THE YUGOSLAV WAR

The task of the following paper is to make the reader understand what happened in the 1990s in the Balkan Peninsula, especially in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. According to the ISPI (the Italian Institute for International Political Studies), there are three predominant elements found in the Yugoslav war: the imbalance of forces, the diplomatic ambiguity at the international level and the denial of reality at the domestic level made possible by the effective propaganda manoeuvre carried out by the local press. Carl von Clausewitz in his masterpiece “On War” said: “War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means” In order to understand the meaning and above all the applicability of this expression, it is necessary to time jump backwards. . On 4 May 1980 the international political community was shocked. That day marked the beginning of the end of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On that spring day Josip Broz, also known as Tito, died, the Marshal who since World War II had ruled the Balkan regional power undisturbed.

Tito was considered the constituent arbiter of the peoples of the six member republics and two provinces of the Federation. He was the only one able to govern and cohabit for four long decades different ethnic groups and religious groups. Any attempt at nationalist expression was nipped in the bud through the use of the army. The death of the Marshal left a great legacy, but at the same time it turned out to be unmanageable by the ruling class. The cornerstone of the ideology that characterized Tito’s government was based on the substantial equivalence between the ethnic groups settled there, linked and united by the "Yugoslav brotherhood". Corruption, the desire for power, a Yugoslav oligarchy incapable of making up for the vacuum left by Broz, have given rise to increasing nationalist pressure, which led in 1981 in Kosovo to heated protests and first demonstrations of independence by the province, whose majority of the population was Albanian. Although strongly repressed by the central government of Belgrade, the events of 1981 represent a tangible crack, an irremediable fracture to the balance of the Federation itself. The great federal socialist republic of Yugoslavia was a powder keg ready to explode at any moment. Eight years later, in 1989, Slobodan Milosevic’s speech in Gazimestan effectively ended the "Union and Brotherhood" system. In the same year, the government leader of Serbia eliminated the autonomy of the province, exacerbating Kosovo’s claims to independence. Kosovo itself and Bosnia Herzegovina were the scene of the worst crimes and massacres committed in Europe after the Second World War.

With the elections and the subsequent declaration of independence of Slovenia and Croatia between 1990 and 1991, the fragile coexistence and balance of populations belonging to different ethnic groups is finally broken. The government of Belgrade has been in opposition since the beginning, promptly sending the federal army. In 1990, the federal government attempted to replace Tito’s doctrine of "General Popular Defense", according to which each republic maintained a system of territorial prevention and defense, the “Teritorijalna odbrana” (TO) with a centralized defense system controlled solely by the Belgrade government. On behalf of the constitutional amendment adopted by the Slovenian parliament on June 28, the Government of Ljubljana got the sole control and management of the TO. In addition, the Slovenian Government itself secretly set up an organisation parallel to the TO, also wholly controlled by Slovenia, namely the “Manevrska struktura narodne zaščite” (MSNZ). At the end of June 1991, the Slovenian territorial defensive troops (TO) undertook a military offensive against the Yugoslav People’s Army (YPA). The war officially began in Slovenia. The European Community mobilized by sending three diplomatic representatives to negotiate with their Slovenian counterparts and the Yugoslav government. They agreed to a ceasefire, never put into action. Many YPA tanks were captured and later recycled as tanks for the TO. In the following days further skirmishes took place. Slovenian troops captured several YPA structures south of Lusbiana, destroying their ammunition shipment.

After a few days from the beginning of the conflict, Slovenians took control of all customs points in the country, allowing the YPA to return to Belgrade, effectively withdrawing peacefully. The Brijuni agreements effectively marked the end of the "Ten-Day War", so called by experts in international politics and strategic studies because of its very short duration. The actions of the Slovenian forces were largely dictated by the military strategy devised a few months earlier and were closely supplemented with a detailed media management plan. The Slovenian media and press played a leading role in the conflict. The Slovenian cause was "publicized" to the Western world through the use of the rhetoric of "David vs Goliath", "good vs evil", the democratic dream versus the bloody authoritarian regime. Slovenia could not have resisted the YPA for long. It chose to carry on an asymmetrical war, implementing a sort of guerrilla warfare, thanks to the use of the MSNZ, quickly incorporated into the TO. The Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević was not very interested in Slovenia's independence, This is reflected in the central government’s refusal to send additional YPA troops and weapons to Slovenian territory, as requested by the then Minister of Defence. The ethnic and cultural homogeneity of Slovenia and the meticulous preparation of each possible scenario have sealed the birth of the Republic. In January 1992 Slovenia was recognized from the European Community and a few months later it became an official member of the United Nations. Thanks to the excellent diplomatic and trade relations with the western countries, Slovenia managed to become the richest and most stable state of the former Yugoslavia.

In Croatia, unlike what happened in Slovenia, the scenario was different and certainly more complex than expected. On 19 May 1991, a referendum for independence was held with the possibility of keeping being part of the Yugoslav Federation. The government of Belgrade, concerned about the consequences to ethnic Serb within the territory, tried in every possible way to boycott it through several appeals, which were followed by the Serbs of Croatia themselves. With the beginning of the military operations in Croatia, what happened in part in Slovenia was repeated. The YPA started to be deserted by Croatian conscripts. The YPA further became a majority Serbian army. The multiethnicity that until then characterized it, faded until it disappeared almost totally. The YPA troops concentrated mainly on the territories inhabited largely by the Serbs of Croatia. Being superior in weapons and equipment, their strategy consisted of intensive gunfire, regardless of the presence of civilians. One of the main events of the Croatian War of Independence was the Battle of Vukovar, which began in August 1991 in the town of Vukovar on the Serbian-Croatian border. Slavonia, the historic eastern region of Croatia, was besieged and by the end of the summer of the same year Vukovar was surrounded by Serbian troops. The local towns were forced to flee. During the war numerous attempts to cease fire were thwarted. After yet another violation of the ceasefire, the UN deployed a peacekeeping force to control the territory with the stated goal of finding a diplomatic solution.

In January 1992 Croatia was recognized by the European Community. One year and half later, Operation Medak Pocket risked an international escalation of the conflict. Croatian forces entered and attacked Lika, a region that extends to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nearly a hundred civilians lost their lives. Several Canadian men, members of the UN Blue Helmets were involved and killed by Croatian soldiers, causing an increase in diplomatic tension on both sides. The war caused half a million refugees and deportees. Croats and other non-Serb ethnic groups were displaced and driven away. During the war, Serbia supported several paramilitary units that had volunteered to fight in Croatia. Although the Serbian territory was not the object of clashes, Serbia played a fundamental role in the war. It is enough to think of the positions held by the Serbs themselves within the bureaucratic apparatus of control of Yugoslavia and above all the detention and massacre camps built, where the Croats suffered the worst torture, punishment and crimes. There was a voluntary and silent violation of international treaties and rules in force in the war. In the same year, however, Yugoslavia was the scene of the conflict that really shocked and vanished the cards on the tables. Bosnia-Herzegovina was the “theater” of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity that the whole world hoped to never have to see again. Sarajevo, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984, became the city of horrors a few years later.

It all began in October 1991 with the issuance of the memorandum on the reaffirmation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Bosnian Parliament. The harsh protests by the Bosnian Serbs forced the intervention of the Committee for Peace in Yugoslavia, which affirmed the illegitimate independence in the absence of a referendum, held between 29th February and 1st March 1992. The Bosnian Serbs strongly opposed, in fact they opted for a boycott. However, the referendum was successful and independence was formally proclaimed on 3rd March 1992 and a month later the international community conferred institutional and political recognition to the new republic. More than half of the barracks and military arsenal belonging to Yugoslavia were located in Bosnia Herzegovina, due to the morphology of the territory. Being an almost mountainous area, it guaranteed a defensive advantage and above all a strategic base in case of invasion of Yugoslavia itself. A month after the proclamation of independence, the YPA officially left Bosnia. However, most of the weapons and military personnel at the top, including Ratko Mladic, remained in Bosnia giving birth the Serbian Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later renamed the Army of the Republic of Serbia (VRS). As a result, the Croats created a military body known as the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). On the other hand the Muslims joined the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the official army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to enhance a possible alliance between Croats and Muslims, Izetbegovic, a Bosnian Muslim and president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, appointed Kraljevic as commander of the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS), a paramilitary force.

In 1992, a military cleansing operation began in eastern Bosnia, led by Mladic troops against the local population. The homes of the Muslims were first plundered and subsequently burned. The citizens were captured, tortured, humiliated and then brutally killed. Many men were detained in concentration camps, women and children became bargaining chips and objects of rape. The situation quickly escalated. The scenario was gruesome, a real manhunt. The neighbor or childhood friend suddenly became the enemy to kill just because of the surname. In October 1992, one of the first cities to fall into the hands of the Serbs was Jajce, and the Bosnian Croats who resided there were driven out. The success of Mladic’s troops was the result of the lack of Bosnian-Croatian cooperation and a real strategy. The crimes committed and the indifference of the international community, concealed by a wait-and-see attitude, created the first rumours among the populations of Western countries. The representatives of the governments convened an extraordinary session of the United Nations Security Council. On 22nd February 1993, Resolution 808 was adopted, providing for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Bosnia. A few weeks later, NATO-led Operation Deny Flight began. It failed miserably. The escalation of the conflict occurred after the entry into force of the Vance-Owens plan, strongly contested and rejected by the Serbs, according to which Bosnia should be divided into two different entities on an ethnic basis. Several international policy experts, including Angus Macqueen and Paul Mitchell, described the decision as "the death of the Juglosavia". The Ahmici massacre was the culmination of ethnic cleansing. Bosnian Muslim civilians were mass killed, No one was spared, including women, children and infants.

In May 1993 the city of Mostar was surrounded and occupied by HVO troops. Entry was strictly prohibited and denied to international organizations. In an effort to protect civilians, UNPROFOR's role (UN Peacekeeping mission) was further expanded in May 1993 to protect the "safe zones" that the UN Security Council had declared around Sarajevo. In February 1994, Sarajevo was the subject of the bloodiest siege known as the Markale Massacre. NATO, at the request of the United Nations, authorized the air attack against artillery and mortars near Sarajevo. Greece, although opposed, did not express its veto in any way. On 18th March, representatives of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia signed the peace agreement in Washington and Vienna, which ended the war between Croats and Muslims. The territory controlled by the Croats and Bosnians was divided into ten autonomous cantons, giving rise to the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1995, the darkest, most gruesome and bloody page of the Bosnian war was written. In July VRS troops led by General Mladic violated and occupied the UN "security zone", entering the city of Srebrenica, east of Bosnia. Eight thousand people were killed and slaughtered. UNPROFOR, the United Nations protection forces, represented by a contingent of Dutch soldiers, was unable to prevent the massacre. Years later, the survivors accused the Dutch troops themselves of deceiving the local population by stealing their weapons, hence the possibility of self-defense. In the face of these atrocities, the international community could no longer delay. Operation Deliberate Force, implemented by UN Security Council Resolution 836, began. The Serbian forces were not up to the task and accepted the surrender, abandoning Sarajevo. Operation Deliberate Force was the first military action in NATO’s history since its creation.

The signing of the Dayton Agreement between november-december 1995 marked the end of the war in Bosnia. The same agreements established the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, formed by the Republika Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Accords, enthusiastically welcomed by the entire international community, presented a vulnus. There was no trace of what is still considered an unresolved issue: Kosovo. In August 1991, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence (though never recognized) and Ibrahim Rugova assumed the presidency. Repression against the Kosovar population, with an Albanian majority, increased in 1997 when Milosevic assumed the presidency of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro). The Kosovar Liberation Army (UÇK, founded in 1992 and declared in 1998 by the UN as a terrorist organization), began in 1996 a series of attacks against the Serbs. One of the generals of UÇK, Selimi spoke of "a great Albanian nation", declaring the intent to create the "Greater Albania", a single state that included the regions inhabited by people with an Albanian majority. Serbs decided to react. The Albanian massacre in Gornje Obrinje by Serbian hands and the discovery of mutilated bodies of Albanian women and children prompted the international community to intervene. Increased threats to regional and international security led to the activation of NATO. The international community was calling on the Milosevic government to cease fire on UÇK and Albanian civilians. After yet another attempt to convince Milosevic to allow NATO peacekeeping troops to enter Kosovo, the North Atlantic Council issued orders for a limited and circumspect air attack on Serbian strategic military assets.

Nonetheless, the massacres against Albanian civilians continued and the flow of Kosovar refugees into Albania caused a humanitarian crisis to which the UN reacted by asking NATO to begin the humanitarian assistance operation known as Operation Allied Harbour. The breakthrough came during the Rambouillet Conference, when in January 1999 NATO declared that the North Atlantic Council agreed that "The Secretary-General of NATO may authorise air strikes against targets on the territory of Federal Repulic of Yugoslavia (FRY) for compliance with the demands of the international community and for a political solution". On 23 March 1999, the NATO bombing campaign against Belgrade began, involving up to June 1999, when Serbs finally surrended. NATO military aircrafts took off from bases in Italy and aircraft carriers in the Adriatic. Milosevic, seeing the impossibility of coping the continous aistrikes, agreed to an international peace plan. Flight operations were suspended and KFOR, the NATO-led "Kosovo Peacekeeping Force", entered Kosovo, starting the State building process that culminated in 2008 with the declaration of the birth of the Republic of Kosovo by the Pristina Parliament. After the last act of the conflict, the international community has worked to bring those responsible for the war crimes committed in those years to international justice. In The Hague, an ad hoc international criminal court was set up. Milosevic, after being captured a few years later, took his own life in prison. Mladic, arrested in 2011, was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and the same sentence was confirmed in 2021.

Karadzic, the instigator of the Srebrenica genocide, was sentenced in 2016 to forty years in prison. The aggravating circumstance of the genocide meant that in 2019 the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Ramush Haradinaj, former military, as well as Prime Minister of Kosovo from 2017 to 2020, was charged of war crimes and crimes against humanity from the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, for the events committed during the war in Kosovo. He is acquitted in full by the court itself because the fact does not exist. Nowadays he remains a controversial figure, idolized at home, but hated and seen as a criminal in Serbia.

Article by Silvio Lulaj

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- ISPI offical website – ispionline.it

- “War for Slovenia 1991” - Government of the Republic of Slovenia, public relations and media office. Pathwar, - governmental archive

- “Serbian and Croatian Nationalism and the Wars In Yugoslavia” - culturalsurvival.org

- Alija Izetbegović’s presidency - wikipedia

- Operation Deny Flight – UN Security Council – un.org

- Bosnia and Herzegovina – US State Department - State.gov

- Bosnian War – Britannica.com

- “Ricordando Srebrenica” - ispionline.it

- The Dayton Accords – un.org

- Lufta e Kosovës (Kosovo war) - kryeministri-ks.net

- International Criminal Court for former Yugoslavia – studiperlapace.it

- Peacemaker.un.org