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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Yugoslavia - The Partition / Break -Up


The Partition of Yugoslavia refers to a series of conflicts and political upheavals resulting in the dissolution of the  Yugoslavia(the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).  
Yugoslavia was a country that occupied a strip of land stretching from present-day Central Europe  to the Balkans  — a region with a history of ethnic conflict.

From the end of World War II until 1980,Yugoslavia was under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito - was a Federation of Socialist Republics.

After the death of Tito,some of the six Republics started seeking greater freedom from Central Control.

In 1990after the fall of Soviet Union each of the Republics held elections .
Croatia and Slovenia elected Pro-Independence Candidates
Serbia and Montenegro continued for Yugoslav Unity

The country was a conglomeration of 6 Regional Republics and 2 Autonomous Provinces that was roughly divided on ethnic lines and split up in the 1990s into several independent countries namely -
Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina ,Montenegro,Serbia
and two autonomous provinces within Serbia: Kosovo and Vojvodina 




Slovenia
On June 25, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to declare independence from Yugoslavia.

 











Capital                          : Ljubljana
Official Language        : Slovene
Currency                       : EURO
Population                    :2,048,951( 2010 Estimate)
Independence              : June 25,1991



                                          
Flag of Slovenia
                      











The first clear demand for Slovene independence was made in 1987.
A mass democratic movement, coordinated by the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights,pushed the Communists in the direction of democratic reforms.
In April 1990, the first democratic elections in Slovenia took place and the united opposition movement DEMOS  led by Joze Pucnik  emerged victorious.
In the same year more than 88% of the electorate voted for a sovereign and independent Slovenia. 
This was followed on 25 June 1991 by a declaration of independence
.The very next day, the newly-formed state was attacked by the Yugoslav Army.

After a 10-dat war  a truce was called and in October 1991 the last soldiers of the Yugoslav Army left.
The European Union(EU)  recognised Slovenia in January 1992, and the UN  accepted it as a member in May 1992. Slovenia joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. In 2004 Slovenia also joined NATO 

Slovenia is a Parliamentary Democracy Republic with a Multi-Party System . The Head of State  is the President  who is elected by popular vote every 5 years to maximum 2 consecutive terms, and has mainly advisory and ceremonial duties.
The Executive and Administrative Authority in Slovenia is held by the Govt. of Slovenia headed by the PM and the council of miinisters or cabinet, who are elected by the National Assembly  which consists of 90 members.

National Assembly


                                                                       










Croatia


 

 

 

 

 

Capital: Zagreb 

Official Language:Croatian 

 Currency :Kuna(HRK)
 Population :4,486,881( 2010 Estimate)
Independence: Oct 08,1991

  

 


Flag of Croatia












Croatia declared independence from socialist Yugoslavia in 1991.War broke out in 1991 with Yugoslavia National Army  open attacks on Croatia.At the end of 1991 there was full-scale war in Croatia.The war was between the Serbs, in what had been the Republic of Serbia in the former Yugoslavia, and Croats in the newly independent Croatia. The reasons for the war are quite complex. To greatly simplify, while Croatia and Slovenia  wanted to separate from Yugoslavia, Serbs were largely unwilling to allow this to happen, probably largely for economic reasons.

Croatia operated a Semi-Presidential System  until 2000 when it switched to a Parliamentary System
The President is the Head of the State directly elected to a five-year term and is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of two terms.
The Govt. of Croatia   is headed by the PM who has two deputy prime ministers and 14 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity.
he Parliament of Croatia  is a Unicameral  legislative body (a second chamber, the "House of Counties", which was set up by the Constitution of 1990, was abolished in 2001). The number of the members can vary from 100 to 160; they are all elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms.

Government's official residence is at Banski dvori.
                                                                                  








 

 

 

 

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

 

 

 

 

 

got independence on March 1,1992

Capital:Sarajevo

Official Language:Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

Population : 3,842,566 (2011 Estimate)

Ethnic Groups :Bosniaks 48%;Serbs 37% & Croats 14% 

                                                                       Flag Of Bosnia and Herzegovina


 

 

 

 

  

The Serb members of parliament, consisting mainly of the Serb Democratic Party members, abandoned the central parliament in Sarajevo, and formed the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 October 1991, which marked the end of the tri-ethnic coalition that governed after the elections in 1990.

A declaration of Bosnia and Herzegovina sovereignty in October 1991 was followed by a referendum for independence from Yugoslavia in February and March 1992 boycotted by the great majority of the Serbs. The turnout in the independence referendum was 63.4 per cent and 99.7 per cent of voters voted for independence.

 Bosnia and Herzegovina is a parliamentary republic, which has a bicameral legislature and a 3 member Presidency composed of a member of each major ethnic group. 

The Parliamentary Assembly is the lawmaking body in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It consists of 2 houses: the House of Peoples and the House of Representatives.

The House of Peoples has 15 delegates, two-thirds of which come from the Federation (5 Croat and 5 Bosniaks) and one-third from the Republika Srpska (5 Serbs). The House of Representatives is composed of 42 Members, two-thirds elected from the Federation and one-third elected from the Republika Srpska.

                                                        Bosnian Parliament Building

The Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina rotates among three members (Bosniak, Serb, Croat), each elected as the Chair for an eight-month term within their four-year term as a member. The three members of the Presidency are elected directly by the people (Federation votes for the Bosniak/Croat, Republika Srpska for the Serb).
The Chair of the Council of Ministers is nominated by the Presidency and approved by the House of Representatives.


Macedonia - Republic of Macedonia




































got independence on 8 September 1991 
Capital:Skopje
Official Language: Macedonian
Ethnic Groups:Macedonian65%;Albanian24%;Turkish3%;Roma4% and Others4%
Population - 2,114,550 (2009 Estimate)
Currency - Macedonian Dinar(MKD)


Flag of Macedonia
































Religion
Christianity is the majority faith of the Republic of Macedonia, with 64.7% of the population belonging to the Macedonian branch of Orthodoxy.
 Muslims comprise 33.3% of the population; Macedonia has the fourth-highest proportion of Muslims in Europe, after those of Kosovo (90%), Albania(70%), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (48%).Most Muslims are AlbanianTurkish, or Roma, although some are Macedonian Muslims.


Macedonia is a parliamentary democracy with an executive government composed of a coalition of parties from the unicameral legislature.The Assembly is made up of 120 seats and the members are elected every 4 years. The role of the President of the Republic is mostly ceremonial, with the real power resting in the hands of the President of the Government. The President is the commander-in-chief of the state armed forces and a president of the state Security Council. The President is elected every 5 years and can be elected twice at most.


The country's main political divergence is between the largely ethnically based political parties representing the country's ethnic Macedonian majority and Albanian minority. 
The issue of the power balance between the two communities led to a brief war in 2001, following which a power-sharing agreement was reached. In August 2004, Macedonia's parliament passed legislation redrawing local boundaries and giving greater local autonomy to ethnic Albanians in areas where they predominate.
Macedonia became a member state of the United Nations on April 8, 1993, eighteen months after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is referred to within the UN as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", pending a resolution of the long-running dispute with Greece about the country's name.








Montenegro    -    meaning "Black Mountain"


The status of the union between Montenegro and Serbia was decided by the referendum on Montenegrin independence on 21 May 2006. A total of 419,240 votes were cast, representing 86.5% of the total electorate. 230,661 votes (55.5%) were for independence and 185,002 votes (44.5%) were against.The 2006 referendum was monitored by five international observer missions.
On 3 June 2006, the Montenegrin Parliament declared the independence of Montenegro formally confirming the result of the referendum. Serbia did not object to the declaration.






             Flag of Montenegro









got independence on  3 June 2006
(however independence day celebrated on May 21)
Capital: Podgorica
Official Language: Montenegrin
Population - 666730 (2009 Estimate)
Currency - Euro




major ethnic groups: Montenegrins,SerbsBosniaksMuslimsAlbanians and Croats.
Religion
Most Montenegrin inhabitants are Orthodox Christians74%. There is a sizeable number of Sunni Muslims18%.There is also a small Roman Catholic population4%.


Montenegro is an independent and sovereign republic that proclaimed its new constitution on 22 October 2007.The President of Montenegro  is the head of state, elected for a period of five years through direct elections.                                          Presidential Palace Cetinje


The Parliament of Montenegro is a unicameral legislative body consisting of 81 seats.




Serbia -  officially the Republic of Serbia
Capital - Belgrade
Official Languages - Serbian
Population - 7306677 (2010Estimate)
Currency - Serbian Dinar(RSD)
Ethnic Groups - Serbs 83%;Hungarians 4%;Bosniaks2% and Others 11%


























                                                              Flag Of Serbia
History
 In the early 19th century the Serbian revolution reestablished the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory and pioneered the abolition of feudalism in Southeast Europe.
Following World War I, Serbia formed Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples which existed in several forms up until 2006, when Serbia retrieved its independence.
Out of roughly 1,000,000 casualties in all of Yugoslavia up until 1944 around 250,000 were citizens of Serbia of different ethnicities, according to Zundhauzen. The overall number of ethnic Serb casualties in Yugoslavia was around 530,000, out of whom up to 400,000 in the NDH genocide campaign.
The communist takeover resulted in abolition of the monarchy, ban on the royal family's return and a subsequent orchestrated constitutional referendum on the republic-socialist type of government.
In the aftermath of the victory of the communist Yugoslav Partisans, a totalitariansingle-party state was soon established in Yugoslavia by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. . Serbia became a constituent republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia known as the Socialist Republic of Serbia and had a republic-branch of the federal Communist party, the League of Communists of Serbia.
Slobodan Milošević rose to power in Serbia in 1989 in the League of Communists of Serbia through a series of coups against incumbent governing members. Milošević promised reduction of powers for the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. This ignited tensions with the communist leadership of the other republics that eventually resulted in the secession of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovinaand Macedonia from Yugoslavia.
Multiparty democracy was introduced in Serbia in 1990, officially dismantling the former one-party communist system.
In 1992, the governments of Serbia and Montenegro agreed to the creation of a new Yugoslav federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which abandoned the predecessor SFRY's official endorsement of communism, and instead endorsed democracy.
Milošević represented the Bosnian Serbs at the Dayton peace agreement in 1995, signing the agreement which ended the Bosnian War that internally partitioned Bosnia & Herzegovina largely along ethnic lines into a Serb republic and a Bosniak-Croat federation.
In September 2000, opposition parties accused Milošević of electoral fraud. A campaign of civil resistance followed, led by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad coalition of anti-Milošević parties. This culminated on 5 October when half a million people from all over the country congregated in Belgrade, compelling Milošević to concede defeat. The fall of Milošević ended Serbia's international isolation. Milošević was sent to the ICTY on accusations of sponsoring war crimes during the breakup of Yugoslavia, which he was held on trial to until his death in 2006.From 2003 to 2006, Serbia was part of the "State Union of Serbia and Montenegro." This union was the successor to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 21 May 2006, Montenegro held a referendum to determine whether or not to end its union with Serbia. The next day, state-certified results showed 55.4% of voters in favor of independence. This was just above the 55% required by the referendum.
On 5 June 2006, the National Assembly of Serbia declared Serbia to be the legal successor to the former state union. Serbia regained its independence in 2006, after 88 years in various federations.
Religion
Orthodox Christian comprise about 84% of the entire population.Catholics in Serbia, roughly 6.2% of the population. Bosniaks are the largest Muslim community in Serbia with 140,000 followers or 2% of the total population, followed by Albanians whereas some Roma are Muslim.
Protestantism accounts for about 1.1% of the country's population, chiefly among Reformist Hungarians and Slovaks in Vojvodina.

Serbia has two autonomous provinces: Vojvodina in the north and Kosovo and Metohija in the south. The area that lies between Vojvodina and Kosovo is called Central Serbia.





Vojvodina
officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.
is an autonomous province in Serbia.
 capital and largest city is Novi Sad.
 there are more than 26 ethnic groups  
has 6 official languages - SerbianHungarian,SlovakRomanian,Croatian & Pannonian Rusyn


Kosovo and Metohija
Capital - Pristina
Ethnic Groups - Albanians 88%;Serbs 7% and Others 5%
Population - 1,804,838 (2007 Estimate)
Currency - Euro;Serbian Dinar
is a disputed territory following the collapse of Yugoslavia. The partially recognised Republic of Kosovo  a self-declared independent state, has de facto control over most of the territory, with North Kosovo being the largest Kosovo Serb enclave. Serbia does not recognise the unilateral secession of Kosovo and considers it a United Nations-governed entity within its sovereign territory, the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija according to the 2006 Constitution of Serbia.






Kosovo War


By 1996 the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian guerilla group, had prevailed over the non-violent resistance movement and had started offering armed resistance to Serbian and Yugoslav security forces, resulting in early stages of the Kosovo War.
By 1998, as the violence had worsened and displaced scores of Albanians, Western interest had increased. The Serbian authorities were compelled to sign a ceasefire and partial retreat, monitored by OSCE observers according to an agreement negotiated by Richard Holbrooke. However, the ceasefire did not hold and fighting resumed in December 1998. 
The Račak massacre in January 1999 in particular brought new international attention to the conflict. Within weeks, a multilateral international conference was convened and by March had prepared a draft agreement known as theRambouillet Accords, calling for restoration of Kosovo's autonomy and deployment of NATOpeacekeeping forces. The Serbian party found the terms unacceptable and refused to sign the draft.
Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, NATO intervened by bombing Yugoslavia aimed to force Milošević to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. This military action was not authorised by the Security Council of the United Nations and was therefore contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Charter.
Combined with continued skirmishes between Albanian guerrillas and Yugoslav forces the conflict resulted in a further massive displacement of population in Kosovo. Roughly a million ethnic Albanians fled or were forcefully driven from Kosovo.
On June 10, 1999, the UN Security Council passed UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (UNMIK) and authorised KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Resolution 1244 provided that Kosovo would have autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and affirmed the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, which has been legally succeeded by the Republic of Serbia.



Declaration of independence


Republic of Kosovo declared independence on 17 February 2008 from Serbia.
 75 UN states recognise the independence of Kosovo and it has become a member country of the IMF and World Bank as the Republic of Kosovo.
The UN Security Council remains divided on the question (as of 4 July 2008). Of the five members withveto power, USA, UK, and France recognised the declaration of independence, and the People's Republic of China has expressed concern, while Russia considers it illegal
The European Union has no official position towards Kosovo's status.
On 8 October 2008, the UN General Assembly resolved to request the International Court of Justice to render an advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.
The advisory opinion, which is legally non-binding but had been expected to carry "moral" weight was rendered on 22 July 2010, holding that Kosovo's declaration of independence was not in violation of international law.




Serbs reject Kosovo Albanian rule in referendum - Feb 17,2012


Kosovo has about 120,000 ethnic Serbs, of whom 40,000 live in the north and the rest in scattered enclaves to the south.
Kosovo Serb officials said 99.7% of voters said "no" to the Kosovo government in Pristina.

Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have rejected rule by the territory's ethnic Albanian majority, in a referendum criticised by Serbia and the EU.

About 90% of Kosovo's population is ethnic Albanian, but Serbs dominate a northern area bordering on Serbia.Kosovo Serbs have ignored Pristina's decisions and obstructed the EU and Nato law and order mission in Kosovo.
The Kosovo parliament in Pristina denounced the Serbs' referendum this week in a resolution, saying it "does not produce any legally and politically binding effect and as such is not valid".












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