Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:06:47.652Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Views from Inside: Memoirs concerning the Yugoslav Breakup and War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Sabrina P. Ramet
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent memoirs published in Zagreb, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, and Podgorica offer glimpses into how the principals would like their roles in the events connected with the Yugoslav breakup and war to be remembered. The most indispensable of the ten memoirs under review are those by Janez Drnovšek and Janez Janša, who have differing perspectives on developments in Slovenia between 1988 and 1991; by Martin Špegelj, who outlines in detail his argument that Croatia should have laid siege to the Yugoslav Army barracks much earlier than was done; and by Raif Dizdarević, who provides interesting details on how Serbian leader Slobodan Milosević subverted the Yugoslav federation and put his protégés in charge of Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina. Sefer Halilović, Branko Mamula, and Špegelj challenge observers' usual conceptions of events, while Alija Izetbegović, Davorin Rudolf, and Zdravko Tomac offer more standard accounts. Hrvoje Šarinić provides details of his secret conversations with Milošević and other figures.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , Fall 2002 , pp. 558 - 580
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For an effective rebuttal of Germanophobic accounts of the Yugoslav war, see Conversi, Daniele, German-Bashing and the Breakup of Yugoslavia, The Donald W. Treadgold Papers in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, no. 16 (Seattle, 1998)Google Scholar; the term Hobbist is reserved for notions that are inspired by the writings of Thomas Hobbes but that offer oversimplified understandings of Hobbes's ideas. The usual term for describing concepts more or less true to Hobbes's inspiration is Hobh'sian (or Hobbesian); for a concise and lucid explanation of “cynicism” and an effective rebuttal, see Cushman, Thomas, Critical Theory and the War in Croatia and Bosnia, The Donald W. Treadgold Papers in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, no. 13 (Seattle, 1997)Google Scholar.

2 Mesić, Stipe, Kako smo rušili Jugoslaviju (Zagreb, 1992)Google Scholar; the second edition was published under the revised title, Kako je srusena Jugoslavia (Zagreb, 1994); Kadijević, Veljko, Moje vidjenje raspada (Belgrade, 1993)Google Scholar; Jović, Borisav, Poslednji dani SFRJ: Izvodi iz dnevnika (Belgrade, 1995)Google Scholar.

3 Tomanić, Milorad, Srpska crkva u ratu i ratovi u njoj (Belgrade, 2001), 37–43 Google Scholar, 73.

4 Dizdarević, Raif, Od smrti Tita do smrti Jugoslavije: Svjedočenja (Sarajevo, 1999), 49 Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., 54.

6 Ibid., 90.

7 Ibid., 187.

8 Ibid., 202.

9 Ibid., 210-12.

10 See ibid., 217.

11 Ibid., 223.

12 Ibid., 297.

13 Ibid., 436-37.

14 Ibid., 420.

15 Ibid., 437.

16 Meier, Viktor, Yugoslavia: A History of Its Demise, trans, from German by Ramet, Sabrina P. (London, 1999), 68 Google Scholar, 90, and 107.

17 Rudolf, Davorin, Rat koji nismo htjeli: Hrvatska 1991 (Zagreb, 1999), 41 Google Scholar.

18 Silber, Laura and Little, Allan, The Death of Yugoslavia (London, 1995), 157 Google Scholar.

19 Mamula, Branko, Slučaj Jugoslavia (Podgorica, 2000), 15–16 Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., 16.

21 Ibid., 17.

22 Ibid., 61.

23 Špegelj, Martin, “Prva faza rata 1990-1992: Pripreme JNA za agresiju i hrvatski obrambeni planovi,” in Magaš, Branka and Zanić, Ivo, eds., Rat u Hrvalskoj i Bosni i Hercegpvini 1991-1995 (Zagreb, 1999), 46 Google Scholar.

24 Mamula, Slučaj Jugoslavia, 76-77.

25 Ibid., 115.

26 Ibid., 117.

27 Ibid., 128.

28 See, for example, the account offered in Meier, Yugoslavia, 62-67, based on a conversation with Slovenian President Milan Kucan in November 1993 and on documents held in the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia.

29 Mamula, Slucaj Jugoslavia, 124.

30 Ibid., 109.

31 See the partial list of such unconstitutional and illegal moves in Ramet, Sabrina P., Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević, 4th ed. (Boulder, Colo., 2002), 71–72 Google Scholar.

32 Janša, Janez, The Making of the Slovenian State 1988-1992: The Collapse of Yugoslavia, trans. AMIDAS d.o.o., ed. Zorn, Aleksandar (Ljubljana, 1994), 250 Google Scholar.

33 See Meier, Yugoslavia, 65-67.

34 Janša, Making of the Slovenian Stale, 124-25.

35 Ibid., 139.

36 Drnovšek, Janez, Der Jugoslawien-Krieg: Meine Wahrheit, trans. Debeniak, Doris (Kilchberg, Switz., 1998), 243–45Google Scholar.

37 Ibid., 5. In 1998, after the publication of the German translation of Drnovšek's memoirs, Janša was offered the opportunity to review the book for the prestigious German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Janša lost no time in pointing out that Drnovšek was not a political outsider, as might be supposed from Der Jugoslawien-Krieg, but a deputy in the Yugoslav Assembly and also a member of the League of Communists. According to Janša, Drnovšek had also had contacts with the Yugoslav secret police; Janša suggests further that Drnovšek's selection to run for president was no accident. In Janša's account, Drnovšek emerges as less than resolute, raising his voice against the JNA's expropriation of Slovenian weaponry—according to Janša—only after a huge clamor from the Slovenian public. Janša further charges that there are a number of misrepresentations in the book, including about where Drnovšek spent 29-30 November 1989, and closes his review by firing a broadside against Drnovšek's title: if the book tells only “his truth” (“Meine Wahrheit” means “My truth“) then, Janša charges, it follows that Drnovšek does not believe in “llie truth.” Frankfurter Allgemeine, 14 October 1998, 10. Drnovšek's reply to this attack, published in the same newspaper more than a month later, passes over several of Janša's points, but Drnovšek insists that he reacted to the expropriations immediately. Drnovšek also claims that he was instrumental, in his post in the SFRY Presidency, in keeping the JNA at bay until latejune 1991. Frankfurter Allgemeine, 25 November 1998, 11 .Janša was granted the final word in this exchange. See. Frankfurter Allgemeine, 9 December 1998, 14.

38 Dizdarević, Od smrti Tita, 243.

39 Tomac, Zdravko, The Struggle for the Croatian State… through Hell to Democracy, trans. Profikon (Zagreb, 1993), 253 Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., 270.

41 Ibid., 96.

42 Ibid., 149nl.

43 Ibid., 338-39.

44 Anton Tus, “Rat u Sloveniji i Hrvatskoj do Sarajevskog primirja,” in Magaš and Žanić, eds., Rat u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini, 81-82.

45 Tomac, Struggle for the Croatian State, 87.

46 Špegelj, Martin, Sjećanja vojnika, ed. Žanić, Ivo (Zagreb, 2001), 302 Google Scholar; and Drago Pilsel, “Rados je novi Susak“(An interview with Martin Špegelj), Feral Tribune (Split), no. 840 (20 October 2001): 40.

47 Tomac, Struggle, for the Croatian State, 287, 289-90.

48 Pirjevec, Jože, La guerre jugoslave 1991-1999 (Torino, 2001), 110 Google Scholar; Špegelj, Sjećanja vojnika, 292; and Tus, “Rat u Sloveniji,” 78.

49 Tomac, Struggle for the Croatian State, 417.

50 Ibid., 418.

51 Špegelj, Sjećanja vojnika, 218-19.

52 Ibid., 219, 375.

53 Kolšek, Konrad, Spomini: Na zacetek oborozenega spopada vjugoslaviji 1991 (Maribor, 2001)Google Scholar; and Špegelj, “Prva faza rata,” 49-50.

54 Špegelj, Sjećanja vojnika, 241.

55 Ibid., 257.

56 Ibid., 239.

57 Ibid., 292.

58 See the discussion in Ramet, Sabrina P., “Revisiting the Horrors of Bosnia: New Books about the War,” East European Politics and Societies 14, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 485 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Donia, Robert J. and Fine, John V. A. Jr., Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed (New York, 1994), 228 Google Scholar.

60 Meier, Yugoslavia, 207.

61 Izetbegović, Alija, Sjećanja: Autobiografski zapis (Sarajevo, 2001), 94 Google Scholar.

62 For discussion, see Goran Borković, “Kaznjenička brojna,” Feral Tribune, no. 853 (19 January 2002): 59-60.

63 Filandra, Saćir, Bosnjačka politika u XX. stoljecu (Sarajevo, 1998), 383 Google Scholar.

64 See Izetbegović, Sjećanja, 130.

65 As estimated by the distinguished Croatian demographer Vladimir Zerjavić, and reported in Globus (Zagreb), 9January 1998, 24.

66 Halilović, Sefer, Lukava strategija, 3d exp. ed. (Sarajevo, 1998), 92 Google Scholar.

67 Ibid., 96.

68 Ibid., 21.

69 Ibid., 70-72.

70 Ibid., 61-62.

71 Ibid., 74, 87.

72 Ibid., 75.

73 Marko Attila Hoare, “Civilno-vojni odnosi u Bosni i Hercegovini 1992-1995,” in Magas and Zanić, eds., Rat u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini, 210.

74 Alibabić-Munja, Munir, Bosna u kandžama KOS-a (Sarajevo, 1996), 35 Google Scholar.

75 Halilović, Lukava strategija, 83, 90, 120, 140, 167, 155.

76 Izetbegović, Sjećanja, 153.

77 Ibid.

78 Šarinić, Hrvoje, Svi moji tajni pregovori sa Slobodanom Miloševićem 1993-95 (98) (Zagreb, 1999), 57 Google Scholar.

79 Ibid., 140.

80 See Ibid., 72, 87.

81 Ibid., 44-45.

82 Among the many sources to which die reader may turn for confirmation of the fact that Milošević was still committed to annexing the Serb-inhabited areas of Croatia to a “Greater Serbia” is Djukić, Slavoljub, Milošević and Marković: A Lust for Power, trans. Dubinsky, Alex (Montreal, 2001), 61–62 Google Scholar.

83 Šarinić, Svi moji tajni pregovori, 255.

84 Ibid., 153, 148-49.

85 Ibid., 156, 164.

86 Ibid., 177, 153,155.

87 The project was scrapped in the early 1980s, after the death of President Josip Broz Tito. See Drnovšek, Der Jugoslawien-Krieg, 32.

88 Šarinić, Svi moji tajni pregovori, 108.

89 Tomac, Struggle for the Croatian State, 155.

90 Mamula, Slucaj Jugoslavia, 115, 118.

91 Rudolf, Rat koji nismo htjeli, 286-87.

92 Šarinić, Svi moji tajni pregovori, 194.

93 Melčić, Dunja, ed., Der Jugoslawien-Krieg: Handbuch zu Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Konsequenzen (Opladen/Wiesbaden, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94 Magaš, Branka, The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-up, 1980-92 (London, 1993)Google Scholar.

95 Popov, Nebojsa, ed., The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis, Eng. version edited by Drinka Gojkovic (Budapest, 2000)Google Scholar.

96 Cigar, Norman, Genocide in Bosnia: ThePolicy of “Ethnic Cleansing” (College Station, 1995)Google Scholar; Lukić, Renéo and Lynch, Allen, Europe from the Balkans to the Urab: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union (Oxford, 1996)Google Scholar; Magaš and Žanić, eds., Rat u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini 1991-1995 (an English-language edition of this work was published in London in 2001 under the title The War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1991-1995); Pirjevec, La guerre jugostave.

97 Sadkovich, James J., The U.S. Media and Yugoslavia, 1991-1995 (Westport, Conn., 1998)Google Scholar; Ribičić, Ciril, Geneza jedne zablude. Ustavnopravna analiza nastanka i djelovanja Hrvatske zajednice Herceg-Bosne (Zagreb, 2000)Google Scholar; Thompson, Mark, Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, completely rev. and exp. ed. (Luton, 1999)Google Scholar; See Zulfikarpašić, Adil, Gotovac, Vlado, Tripalo, Miko, and Banac, Ivo, Okovana Bosna-Razgovor, ed. Pavlinić, Vlado (Zurich, 1995)Google Scholar; and Djilas, Milovan and Gace, Nadezda, Adil Zulfikarpašić: Fine politische Biographie aus dein heutigen Bosnien, trans, from Serbo-Croatian by Reuter, Jens (Munich, 1996)Google Scholar.

98 Donia and Fine, Bosnia and Hercegovina.

99 Sabrina P. Ramet and Letty Coffin, “German Foreign Policy toward the Yugoslav Successor States, 1991-1999,” Problems of Post-Communism 48, no. 1 (January-February 2001). See also Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Rebuilding a House Divided: A Memoir by the Architect of Germany's Reunification, trans, from German by Thomas Thornton (New York, 1995), esp. 494-520.

100 Doder, Dusko and Branson, Louise, Milošević: Portrait of a Tyrant (New York, 1999)Google Scholar; Djukic, Milošević and Marković; Cigar, Norman, Vojislav Kostunica and Serbia's Future (London, 2001)Google Scholar; Ramet, Sabrina P., The Third Yugoslavia, 1992-2001, East European Studies Occasional Paper no. 66 (Washington D.C., July 2001)Google Scholar.

101 Reuter, Jens and Clewing, Konrad, eds., Der Kosovo Konflikt: Ursachen, Verlauf Perspektiven (Klagenfurt, 2000)Google Scholar.

102 Schmid, Thomas, ed., Kriegim Kosovo (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1999)Google Scholar; Weymouth, Tony and Henig, Stanley, eds., The Kosovo Crisis: The Last American War in Europe? (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

103 Malcolm, Noel, Kosovo: A Short History (London, 1998)Google Scholar; von Kohl, Christine and Libal, Wolfgang, Kosovo: Gordischer Knoten des Balkan (Vienna, 1992)Google Scholar; Mišović, Miloš, Ko je tražio republiku: Kosovo 1945-1985 (Belgrade, 1987)Google Scholar; Mertus, Julie A., Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War (Berkeley, 1999)Google Scholar; and Judah, Tim, Kosovo: War and Revenge (New Haven, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Noel Malcolm's fat book provoked an angry response in Belgrade. On 8 October 1999, the Institute of History of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts held a conference to discuss Malcolm's book. Milorad Ekmečić, Djordje Janković, Ema Miljković-Bojanić, Slavenko Terzić, Mile Bjelajac, Djordje Borozan, and Ljubodrag Dimic contributed papers to this symposium. These papers, written in English, are posted at “Response to Noel Malcolm's Book, Kosovo: A Short History,” at www.decani.yunet.com/nmalk.html (last consulted 23 May 2002).