SONJA BISERKO Yugoslavia’s Implosion The Fatal Attraction of Serbian Nationalism

Yugoslavia’s Implosion The Fatal Attraction of Serbian Nationalism

by Sonja Biserko Yugoslavia’s Implosion by Sonja Biserko publisher

Copyright © 2012 by The Norwegian Helsinki Committee for the publisher Bjørn Engesland layout and cover photo Ivan Hrašovec printed by Zagorac, Belgrade isbn 978-82-91809-01-4

The printing of this book has been financially supported by the Fritt Ord Foun- dation, Oslo. Activities relating to the book have been supported by the Norwe- gian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in context of the projects The Role of Universities in Peace Building and Human Rights Reform in Serbia. The contents of this book are the sole responsibility of the author and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the financial supporters.

Contents

FOREWORD ...... 9

INTRODUCTION ...... 15

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 31

CHAPTER 1 Serbian Nationalism and the Remaking of the Yugoslav Federation ...... 33

CHAPTER 2 The Army’s Role in Political Life ...... 125

CHAPTER 3 The Kosovo Issue ...... 193

CHAPTER 4 Serbia: Between Europe and Backwardness ...... 275

CHAPTER 5 Lessons for Peacemakers ...... 315

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 333

NAME INDEX ...... 337

To my brother Željko Biserko HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 8 HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 9 FOREWORD Foreword

I

This is a courageous book, in which the author indicts a large por- tion of her society, and most especially politicians, for aggressive nationalism. This, she argues, has been the main reason both for the wars of 1991–99 and for the continued volatility which characterizes Serbian political life. This is also a work of passion, reflecting simul- 9 FOREWORD taneously a deep sadness about the decisions and actions taken by Serbian political figures over a period of more than a century, and a determination on her part to work for a better future for Serbia. Biserko has many admirers but, inevitably, she also has foes, and has been attacked at times in the local nationalist press. I first met Sonja Biserko in 2001, when she was spending a year at the u.s. Institute for Peace in Washington d.c. Her reputation as a champion for human rights preceded her, but I had not visited Bel- grade since 1989, when the escalating drumbeats for war were unmis- takable. Since 2004, I have visited Belgrade on a number of occasions, most recently in December 2011, affording us on each occasion the opportunity to meet. My respect for her work has only grown over the years and the international recognition she has received shows that I am far from alone in this regard. Biserko began her career in the Yugoslav foreign service, back when Josip Broz Tito was still president of the country. She was posted to the Embassy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugosla- via in London from 1975 to 1979, where she encountered, for the first

HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 8 HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 9 time, émigré literature, especially of the Chetnik diaspora. She sub- sequently returned to Belgrade to work in the un department of the foreign service, before being posted to Geneva in 1984, to work with European issues at the un Commission for Europe. It was at this time that she encountered members of the Albanian diaspora, whose discontent with the status of the Socialist Autonomous Prov- ince of Kosovo was palpable, and also members of the Serbian dias- pora, whose views concerning Kosovo were at odds with the views of Albanians. By the time she returned to Belgrade in 1988, the disin- tegration of Yugoslavia was well underway and, within her depart- ment, as elsewhere in the country, there were lively discussions about the future of the country, with alternative visions sketched 10 and debated. At the end of 1991, after the outbreak of the Serbian FOREWORD insurrection in Croatia – an insurrection supported by the Yugo- slav Army, which Serbian President Slobodan Milošević controlled – she resigned from the foreign service and began opposition work. Her resignation was, in fact, a protest against the war policy of the Milošević regime. In collaboration with other anti-war activists, she launched Anti-War Action and became close to the Civic Alliance, a liberal political party which has remained on the margins of the Ser- bian political scene. In the meantime, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Yugoslavia had dissolved at the end of the 1980s. In 1994, she took the lead in establishing the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, starting with a staff of eight persons. That same year, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, based in New York, awarded her a prize for her work in human rights. Since then, the Helsinki Committee/Serbia has been active in various domains, assisting Serb refugees from Croatia in 1995, organizing Serb-Al- banian dialogues, hosting conferences on human rights (especially focusing on Kosovo), and publishing books, reports, and bulletins in both Serbian and English across a range of topics from controversies

HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 10 HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 11