Serbia, as a constituent subject of the SFR Yugoslavia and later the FR Yugoslavia, was involved in the Yugoslav Wars, which took place between 1991 and 1999—the war in Slovenia, the Croatian War of Independence, the Bosnian War, and Kosovo. From 1991 to 1997, Slobodan Milošević was the President of Serbia. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has established that Milošević was in control of Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia during the wars which were fought there from 1991 to 1995.
Accused of supporting Serb rebels in Croatia and Bosnia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was suspended from most international organisations and institutions, and economic and political sanctions were imposed, which resulted in an economic disaster and massive emigration from the country. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War significantly damaged the country's infrastructure and economy. After the Yugoslav Wars, Serbia became home to the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Europe.
Various judicial proceedings at the ICTY have investigated the different levels of responsibility of the Yugoslav People's Army and the leadership of the FRY and Serbia for the war crimes that were committed by ethnic Serbs who lived in other republics of the former Yugoslavia, while the government of Serbia was tasked with apprehending numerous ethnic Serb fugitives for the Tribunal, with which it largely complied. Milošević became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.
Following Milošević's rise to power and the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, numerous anti-war movements developed in Serbia. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 people deserted from the Yugoslav People's Army, while between 100,000 and 150,000 people emigrated from Serbia after refusing to participate in the war. Milošević regime's propaganda played a significant role in the wars.
After the defeat of Milošević's party at the 1996 local elections, the 1996–97 anti-government protests, and the boycott of the 1997 election by the opposition due to irregular election conditions, the wide opposition alliance won the 2000 election. That led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, resulting in the admission of the FR Yugoslavia United Nations membership, the arrest of Milošević and extradition to stand trial for war crimes.
Background
The 1990 survey conducted among Yugoslav citizens showed that ethnic animosity existed on a small scale. Compared to the results from 25 years before, Serbia was one of the republic with the smallest increase in ethnic distance, which stayed at medium. There was significant increase of ethnic distance among Serbs and Montenegrins toward Croats and Slovenes and vice versa. Of all respondents, 71% of Serbs said that their affiliation with Yugoslavia is very important to them.
Milošević used a rigid control of the media to organize a propaganda campaign in which the thesis that Serbs were the victims and the need for readjust Yugoslavia to redress the alleged bias against Serbia. This then was then followed by Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in which the governments of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were overthrown, which gave Milošević the dominating position of 4 votes out of 8 in Yugoslavia's collective presidency.
The Constitution of Yugoslavia (1974 Constitution), in its Basic Principles, in the very beginning, stated "The peoples of Yugoslavia, starting from the right of every nation to self-determination, including the right to secession,...". The opinion of the Serb leadership of that time was that the internal borders of Yugoslavia were provisional. The basis for this statement was derived from the Constitution of Yugoslavia. President Slobodan Milošević, also the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, had repeatedly stated that all Serbs should enjoy the right to be included in Serbia. Mihajlo Marković, the Vice President of the Main Committee of Serbia's Socialist Party, rejected any solution that would make Serbs outside Serbia a minority. He proposed establishing a federation consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, BiH, Macedonia and Serbs residing in the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina, Slavonia, Baranja, and Srem.
Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991. Both were internationally recognized on 15 January 1992. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence on 5 March 1992. It was internationally recognized on 22 May 1992 by the United Nations. With the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro proclaimed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a sole successor state of SFR Yugoslavia, on 27 April 1992. It remained unrecognized during the conflict.
Serb media under Milošević
The Serbian media during the Milošević era was known to espouse Serb nationalism while promoting xenophobia toward the other ethnicities in Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians were commonly characterised in the media as anti-Yugoslav counter-revolutionaries, rapists, and a threat to the Serb nation.International Centre Against Censorship. "Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina", International Centre Against Censorship, Article 19. Avon, United Kingdom: Bath Press, May 1994. p. 55 When war erupted in Croatia, Politika promoted Serb nationalism, hostility towards Croatia, and violence.International Centre Against Censorship. "Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina", International Centre Against Censorship, Article 19. Avon, England, UK: Bath Press, May 1994. pp. 76–79
On 5 June 1991, Politika ekspres ran a piece titled "Serbs must get weapons". On 25 June 1991 and 3 July 1991, Politika began to openly promote partitioning Croatia, and prominently quoted Jovan Marjanović of the Serbian Renewal Movement, who said "The [Yugoslav] Army must come into Croatia and occupy the line Benkovac-Karlovac-Pakrac-Baranja". On 25 June 1991, Politika reminded Serbs about the atrocities perpetrated by the Croatian fascist Ustaše against Serbs during World War II; "Jasenovac [an Ustaše concentration camp in World War II] mustn't be forgotten".
Serbian state media during the wars featured controversial reportage that villainized the other ethnic factions. In one such program, a Croatian Serb woman denounced the old "communist policy" in Croatia, claiming that under it "[t]he majority of Serbs would be assimilated in ten years", while another interviewee stated "Where Serbian blood was shed by Ustasha knives, there will be our boundaries." Various Serbian state television reports featured Jovan Rašković, who stated the Croatian people had a "genocidal nature".
The director of Radio Television of Serbia during Milošević's era, Dušan Mitević, later admitted, in a PBS documentary, that "the things that happened at state TV, warmongering, things we can admit to now: false information, biased reporting. That went directly from Milošević to the head of TV"."Wide Angle, Milošević and the Media", Part 3: Dictatorship on the Airwaves, PBS. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
Armed conflicts
During the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, the concept of a Greater Serbia was widely seen outside of Serbia as the motivating force for the military campaigns undertaken to form and sustain Serbian states on the territories of the breakaway Yugoslav republics of Croatia (the Republic of Serbian Krajina) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Republika Srpska).; Paragraph 8 (HTML version from the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) documentation site ) The goal of the Republic of Serbia was to play the role of a central power left vacant by the fading federal state.
Serbia's role in the Slovenian war
As early as June 1990, after the success of pro-independence forces in the referendums of Slovenia and Croatia, there was a meeting between Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslav Defence Minister General Veljko Kadijević and Serb representative to the Yugoslav Presidency Borisav Jović where they drew a plan by which Serbia would "throw Slovenia and Croatia out of Yugoslavia" through the use of force and occupy areas of Croatia where the Serbs were majority.
Milošević wanted to force a political deal with Slovene president Milan Kučan; Serbia would recognize the right of the self-determination of the Slovene nation to independence if Slovenia in turn recognized the right of self-determination of the Serb nation to remain united with Serbia. Such a deal would have set a precedent for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia to remain in one state with Serbia.
Immediately after the Slovenian independence referendum, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) announced a new defence doctrine that would apply across the country. The socialist doctrine of "General People's Defence", in which each republic maintained a Territorial Defence Force (TO), was to be replaced by a centrally-directed system of defence. The republics would lose their role in defence matters, and their TOs would be disarmed and subordinated to JNA headquarters in Belgrade. The Slovenian government resisted these moves, and successfully ensured that the majority of Slovenian Territorial Defence equipment was kept out of the hands of the JNA.
General Veljko Kadijević was de facto commander of Yugoslav People's Army during the Slovenian Independence War. Kadijević advocated for a show of force that would convince the Slovenian government to back down on its declaration of independence. After some debate, Kadijević got his way.Allcock, John B. et al. Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia, p. 274. ABC-CLIO, Denver, 1998 The officer corps was dominated by Serbs and Montenegrins. The rank and file troops however were conscripts, many who had no strong motivation in fighting against the Slovenes. Of the soldiers of the 5th Military District, which was in action in Slovenia, about 30% were Albanians. Milošević's government was not particularly concerned about Slovenia's independence, as there was no significant Serb minority in the country. On 30 June, Kadijević suggested to the Yugoslav federal presidency to resume action on Slovenia with a massive attack to break down the unexpectedly heavy resistance. But Borisav Jović, shocked the military establishment by declaring that Serbia did not support further use of force against Slovenia.Vasić, Miloš. "The Yugoslav Army and the Post-Yugoslav Armies", in Yugoslavia and After – A Study in Fragmentation, Despair and Rebirth, ed. David A. Dyker & Ivan Vejvoda. Longman, London, UK (1996).
Serbia's role in the Croatian war
In April 1991, Serbs within the Republic of Croatia moved to secede from that territory, which itself seceded from Yugoslavia.
In May 1991, Stipe Mesić, a Croat, was scheduled to be the chairman of the rotating Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but Serbia blocked his installation, so this maneuver technically left Yugoslavia without a leader.