The Outbreak of an Ethnic - Conflict in Serbia

Résumé du document

Like many other peoples throughout Europe, the Serbs form a community united by a common history and a common culture. Serbs feel specifically united by their historical sufferings, mainly the Ottoman rule until the 19th century and the persecution by the Croatian Usta'e during World War Two. As such, this united community suffered from two issues: on the one hand it has long been part of greater entities where it was not sovereign (Ottoman Empire, Yugoslav Republic), and on the other hand, its people expanded beyond its state boundaries, putting Serbs in a position of minority is other states. In these circumstances, the Serbian community may feel deprived of its rights and may see its ethnic identity as an essential reason for that. In this regard, though the identity may not be a relevant factor to explain or improve the Serbian situation, this issue just has to be raised for the debate and the political context to evolve towards ethnic issues. This issue may be purely manipulated by the elite to keep other issues that might jeopardize their domination, away from political debate (reforms).

Extraits

[...] This issue may be purely manipulated by elites to keep away from political debate other issues (reforms ) that might jeopardize their domination. How to explain the outbreak of an ethnic conflict in Serbia? I will study the explanations of the birth of ethnic nationalism and go beyond, focusing on the importance of ethnicity in the political debate and show that the conflict was an unwanted outcome of the political struggles explaining the birth of an ethnic nationalism in Serbia the outbreak of ethnic nationalism in the national debate as a political strategy? [...]

[...] In this regard, if Gagnon seems to be right in his explanation of the triggering of the conflict and in the role of Milosevic concerning the diffusion of the notion of ethnicity within society, Vladisavljevic appropriately argues that the diffusion of nationalism in the 1990s, after the introduction of multiparty democracy, which would lead to the ethnic conflict, was partly out of the control of political elites, which obviously did not seek a war that would become one of Europe's deadliest conflicts since 1945, marked by ethnic cleansing but also war crimes, and that was bound to end in the dissolution of their country. [...]

[...] Vladisavljevic lists himself the many reasons why the political debate raised issues in term of ethnic nationalities and eventually triggered the ethnic conflict; for example, Serbian leaders had to find a was to overthrow the leaders of Kosovo, who obstructed policies coordination within the State and thus denounced the oppression of Serbs in Kosovo; later, during the Kosovo crisis, Milosevic attacked Pavlovic's weak position on this issue in order to remove him from power and thus raised this issue of ethnic identity. The political debate was gradually shaped by ethnic issues, at two levels: on the one hand Yugoslavia, portrayed as Serbia's oppressor in the 80s for every problem it had (economic in particular) and on the other hand Kosovo, said to have mistreated Serbians. Is that sufficient to encourage ethnic hatred and intolerance? [...]

[...] By defining a new individual interest—the survival of the Serbian people—the elite shaped the national debate and withdrew any reform expectation from the political agenda. Actually, that seemed logical, since, according to Gagnon, ethnicity has always been significant in politics within Yugoslav republics, and also because the conservative party was quite homogeneous and would not lose voters by adopting such a rhetoric. Thus every threat to Conservative's domination led to a response by Conservatives, often in terms of ethnicity, with consequences on the whole society. the power struggle and the outbreak of an ethnic conflict as unrelated events? [...]

[...] For example, he said, in a speech in 1991: Serbian people and all citizens of Serbia should take part in this battle for Yugoslavia in line with their best traditions and most progressive achievements, bearing in mind their interests but also considering the interests of all others, that is to say, of those with whom we should share our life together”. Once ethnicity has become a major source of identity within Yugoslavia, all political issues and every problem foster the outbreak of conflict along ethnic lines. It is clear that the political elites did not seek to provoke an ethnic conflict that would result in tens of thousands of deaths. [...]