Tolerance Vs Conflicts Case Study of the Integration and Disintegration of Yugoslavia

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Tolerance Vs. Conflicts
Integration Vs. Disintegration
Case Study of Yugoslavia
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What is Yugoslavia?
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Definition

• Land of the South Slavs
• A term used for three separate political entities
  of the 20th century
• I Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918)
• - re-named to Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929)
• II Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
  (renamed several times)
• III Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992)
• Serbia and Montenegro (2003)
• ? (2006)

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Second Yugoslavia

• Reconciliation
• Fair representation in the government

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Tolerance despite the differences

• between the regions
• concepts of development strategies
• allocation of scarce resources
• levels of political freedoms
• access to the Western markets
• financial and security structures

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In a Search of Tolerance

• The Titoist Solution of the National
  Question
• Five phases of the search for tolerance
• Four of them during Titos long reign
• - 1943-80
• The Fifth and fatal one comes after Titos dead

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First Phase

• Soviet theoretical, constitutional, and policy
  precedents
• Full recognition of 5 Yugoslav nations
• Institutionalization of this recognition in a
  federation of 6 republics
• A considerable degree of genuine cultural
  autonomy
• Recognition of cultural diversities (folklore,
  educational system, and languages)

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Counterbalances

• A highly centralized
• Carefully multinational
• One-party dictatorship
• Security apparatus
• Centrally planned economy
• Suppression

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• Pacification of intercommunal tensions
• Popular disgust of the divisive nationalisms
• Recognition of separate national identities
• Republics as nation-states of their own
• Illusion that the national question was solved

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The second phase

• Political and economic decentralization
• Reopening of the national question in a new
  postwar form
• - Interregional competition over the allocation
  of resources
• - Regarded as competition among the Yugoslavian
  nations
• More relax cultural environment
• Revival of nationalist themes in literature,
  theater and films

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Reaction

• Campaign for Yugoslavism
• Pan-Yugoslav patriotism, cultures, and economy
• Supranational and unifying umbrella over the
  countrys diverse national identities, cultures
  and economies

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Reaction

• Removal of reference to secession
• The republics were not longer sovereign
• Development of a socialist Yugoslav
  consciousness
• Leading eventually to a Yugoslav culture

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Reaction and Counteraction

• Yugoslavism Serbinization
• Self-image of the Serb nation
• A device for Serb domination
• Centralization was brought down

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The third phase

• If the nationalism was not to be suppressed by a
  centralization
• Alternative solution - with kindness

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Economic reforms

• Introduction of a genuine (socialist) market
  economy
• Self-managed of enterprises
• Reducing the states economic role
• De-etatization at all levels

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New problems

• De-etatization stopped with the destruction of
  the federal citadel
• The other etatisms - left intact and
  strengthened
• Tendencies to regional autarky

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More tolerance

• Muslims as a separate nation
• Genuine autonomy for Kosovo (1968)
• The Macedonian Orthodox Church - autocephalous
  status

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Political crises

• How much further the process should go?
• A surge of nationalistic sentiments
• Kosovo - series of Albanian demonstrations
• Croatian spring
• Threat of use of force and political purges

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The fourth phase

• Started with the Titos coups
• New constitution - quasi-federation
• Kosovo and Voivodina semi republican status
• Silent Croatia
• The 1970s - economically and socially good years

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Fifth phase beginning of the end

• Mass demonstrations in Kosovo cities (1981)
• Further exodus by the remaining Serbs
• Stories of Albanian intimidations
• Serbian media - ethically pure Albanian Kosovo
• Serbs - Kosovo is lost

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Memorandum (1986)

• greater sacrifices
• leading role in creating both Yugoslav states
• impoverishment while other grew richer
• division into three parts
• genocide in Kosovo
• chauvinism and Serbophobia

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Reaction

• Victimization of Slovenes and Croats
• The role of the mass media
• De-mistification of history
• De-Titoizsation

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The end of a fairy-tale

• The will to live together ?
• Civil war Vs. compromising national goals

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National goals

• Serbs
• to unite all Serbs in one state
• Croats
• - historic rights to a unitary state
• Slovenes
• - to preserve the integrity and European-ness
  of Slovene national culture

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National goals

• Muslims
• - to preserve their Islamic cultural integrity
  and the right of a state
• Macedonians
• - separate identity
• Montenegrins
• - expression of their identity
• Albanians
• - sovereignty

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Dissatisfaction

• The richest republics
• why to share?
• The poorest entities
• exploited
• All
• no more Serbian domination
• Serbia
• oppressed

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The sparkFrom Kosovo to Kosovo

• The Memorandum initiated a quest for the
  Serbian hero
• Milosevic No one will ever beat you again
• Kosovo deprived of autonomy
• Slovenia and Croatia referendums

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The Pandoras box

• Franjo Tudjman right-wing nationalist president
  
• Serbians deprived of privileges
• Memories of WWII Croatian atrocities
• Serbs in Croatia secession
• Armed clashes

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Yugoslav Wars

• Conflicts in the nord
• - Slovenian War (1991)
• - Croatian War (19911995)
• - Bosnian War (19921995)

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Yugoslav Wars

• Conflicts in the south
• - Kosovo War (1996-1999)
• - Macedonian NLA's rebellion (2001)
• - Disturbances in southern Serbia (2001)

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Ten-day war

• Referendum for independence
• The end to the previous common life and
  fictitious brotherhood and unity

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Croatian War (19911995)

• An ethnic conflict
• Based on historical myths of ethnical differences
  
• The dividing line was religion
• The socialist Yugoslavia -secularized state

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The Bloodiest War

• 250,000 dead
• 3 million - refugees
• External support
• - Croats from Croatia, Croatian emigrant circles
• - Serbs from Serbia, Russia, Ukraine
• - Bosniaks from Muslim countries

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Dayton Agreement in November (1995)

• Signed by
• - Izetbegovic
• - Miloevic
• - Tudjman
• The end of national and ethnic mixture

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Kosovo War (1996-1999)

• The last full scale Yugoslav war?
• Clearest ethnical demarcation lines
• Ethnic conflict

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Macedonian NLA's rebellion

• Armed attacks on state police stations and
  military units
• Demands for more political, ethnical and human
  rights
• Ohrid Peace agreement

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Disturbances in southern Serbia (2001)

• Liberation Army of Preevo, Medveda and Bujanovac
  
• The model used in Kosovo and Macedonia
• Low-scale conflict

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Diversities Vs. Differences

• Minor ethnic diversities
• Mostly Slavic nations at opposing sides
• - commonly understandable languages
• - sharing historical memories
• - following Christian religion
• - similar anthropological characteristics

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• Why they, after more than 45 years of carefully
  built ethnic tolerance, feel different enough
• to fight
• to kill
• to rape
• to robe the members of other nation and neighbors?

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• Is there the
• family name
• the alphabet to write
• the dialect to speak
• the ancestors
• the priest to go to confession
• the traditional songs
• the jokes
• enough to distinguish, to draw the exact
  front-line?
•  

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Institutions

• Historical
• Geographical
• Economic
• Democratic
• institutions, which create the diversities

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Myths

• They help to define the otherness
• Perceived and attributed differences
• Fragmentation of the society of South Slavic
  people

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Fragmentation Vs Unification

• Balkanization
• the process of state fragmentation
• Unification the Yugoslavian states

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Deadly hatred Vs Common tolerance

• The tolerance and conciliatory feelings usually
  followed great wars
• The end of the Cold War exception
• The re-integration in Europe as a panacea

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Another quest for Multicultural Tolerance

• Reasons
• - Domestic
• - International

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International reasons for reaffirmation of
intercultural tolerance

• Interconnectedness
• The wish to belong to the international
  mechanisms and networks
• Good-neighborly relations
• - a fundamental prerequisite for integration

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Integration in EU

• Slovenia - member
• Croatia member in the very near future
• The rest Western Balkans

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Integration in NATO

• Slovenia
• - member
• Macedonia and Croatia
• - serious candidates
• BosniaHercegovina and Serbia
• - perspective PfP members

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Domestic reasons for reaffirmation of
intercultural tolerance

• Paradoxically a result of not finished ethnic
  cleansing
• They have to survive the presence of the other  
• WWII experience shows that the process of
  establishing mutual tolerance is
• very long
• complex
• compromising

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Risks

• The process is not always leading to the
  desired goals
• Separatism
• Hatred

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An urgent need for

• A post-war peace education
• A renewed socialization

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Education Pros Cons

• A background for conflict.
• Education is long-term project and it may serve
  as a root cause of conflict
• Promoter of tolerance
• The acceptance of the other can also be
  promoted through education system

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The education for tolerance has to be promoted in

• The whole educational systems
• The media
• The circles of decision makers and public opinion
  leaders
• Intellectuals
• Academia
• Managers
• Military

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Elites as Promoters of Interethnic Disputes and
Tolerance

• The former Yugoslav elites
• - Supported
• - Produced
• ethnonationalism and conflicts
• The new elite must avoid the old mistakes
• - Need for communication

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YOU AS PROMOTERS OF TOLERANCE!?!