Serbia and Montenegro

C

The Kosovo Crisis and After

With the FRY continuing punitive measures in Kosovo, a massacre of ethnic Albanians at Racak drove Western powers to compel delegates from both sides to attend a peace conference convened in Rambouillet in France. The talks, in February, broke up without agreement, chiefly due to FRY intransigence. Following the threats originally issued to coerce Milošević into agreement, the Western powers began air attacks on the FRY in March 1999. Yugoslav army and paramilitary police units responded by accelerating the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, driving hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees into neighbouring states. With domestic opposition neutralized, Milošević resisted Western and Russian negotiation proposals, while the Western powers insisted on a comprehensive settlement to include an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The Yugoslav army began confrontational tactics against the government in Montenegro, which had remained officially neutral, raising fears of civil strife there. Western attacks, which had initially been confined to military and political targets, increased and widened to include strikes against bridges, fuel reserves, and other elements of the FRY's infrastructure. Russian opinion remained hostile to the intervention, but Milošević’s promises of Russian military assistance were not realized; Russian mediation served as the chief diplomatic channel between the FRY government and the West. By late May it was estimated that 850,000 ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo, most taking refuge in Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and Montenegro. Hundreds of thousands of other refugees were displaced within Kosovo, where approximately 10,000 ethnic Albanians had been killed, and many more subjected to rape and torture. In the same month, Slobodan Milošević was indicted as a war criminal by the UN.

On June 3, 72 days after the NATO air strikes began, Slobodan Milošević finally agreed to accept an international peace plan for Kosovo. The FRY government had yielded to all of NATO's key demands for ending the air war. These demands included the removal of all FRY and Serbian forces from Kosovo, the deployment of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the safe return of all the ethnic Albanians who had fled their homes. The UN Security Council then authorized the deployment of NATO-led peacekeeping troops with sweeping powers to deter hostilities in the province, establish a secure environment, and demilitarize the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a militant, ethnic Albanian group fighting for Kosovo's independence. Kosovo Force (K-For) began crossing into Kosovo from the FYROM on June 12. On June 18 more than 3,000 Russian soldiers joined the NATO-led peacekeeping force, with the control of Priština airport shared between Russia and NATO. By June 20 the withdrawal of 40,000 FRY military forces and Serb police units from Kosovo was complete, and the following day the KLA agreed to demilitarize.

Fearing reprisals from returning ethnic Albanians, and despite appeals from both K-For and the FRY government to remain, many Serbs began to flee Kosovo, criticizing the NATO-led peacekeepers for failing to establish swiftly a climate of safety there for all citizens. With 700,000 refugees returned to Kosovo, violence against Serb civilians continued and more than three-quarters of Kosovo's pre-war Serb population of 200,000 had fled their homes by the end of July. With only 35,000 troops to maintain the fragile peace and perform most administrative tasks, K-For struggled in its objective to re-establish an integrated, multi-ethnic society.

Within FRY as a whole the NATO air campaign was estimated to have destroyed at least 46 road and railway bridges, as well as dozens of factories, oil refineries, power plants, water and sewage facilities, and government buildings; it also destroyed many homes. According to some preliminary estimates, the overall cost of rebuilding the FRY would exceed US$10 billion. NATO estimated that its air campaign scored direct hits on 93 tanks, 153 armoured personnel carriers, 339 military vehicles, and 389 artillery pieces, although some doubt has since been thrown on the accuracy of these figures.

Late June saw anti-Milošević demonstrations in Serbia, and these grew in strength throughout July. The following month the Serbian Orthodox Church demanded Milošević’s resignation, and 150,000 anti-Milošević demonstrators took to the streets of Belgrade. However, Milošević retained control of several important levers of power, including the Serbian police, most national news media, and the powerful Serbian Socialist Party. It was also clear that opposition leaders had trouble uniting, revealing political divisions that Milošević could attempt to manipulate. In addition to unrest in Serbia, Milošević faced a growing challenge from the pro-Western government in Montenegro, which had experienced a sharp economic decline due to Serbia's international isolation. On August 5 the government of Montenegro endorsed a plan that would give it independent control of military, foreign, and economic policy, including the right to establish its own currency. Montenegrin president Djukanović said that his republic would press for full independence should Milošević refuse to accept the plan. On November 2, 1999, Montenegro adopted the German Deutschmark as its official currency.

With sporadic reprisal attacks against Serbs continuing, by November 1999 the Serb population of Priština, the capital of Kosovo, had shrunk from 40,000 to 400, with 316 Serbs having been murdered and 455 kidnapped. An estimated 200,000 Serbs—virtually the entire Serb population of Kosovo—had now fled Kosovo to other parts of Serbia and were facing dire humanitarian conditions. Added to this, the UN believed that 500,000 people from the earlier conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia were now in Serbia as well. Mass rallies and opposition protests to Milošević continued to occur in Belgrade and other towns and cities. With Serbia's worsening economic situation and ten per cent of the population facing serious humanitarian problems, the UN increased its aid programme in December 1999, saying that food shortages there were comparable to those in North Korea. In the same month China promised US$300 million worth of aid.

NATO's supreme commander in Europe, General Wesley Clark, announced in February 2000 that NATO troops would remain in Bosnia and Kosovo as long as Milošević held on to power. Added to this, UN economic sanctions were extended (although the ban on flights to and from the FRY was lifted) to increase the pressure on the Milošević regime. The same month witnessed the assassinations in Belgrade of both Zeljko Raznatović, the Serbian paramilitary leader better known as Arkan, and the country's defence minister, Pavle Bulatović. Arkan had been indicted as a war criminal by the UN for atrocities committed during the Bosnian war. Bulatović had been a Montenegrin strongly opposed to the pro-Western government in his home republic. The Yugoslav government promised a stern response to his murder. Ethnic tensions continued in Kosovo, and throughout February and March 2000 the town of Mitrovica was paralysed by Serb-Albanian violence. The UN remained the chief civilian authority within Kosovo.

D

The Fall of Milošević

In July 2000 Milošević amended the constitution so that future presidents would be elected by a direct vote of the people, and not parliament. An 18-party alliance known as the Democratic Opposition of Serbia was subsequently formed, with Vojislav Koštunica, a 56-year-old constitutional lawyer, as its presidential candidate. Despite the opposition being virtually banned from the airwaves, in the election on September 25 the Democratic Opposition of Serbia claimed victory with 55 per cent of the vote. When the Federal Election Commission called for a second ballot, saying that neither candidate had won an outright majority, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Belgrade and other cities to demand that President Milošević stand down. On October 2 a general strike began with miners, once fiercely loyal to Milošević, stopping work in a major show of support for the opposition. After a popular uprising in Belgrade on October 5, and a decision the following day by both Russia and Milošević’s socialist allies in Montenegro to recognize Koštunica's election victory, Milošević stood down, followed by many of his powerful supporters. Koštunica became president, immediately announcing the creation of a crisis committee to govern the country and secure public order.

In response to the swearing-in of Koštunica as the new president, the European Union immediately announced the lifting of key sanctions against the FRY and a package of aid. The United States also announced its intention to lift sanctions against the FRY and restore diplomatic ties. In early November the FRY was readmitted to the UN General Assembly, after an absence of eight years. In parliamentary elections held in December 2000 Koštunica’s Democratic Opposition of Serbia heavily defeated Milošević’s Socialist Party of Serbia.

In March 2001 FRY security forces reoccupied, with NATO approval, a large section of the buffer zone around Kosovo, while ethnic Albanian guerrillas were involved in sporadic infiltrations along the Kosovo and FYROM border. Agreement was also reached on the future border between the FRY and the FYROM, ending a ten-year-old demarcation dispute. At the same time, the FRY government accepted that it had an obligation to cooperate with the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, but insisted that having deadlines for extraditing suspected criminals imposed upon it by the West would be counter-productive. Nevertheless, in early April 2001 FRY security forces finally arrested their former president, Milošević. At the same time, in elections held in Montenegro, President Djukanović failed to win an absolute majority of seats. The election was largely fought on the issue of independence from the FRY, with his “Victory for Montenegro” coalition polling slightly more than the opposition alliance “Together for Yugoslavia”. Two months later Milošević was extradited to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity. The extradition led to the resignation in protest of FRY prime minister, Zoran Zizic. He was replaced by Dragisa Pesic, a Montengrin, in July. Meanwhile, in Montenegro itself the legislature on July 2 approved the minority government led by Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic. Vujanovic said that one of his new government’s first tasks would be to open talks with Serbia on a “union of two independent states”.

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), led by President Vojislav Koštunica of the FRY, withdrew from the ruling coalition in Serbia (the larger of the two constituent republics of the FRY) on August 17.

Zoran Djindjic, the prime minister of Serbia, ruled out handing over Serbian president Milan Milutinovic to the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. On September 10, the UN Security Council adopted unanimously Resolution 1367 (2001), which ended the arms embargo that had been imposed on Yugoslavia in March 1998 over the treatment of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. A court in Belgrade on October 26 convicted three men of carrying out the assassination of Zeljko Raznatovic, the infamous Serbian ultra-nationalist warlord better known as Arkan, in January 2000.

In March 2002, Yugoslav, Montenegrin, and Serbian leaders signed an EU-mediated accord promoted by Javier Solana that set up the blueprint for a new state called 'Serbia and Montenegro' to replace Yugoslavia.

D

1

Trial of Milošević

Milošević appeared before the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague on July 3, 2001; he declined legal representation saying that he would represent himself, but he failed to enter a plea. The British judge hearing the case, Richard May, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. Milošević faced fresh charges in October concerned with “ethnic cleansing” in Croatia; and genocide charges in November; again Milošević refused to enter a plea. Paddy Ashdown, former British envoy to the Balkans, was cross-examined by Milošević conducting his own defence in March 2002. Milošević’s trial came to an unexpected end in March 2006 when he was found dead in his cell in The Hague. There were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death and his body was returned to his home country for burial.

E

Elections in Kosovo

On November 17, 2001, elections were held to a new legislature for the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo. The assembly was to comprise 120 members, 100 elected by proportional representation and 20 members representing national minorities (for Serbs, Romanies, Ashkalis, Egyptians, Bosnians, Turks, and one Gorani).

The elections were won by the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK)—which won 47 seats—led by Ibrahim Rugova; other significant winners were the ethnic Albanian Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, which won 26 seats, and the (Serbian) Coalition Returning (KP), which won 11 per cent of the vote, and 22 seats. The National Assembly opened in Priština in December but failed to approve a president, despite Rugova being the leader of the largest party. Finally, Rugova was elected in March 2002 despite the opposition, which had vetoed his appointment on a number of occasions; Bajram Rexhepi was elected prime minister. Further parliamentary elections were held in October 2004, and Rugova’s party—the LDK—performed well. However, only around 1 per cent of the Serbian electorate voted, following an appeal by Serbian prime minister Vojislav Koštunica for all Serbs in Kosovo to boycott the polls. After the elections, President Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo forged a coalition with former rebel commander Ramush Haradinaj’s Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. In December, Rugova was re-elected as president by Kosovo’s parliament, with Haradinaj appointed as prime minister. Rugova died in January 2006 and was replaced by Fatmir Sejdiu.

F

Elections in Montenegro

In the general election held in Montenegro in October 2002 a coalition of independence-minded parties—the Democratic List for European Montenegro (DLECG)—took 39 of the 75 seats. A rival coalition, Together for Change (ZP), won 30 seats. The following month President Djukanović resigned his job to take up the post of prime minister. In both December and again in February 2003, low voter turnout for the subsequent presidential election meant the results had to be declared invalid. An amendment to the constitution facilitated the election of a president with a simple majority, and in May Filip Vujanovic, who had won most votes in the previous elections, was finally elected president.