Pandora9s War: the Multi-Dimensional Nature of the Yugoslav

I Pandora9sWar: The Multi-Dimensional Nature of the Yugoslav Conflicts Slobodan Drakulic This paper is an attempt to define the an ethnic society governed by an eth- cupied two small areas of Croatia in general nature of armed conflicts in the nic state guided by the political doc- 1991, and it took a while before they former Yugoslavia. First, is there a sin- trine of ethnocracy. pulled out (Tudjman, 36). In Bosnia gle, and then perhaps polycentric At the end of the eighties, Yugosla- and Herzegovina, a vicious war took Yugoslav war, or several successive or via was loose even by the confederal place between the Croat and Muslim concurrent wars? Second, is that war, standards, and it entered the nineties armed forces in 1993-94. By the time it or those wars, civil, international, eth- as a disorderly society and a disar- was stopped by a resolute diplomatic nic, religious, or something else-a rayed state. That looseness of Yugosla- intervention of the belligerents' inter- combination of two, three, or all four of via opened sufficient space for national patrons, Croat forces were the above characteristics? Third, why autochthonous movements and ten- defeated in Central Bosnia, and Mus- did the war break out? And fourth, dencies to develop in the federal re- lim forces in the old regional capital of who was right and who was wrong in publics, and at once reduced the Herzegovina, Mostar, were reduced to waging it? degree to which anything, including an enclave between the Croat forces to The answer to the first question de- war, could be Yugoslav in nature or in the west, and Serb forces in the east. termines the answer to the second one. scope. Beneath the dividing lines marked by If there is only one war in the former The series of armed conflicts in the ethnicity and religion, the Croatian Yugoslavia, then it should be viewed former Yugoslavia could not be de- Council of Defense militia (the as a polycentric armed conflict. That fined as a Yugoslav civil war. There Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats' premise leads to the conclusion that we simply was not enough Yugoslavia- armed force) ambushed and killed are dealing with a Yugoslav civil war in terms of both state and the people- members of the Croatian Defense fought between several antagonists, for a Yugoslav civil war. The only Forces (the party militia of the extreme and assuming different forms in di- Yugoslav state institution left in place nationalist Croatian Party of Rights). verse parts of that multicultural was the moribund Yugoslav People's On the Muslim side, a civil war still country. Army, and the only people ready to goes on between the (Muslim)Army of Such interpretation establishes the fight for Yugoslavia were the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the (Mus- interconnectedness of the successive Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, lim) People's Defense Force of the au- armed conflicts in three out of six backed by the Serb nationalists of tonomous province of Western former Yugoslav republics. It high- Serbia. Bosnia-led by Fikret Abdic, based in lights the conflict as war of all against Yugoslav federal army soon was the provincial capital of Kladusa, and one-predominantly Croat, Muslim reduced to one of the Serb armies in the the government in Sarajevo accuses and Slovene against the mostly Serb former Yugoslavia, composed mostly the Serbs of backing the West Bosnian forces. At the same time, it reduces the of the Croatian, and Bosnia-Herzego- Muslim rebels. significance of local, autochthonous vinian Serbs (Kruselj, 32). By the Since ethnic lines are not the only factors, picturing them as derivatives Spring of 1992 it was entirely replaced lines of division, the number of mili- of the Yugoslav federal politics. It even by the local Serb armies, whose politi- tary formations exceeds the number of maintains an illusion that Yugoslavia cal leaderships neither could nor majbr ethnic groups everywhere ex- may still exist somehow-perhaps as a would fight for Yugoslavia. They had cept in Slovenia, where only two po- commonwealth of battlefields. to chose between fighting for a Greater litical subjects and two armed forces The Yugoslav republics were dis- Serbia, or for their separate statelettes. involved in the war: Slovenian and tinct and even partially separate ethnic They immediately opted for the first Yugoslav states and armed forces. In societies and states even before the goal. Serbian leaders could not dare to stark contrast to that; there were three outbreak of the war. The only excep- accept invitations from their western major political subjects and about a tion was Bosnia and Herzegovina, that cousins to annex their lands to Serbia, dozen armed forces involved in the miniature Yugoslavia which encapsu- because of the severe opposition of the war in Croatia: the Republic of Croatia, lates the very core of the contradictions mainly Western foreign powers. Republic of Serb Krajina and Yugoslav that ripped Yugoslavia apart--ethnic- The image of Serbs fighting the rest Federation, with their assorted armed ity based upon religion that produces of the former Yugoslavs tends to over- forces and militias (Gow, 18). The shadow the existence of a number of number of major political subjects rose Slobodan Drakulic is a PhD candidate in the other conflicts that happened within to six in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Re- Department of Sociology, University of the heterogeneous anti-Serb camp. In public of Croatia and the Croat Repub- Toronto. one such episode Slovenian troops oc- lic of Herceg-Bosna; Republic of Refuge, Vol. 14, No. 3 (June-July 1994) 5 Bosnia and Herzegovina (Izetbegovic) ciety would end up being an ethnic In May of 1991, Croatian government and the autonomous province of West- war. Similarly, every would-be ethnic made its final move before the act of ern Bosnia (Abdic); Republic of Srpska war fought between opposing ethnici- secession, calling a referendum. More (Serb Bosnia andHerzegovina) and the ties based on religions would end up than 93 percent of all Croatians who Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Ser- being religious war-at least to some cast their ballot, voted for their repub- bia and Montenegro). The number of degree."^ summarize briefly: first, lic's sovereignty and independence armed forces went down, indicating the armed conflicts in Yugoslavia do from Yugoslavia (Separovic, 115-17).6 certain stabilization of various state not constitute a single Yugoslav civil Seven percent more than the ethnically authorities on the ground. Five armed war; second, those wars are a complex far more homogenous Slovenians had forces confront each other in Bosnia mixture of ethnic, religious, civil, and cast in December 1990. and Herzegovina: two Croat, two international armed struggles. Far On February 29 and March 1,1992, Muslim and one Serb.' from being a specie of Clausewitz's "some sixty-eight percent of all eligi- War in Slovenia is therefore the clos- kind of war as continuation of politics ble voters voted in favour of independ- est to being a civil war-an ethnic-civil by other means, they are a series of ence," (Fogelquist, 26), at a plebiscite war, the Slovenian war of secession chaotic martial ruptures-Pandora's suggested by the European Commu- from Yugoslavia. Religious hues were wars. nity and called by the Croat-Muslim present but not prominent. Slovenia Why did these wars break out? The coalition's leadership. Most Serbs ab- claimed that it was invaded by the first and most obvious reason is that stained, obviously. If their numbers Yugoslav People's Army.= The the moribund nature of the Yugoslav were to be subtracted from the total, Croatian war is a mixture of the regime of the time-product of dec- virtually all adult Croats and Muslims Croatian war of secession from Yugo- ades of ethnic squabbles and divisions voted for secession. Taken on their slavia, and Serb war of secession from that began in the late sixties. Those eth- own, virtually all Serbs voted against Croatia: it thus started as a Yugoslav nic squabbles and divisions in turn secession. civil war, but ended as Croatian. As it promoted internal ethnic homogeniza- Finally, on March 1, 1992, "in the was fought among ethnic societies tion. This process was particularly in- referendum in Montenegro, the major- governed by ethnic states and inspired tensified after the death of the late ity of the people came out for a union of by an ideology of ethnocracy, that war Yugoslav President Tito, in 1980. By Montenegro and Serbia" (Djuretic, took the form of an ethnic war. And as 1990, all ethnic groups were virtually 445). The cycle of ethnic homogeniza- the embattled ethnicities are entwined transformed into separate political- tion was thus completed? As the pas- with religion in those parts (Smith, 27), military camps and coalitions of such sions ran high for years before, the their war became an ethno-religious camps. The level of the political con- assorted Yugoslav political-military war.3 sensus within them was expressed in camps and coalitions were ready to War in Bosnia and Herzegovina the series of plebiscites, referenda, clash. Pandora's box was brimming started as the joint Croat-Muslim war elections, and the population census. with wars. of secession from Yugoslavia, coun- Ethnic Serbs of Croatia sought to At that point in time, there was no tered by the Serb war of secession from pre-empt the Croat secession from major ethnic group left in Yugoslavia Bosnia and Herzegovina. An addi- Yugoslavia with their own separation which was not politically homog- tional momentum was the Croat war from Croatia. At their plebiscite in enized around an ideological political of secession from Bosnia and Herze- August 1990, the results were as fol- consensus already established by the govina-opposed by the Muslim lows: "for autonomy 567,127; against ethno-nationalist Communists, and forces.

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