a personal view. I have chosen to cast this book in four parts that would follow the logic of the title. The title was, in a way, forced upon me by events, rather than a matter of deliberate selection. I would hope that the reader will find this type of presentation not only suitable and valid but also a helpful framework for understanding the problems. The first part of the book informs the reader about the complexities of Yugoslavia, those that are external to the political process as well as those that derive from it. This is done as concisely as possible, to prepare the stage rather than to provide an elaborate and compre- hensive history. The main purpose of this part of the text is to show how this complex state was created and where the "cracks in the structure" developed in the pre-Tito and Tito years. The second part deals with the post-Tito years. It describes and explains the gradual but ever faster deterioration of the federation, and the centrifugal political forces that fostered this process. It also deals with the gradual internalization of the crisis. The main purpose of this part is to uncover the political mechanics and dynamics of converting a respected, stable, and relatively prosperous country into a new Balkan powder-keg. The determinants of this political dynamic were the presence and pressure of nationalism and the absence of democracy. The third part of the book deals with the final stage of the drama, the rapid dissolution of the country, the culmination of the crisis, and the civil war. In other words, it deals with the part of the drama that has been most visible in the media. This phase is also the time during which the Yugoslav drama became internationalized. Its inter- nationalization is dealt with in greater detail, with particular emphasis on the dichotomy between the Yugoslav actors' resistance to compromise, which prevented and still prevents a solution, and the natural tendency to compromise that characterizes the procedures and actions of both the European Community and the United Nations. The final part of the book synthesizes the situation as of the autumn of 1993. At that time the drama was far from over. As this www.ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.ebook777.com xiii Preface book went to press, the war in Bosnia was still on, and all the former republics of Yugoslavia, with the probable exception of Slovenia, faced the tragic reality of more bloody and destructive warfare. The Hague Conference on Yugoslavia had not produced any visible results. The concluding chapters here draw together the threads of the previous account and discuss and analyse various scenarios for the future, primarily from the point of view of their likelihood.
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