Yugoslavia's Implosion
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SONJA BISERKO “Serbs cannot live peacefully in a state where non-Serbs form the majority. Serbia can never live peacefully with her hostile neighboring BISERKO SONJA states. We will never join the European Un- ion. We will never acknowledge Srebrenica as a Yugoslavia’s crime. We will never give up Kosovo and Meto- hija.” There has been, and still is, a lot of “nevers” in Serbian political discourse. However, by the YUGOSLAVIA’S IMPLOSION YUGOSLAVIA’S end of 2012 the country is on the path to Implosion The Fatal Attraction EU-membership. Politicians from nearly all quar- of Serbian Nationalism ters claim to have the best strategic approach to EU-membership, despite having to deal with demands that would not long ago have been laughed at as utterly unrealistic. What happened to the aggressive nationalism that not long ago would have crushed all at- tempts to challenge such “nevers”? The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has worked in Serbia since the early nineties; monitoring and reporting on the human right situation, following the political devel- opment and supporting human right defenders. We have chosen to publish this book written by Sonja Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, in an attempt to direct attention to exactly how indispensable human rights activists are right now, and how vitally important they are for the time to come. For two decades, Biserko has persistently and courageously protested against war, nationalism and human rights abuse. Her analysis represents a perspective on Ser- bian politics that is very much needed among the optimism of all the problems that can seemingly be solved by an EU-membership. As Biserko argues in this book – addressing the destructive forces of nationalism is a pre-requisite for real change and lasting peace in Serbia. Where nationalism went? Nowhere. It has taken on new forms, but it still shapes the mainstream understand- ing of the past and maintains perception of values in the Serbian society. Those most in need of tolerance suff er the consequences. This is not a history book; it is a book debating history, with isbn 9778-82-91809-01-4 the ambition of challenging what Serbia is and may become. nasl.indd 1 08/11/2012 10:28:04 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 concerning the Second World War to annual book-length reports concerning human rights in Serbia. Among these publications is a compilation of contributions on the theme, Srebrenica: From Denial to Confession, which she edited – issued in 2005, on the tenth anniversary of the massacre (officially recognized as a genocide) of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Serbian troops under the command of General Ratko Mladić. In 2005, she was included in a group of 1,000 Women for Peace who were collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Four years later, she received the Human Rights Award of the City of Wei- mar, and, in February 2010, she was honored, by Croatian President Stjepan Mesić, with a high decoration for her contribution to the promotion of human and civil rights, especially of minorities, and 11 for her contributions to the normalization of relations between Ser- FOREWORD bia and Croatia. Later that year, in November 2010, she was invited to Oslo, to receive the Lisl and Leo Eitingers Prize for Human Rights, conferred by the University of Oslo. In a speech in her honor, Inga Bostad, Pro-Rector of the University of Oslo, praised Biserko for her commitment to “truth and human equality, freedom and moral integrity.” In April 2011, Biserko was named an Honorary Citizen of the city of Sarajevo, in recognition of her consistent opposition to the aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina during the years 1991—95, and in 2012 she was recognized by the parliament of the Republic of Kosovo for her contribution to advancing the social status of women. The publications of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (many of them available as pdf documents at the Com- mittee’s website) have been used in both government and academic circles, both at home and abroad. There are about 15,000 visits to the Committee’s website on average every day. HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 10 HOLJP, “helsinške sveske br 29, SANDŽAK2” strana 11 II Biserko’s argument in this volume is twofold. First, she argues that Serbian nationalism, traceable back to the nineteenth century, was the main factor in generating the break-up of socialist Yugosla- via and propelling its people into internecine conflict. Second, she argues that Serbian nationalism continues to be a problem even today, in spite of Serbia’s defeat in 1995 and again in 1999.