Serbia and Montenegro, union of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, located in southeastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. The republic of Serbia is much larger and more populous than Montenegro, and it is home to the capital and largest city, Belgrade.
From 1945 to 1991 Serbia and Montenegro was part of Yugoslavia, a larger Communist federal state consisting of six republics. Yugoslavia's named changed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1963. In 1990 the Communist Party collapsed, and new non-Communist parties formed. Multiparty elections that year ended 45 years of one-party rule but also brought nationalist political parties into power in all six republics, contributing to ethnic tension in the SFRY. Four of the republics—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia—declared their independence in 1991 and 1992, leaving only Serbia and Montenegro unified. The SFRY's dissolution led to a series of armed conflicts known as the wars of Yugoslav succession.
In April 1992 Serbia and Montenegro acknowledged the breakaway of the four republics by proclaiming themselves the successor state to the SFRY, taking the name Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). In early 1996 the FRY was recognized as a country by the member nations of the European Union (EU). Many other countries, including the United States, did not recognize the FRY until 2000. Although the United Nations (UN) did not recognize the FRY as the successor state to the SFRY, in 2000 the UN admitted the FRY as a new member.
During the late 1990s, tensions escalated between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in the Serbian province of Kosovo, and FRY president Slobodan Miloševi? used police and military forces to suppress ethnic Albanian separatism in the province. In March 1999 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began an air war against the FRY after Miloševi? refused to accept an international peace plan for Kosovo. The UN has administered Kosovo—still legally a part of Serbia—since the war ended in June 1999.
In February 2003 the leaders of Serbia and Montenegro endorsed a new constitutional charter that gave more autonomy to the constituent republics and changed the country's name from the FRY to Serbia and Montenegro. The charter permitted each republic to hold a referendum on full independence after three years.
Serbia and Montenegro is bounded on the north by Hungary, on the east by Romania and Bulgaria, on the south by Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and on the west by Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A 199-km (124-mi) coastline on the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean, forms the country's far southwestern boundary. The country's total land area is 102,173 sq km (39,449 sq mi), less than half the size of the former country of Yugoslavia.
Serbia accounts for 86 percent of the country's total land area. Montenegro, which lies to the south, occupies a wide swath of territory that extends southwest between Bosnia and Albania. Rich and fertile plains (part of the Pannonian Plain) comprise much of the north, while limestone ranges and basins of the Balkan Mountains and Carpathian Mountains characterize the east. In the southwest the ancient mountains and hills of the Dinaric Alps dominate Montenegro. Mount Daravica on the border with Albania is Serbia and Montenegro's highest peak, rising to 2,656 m (8,714 ft).
Major rivers include the Danube, Drava, Sava, Drina, and Tisza. The Danube, one of Europe's most important waterways, flows east through the northern part of Serbia and Montenegro into Romania (the countries share a border at the picturesque Iron Gate gorge). The Sava, Drava, and Tisza rivers are also navigable and are used for commercial transport. Most rivers in Serbia and Montenegro drain northward or northeastward to the Sava and Danube rivers. The largest lake is Lake Scutari, which straddles the border between Montenegro and Albania.
Most of the country has a continental climate with cold winters and hot summers. In the far southwest, however, there is a narrow coastal zone where the climate is mild and rainy in winter and warm and very dry during the long hot summer. The coastal zone's mild and moist winters are influenced by a wind called the yugo or sirocco, which blows from Africa's Sahara and accumulates moisture over the Mediterranean Sea. The nation's interior has a more extreme climate. On the Pannonian Plain of the north summers are hot, with temperatures sometimes rising into the 40sC (100sF), and winters are long and cold, with temperatures sometimes falling below -20C (-10F).
The average July temperature in Belgrade is 21C (69F); the average January temperature is 0C (32F). The average July temperature in Montenegro's city of Podgorica is 27C (81F) compared to an average January temperature of 6C (43F). In the mountains of the interior the high altitude moderates summer temperatures and makes winters more severe with colder temperatures and heavy snowfall.
Serbia and Montenegro's plant and animal life is diverse. The Pannonian Plain was once mostly grassland, although cultivated crops now cover almost all of it. Forests cover 28 percent of the country, mainly in mountainous areas. Deciduous forests cover the Balkan Mountains and the Carpathian Mountains, and mixed coniferous (evergreen) and deciduous forests appear at lower elevations of the eastern Dinaric Alps. Forests also once covered the southern and western portions of the Dinaric Alps, but most trees have been cleared and the soil has eroded. The deciduous forests are predominantly oak at lower elevations and beech at higher elevations, but they also include elm, maple, chestnut, poplar, walnut, ash, linden, and willow. The Montenegrin coastal area contains Mediterranean vegetation that has adapted to the long, hot dry summers. This vegetation includes scrub evergreen, cypress, palm, olive, fig, cherry, almond, orange, and lemon trees, as well as pomegranate shrubs and grapevines.
Wild animals include deer, bear, and antelope in woods at lower elevations and chamois at higher elevations of Serbia's mountains. Boar live on the plains. Wild duck, geese, heron, and stork prevail in the marshes, and quail, pheasant, grouse, partridge, doves (see pigeon), and woodcock live in the plains. Several hundred species of fish, many edible, live in the Adriatic, while trout and eel are common lake fish. Common river fish are trout, perch, carp, sheatfish (a type of catfish), and several varieties of sturgeon.
Minerals are Serbia and Montenegro's primary natural resources. The country's deposits of antimony and lead are among the most significant in Europe. Coal, zinc, gold, and copper are also commonly found, and there are small deposits of natural gas.
Serbia and Montenegro was absorbed in the wars that gripped the Balkan Peninsula in the early 1990s, and environmental issues were largely ignored. The international embargo on Serbia and Montenegro placed pressure on the country's natural resources, and pollution—worsened by outdated technologies—went largely unchecked. By the mid-1990s less than 10 percent of the country's wastewater was being treated before being released into rivers and lakes. The air war launched against the FRY by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999 destroyed oil refineries and other industrial targets and damaged the environment in some areas.
Environmental protection gained in importance following the end of the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In late 1995 the government passed a series of environmental protection laws that established standards and procedures for industry. A system of ecological permits was also created to collect funds valued at 1 percent of the cost of any new industrial project. By 1997 the government had established several recycling centers for industrial waste.
The region encompassing Serbia and Montenegro is one of the most ecologically varied in Europe, and up to 49,000 species of plants and animals were recently cataloged. The country has listed about 360 endangered plants and animals for protection, and it has signed a number of international conservation agreements. The creation of four new national parks was announced in 1996, and seven new nature reserves were also planned.
Montenegro has declared itself the world's first “environmental state,” pledging to live more harmoniously with nature. The challenge is a large one, as tourism along the coast threatens saltwater estuaries, and industry continues to pollute the air, soil, and water.
IV THE PEOPLE OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
In 1991 the population of Serbia and Montenegro, then republics of the larger Yugoslavia, was 10,394,026. In 2005 the total population of Serbia and Montenegro was estimated to be 10,829,175. Serbs are the largest ethnic group, constituting 63 percent of the population in 1991, followed by Albanians (17 percent), Montenegrins (5 percent), Yugoslavs (3 percent), Hungarians (3 percent), and Muslims (3 percent). Serbia's population is nearly 16 times greater than that of Montenegro: 9,979,752 to 677,177 (2002).
In 2003, 52 percent of the population of Serbia and Montenegro lived in urban areas. The largest cities are Belgrade, the federal capital and the capital of Serbia; Novi Sad, a commercial center; Niš, a transportation and industrial center; Kragujevac, a manufacturing center; and Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.
As a result of the wars following the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, about 646,000 refugees fled to Serbia and Montenegro from Croatia and Bosnia. Later, interethnic warfare in Kosovo from 1998 to 1999 forced nearly 640,000 refugees, mostly ethnic Albanians, to leave the Serbian province for Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Montenegro. Most of these refugees returned to Kosovo in 1999 after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces took control of the province. An additional 150,000 refugees, mostly Serbs, then fled from Kosovo to other parts of Serbia after NATO compelled all Serbian government and police authority to withdraw from the province. Serbs who remained in Kosovo after the withdrawal were frequently threatened and attacked. Many Serb refugees from Kosovo have settled in Belgrade or in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina.
A Ethnic Groups, Languages, and Religions
Religion and language are the primary factors that distinguish ethnic groups in Serbia and Montenegro. Serbs and Montenegrins are by tradition Orthodox Christians. They speak Serbo-Croatian (officially called Serbian in Serbia and Montenegro), and traditionally use the Cyrillic alphabet. Serbs and Montenegrins speak different variants of Serbo-Croatian. While many Montenegrins regard themselves as Serbs whose regional identity is Montenegrin, others insist that “Montenegrin” is a separate ethnic identity. In the 1991 census about 140,000 residents of Serbia declared themselves to be Montenegrins.
Muslims, also called Bosniaks, speak Serbo-Croatian but prefer to write it with the Latin alphabet (see Latin Language). They form a slight majority in the Sand?ak region, an area that straddles the southwestern border between Serbia and Montenegro and abuts Bosnia. Ethnic Albanians speak Albanian, which is written with the Latin alphabet. Most Albanians are Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam), but there are also Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic Albanians, particularly in Montenegro. The great majority of ethnic Albanians in the country live in the Serbian province of Kosovo, where they make up about 90 percent of the population. There is also a small population of ethnic Albanians in Montenegro, concentrated in areas bordering Albania and Kosovo. Hungarians in the country speak Hungarian as well as Serbo-Croatian, and are concentrated in the northern part of the Serbian province of Vojvodina, bordering Hungary. In some parts of Vojvodina, Hungarians form a local majority.
The concentration of minority ethnic groups as local majorities in regions bordering the “home country” of each group sometimes produces political tensions. Serbs and Montenegrins fear these local majorities will try to secede, as the Albanians in Kosovo have largely done following the NATO war against Serbia in 1999. Differing birth rates also lead to tensions, as Serbs and Hungarians have much lower birth rates than do Muslims and particularly Albanians. Serbs, who constitute 63 percent of the country's population, fear losing influence as their share of the population drops. Between the 1981 and 1991 censuses the percent of the population of Serbia that was Serb declined slightly, largely because Serb birth rates were lower than those of Albanians and Muslims. However, more than 90 percent of the refugees and displaced persons who fled into Serbia and Montenegro during the wars of 1991 to 1995 were ethnic Serbs, so the Serb percent of the population has likely increased over what it was in 1991.
Education is compulsory from ages 7 to 14 and both primary and secondary education are free. However, only 66 percent of children of the relevant ages were enrolled in primary school in 2000-2001, and only 59 percent in secondary school. The overall literacy rate is 93 percent, but the rate is higher for males (98 percent) than it is for females (89 percent). Literacy rates are not uniform among ethnic groups. Albanian girls receive less schooling than girls of other groups, and Albanians in general have lower literacy rates.
Schooling was particularly difficult for ethnic Albanians after 1990, when the Serbian authorities closed schools in Kosovo that used a curriculum oriented toward Albania, rather than Serbia's uniform state curriculum. Kosovar Albanians set up an underground school system in private homes and other locations, but education for Kosovar Albanian children clearly suffered during Serbian rule. Since the establishment of autonomous provincial authority in Kosovo in 1999, the Kosovo education system has undergone reconstruction at all levels.
The leading institutions of higher learning are the University of Belgrade, founded in 1863, and the universities of Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Niš, Podgorica, and Priština. However, the University of Priština, in Kosovo, did not operate normally from 1990 to 2000, since most of its faculty members—who were ethnic Albanians—were dismissed by the Serbian authorities and almost all of the ethnic Albanian students quit or were expelled. Kosovar Albanians maintained an unofficial, underground university during that period. Since 2000 the University of Priština has reopened as an Albanian university. There is also an unofficial Serbian university in Kosovo in the northern city of Kosovska Mitovica.
Higher education in the republic of Serbia was crippled in 1998 when the Serbian parliament adopted a law that placed all universities under direct control of the government. This severely compromised academic freedom, and many of the most distinguished faculty members were fired. However, following the fall of the regime of Slobodan Miloševi? in late 2000, Serbian universities regained much of their traditional autonomy. Since that time they have worked to overcome the damage caused by the Miloševi? regime and by international sanctions against Serbia in the 1990s.
A large percentage of Serbia and Montenegro's population is still engaged in agriculture. Families tend to be small and nuclear, consisting of parents and a small number of children, although Albanians generally have more children than the national average. Favored foods include a variety of grilled meats and bread. Desserts range from Turkish-style baklava to Viennese-style tortes. The national drink of Serbia is a strong plum brandy called šljivovica, while Montenegrins drink a clear grape brandy. Locally produced wines are also popular and they are highly regarded. The nation's per capita rate of tobacco consumption is among the highest in the world. Sports attract a wide following, and national basketball and soccer teams rank highly internationally.
The People of Serbia and Montenegro section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
The Orthodox Church had a major influence on the early development of the arts of Serbia and Montenegro. Both states emerged from the Byzantine Empire, for which Orthodox Christianity was the state religion, and Byzantine influences appear in the country's many beautiful monasteries, including some that hold magnificent frescoes and icons. Serbian and Montenegrin art suffered when the Ottomans annexed Serbia and reduced Montenegro to a collection of mountain strongholds from the 15th to the 19th century.
Western artistic movements began influencing artists and architects in Serbia and Montenegro during 19th and 20th centuries. Socialist Realism was also a force after Yugoslavia emerged from World War II in 1945 as a Communist state. Religion was discouraged during the Communist period, but since Communism's collapse in 1990 many new churches have opened. Other cultural development has been uneven since the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Serbia was one of the first countries in the Balkans to win freedom from the Ottoman Empire. Montenegro continually battled the Ottomans for territory. The Serbian and Montenegrin nationalist movements in the 19th century inspired the first major works of literature in those states. Petar II Petrovi? Njegoš, a Montenegrin bishop-prince, wrote the epic drama Gorski vijenac (The Mountain Wreath, 1847) in verse, adopting the rhythms of folk epics. In the first half of the 19th century Serbian philologist Vuk Karad?i? collected and published folk songs, epics, and other elements of Serbian oral traditions, which became well known throughout Europe. Folk epics continued to be sung in Serbia into the 20th century, with some songs in praise of Serbian president Slobodan Miloševi? appearing as recently as 1989.
The first Serbian novels appeared in the 19th century. Ivo Andri?, a Yugoslav novelist who wrote The Bridge on the Drina (1945), set in Bosnia, won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1961. While Andri? is now unpopular with Bosnian Muslim authorities, his works are still regarded as classics of Yugoslav literature. Milovan Djilas, a Montenegrin writer, became a famous dissident. As vice president of Yugoslavia in the 1950s he began to criticize the communist system that he had helped create, and was jailed for years. His The New Class (1957) is one of the most powerful critiques ever written of communism as practiced in Eastern Europe and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Djilas also wrote memoirs, fiction, history, and other works. Dobrica ?osi?'s A Time of Death (1972-1979), dealing with World War I (1914-1918) in Serbia, was well received internationally, and Milorad Pavi?'s Dictionary of the Khazars (1984) became an international bestseller.
Serbia and Montenegro have lively contemporary music industries. A type of Serbian neofolk music is popular among rural people and workers. Serbian rock groups are popular and creative. After 1990 many rock musicians became active in protests against the wars and against the Serbian government. Old Serbian church music has been revived, largely by the tenor Pavle Aksentijevi?.
Yugoslav films were among the best produced in communist Eastern Europe, and they are still highly regarded internationally. Director Emir Kusturica, a native of Bosnia who lives in Belgrade, earned an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film for When Father Was Away on Business (1984), and many other awards for his Time of the Gypsies (1989). Kusturica won international awards for Underground (1995) and White Cat, Black Cat (1998). Goran Paskaljevi?'s Powder Keg was also a major international success in 1998.
The Culture section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
The secession of four republics of the former Yugoslav state in the early 1990s and the ensuing wars of Yugoslav succession seriously damaged the economy of Serbia and Montenegro. Economic sanctions imposed on Serbia and Montenegro—then called the FRY—by the United Nations (UN) due to the country's involvement in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia intensified the economic damage. The country's economy declined further following the 1999 NATO bombing campaign that destroyed key industries and infrastructure in Serbia.
During the early 1990s Serbia and Montenegro experienced runaway inflation, high unemployment (more than 60 percent in 1993), and a collapse in production. Tough measures designed to reduce public spending and increase productivity, along with the introduction of a new currency linked to the German currency in early 1994, helped bring inflation under control, and gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate approaching 6 percent in 1994 and by a similar rate in 1995. Following a peace agreement that brought the war in Bosnia to an end, the UN lifted the sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro in October 1996. This boosted the country's economic performance, accelerating GDP growth to 7.4 percent in 1997. Inflation decreased to 10.4 percent and unemployment fell, although it remained at about 30 percent.
In 1998, however, serious balance of payments difficulties—with the country spending more money abroad than it was receiving from other nations—brought economic recovery to a halt. These difficulties were closely related to the outbreak of a new political crisis in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and the Serb-dominated federal government. The crisis prompted the United States and the European Union (EU) to reimpose some economic sanctions. As a result, inflation and unemployment again rose, while GDP growth slowed to less than 2 percent.
Following the collapse of Slobodan Miloševi?'s regime in late 2000, all international economic sanctions against the country were removed, and some economic assistance has been given to aid economic reconstruction. However, progress with privatization measures (first implemented in the early 1990s after the fall of Communism) has been slow, and privatization of large, state-owned corporations remains unpopular among workers. As a result, the public sector continues to dominate the national economy. Although many small, privately owned businesses have been profitable, in the mid-2000s less than one-quarter of the economy was privatized. There are still no effective federal laws governing privatization, and private companies are often treated unfairly by tax authorities and denied fair access to credit. The Montenegrin government has pursued its own, more liberal, program of privatization, but ongoing political conflicts with the Serbian government hindered this process through the Miloševi? era. The business sectors of both republics remain generally inefficient and consequently, international investment remains low.
Of the country's public sector workers, about three-quarters worked in state-owned businesses, while the remainder worked in education, government, or other services. Of those employed by state-owned businesses, about half worked in industry and half worked in agriculture. Unemployment stood at 14 percent in 2002.
Mining and manufacturing are important to the economy of Serbia and Montenegro. Some of Europe's largest reserves of copper ore are located in Serbia. There are also significant deposits of bauxite, coal, lead, and zinc. Key manufactures of the country include chemicals, electronics, iron and steel, machinery, textiles, and transportation equipment. Many individual industries, such as the automobile industry, have been crippled by the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The agricultural sector remains central to the economy, employing more than one-quarter of the nation's working people. Chief agricultural products include corn, sugar beets, wheat, potatoes, grapes, and plums. Cattle, pigs (Hog), and sheep are also raised. The Vojvodina region in northern Serbia contains the country's most fertile agricultural land. Forestry also makes a significant contribution to the economy.
Services contribute about two-fifths of the nation's GDP. The service sector includes transportation; communications; nonbusiness social services such as education, health care, and social security; and private retail services.
Serbia and Montenegro's energy policy is centered on an ambitious program to convert the entire country to natural gas. The country has small deposits of natural gas in the Vojvodina region of Serbia, and also has access to Russian natural gas pipelines. However, wider economic difficulties have hindered the conversion process. Attempts to develop domestic petroleum deposits have been unsuccessful, and the country remains heavily dependent on imported oil. Hydroelectricity provides about one-third of the nation's energy.
The slow pace of improvements to the infrastructure in the business sector has resulted in the continued use of highly inefficient forms of energy. This has restrained economic growth and could hinder the country's economic development into the future.
G Transportation and Communications
In 2001 the national transportation network included 44,993 km (27,957 mi) of roads and 3,809 km (2,367 mi) of railroad tracks. With the dissolution of the Yugoslav state, Serbia and Montenegro lost access to much of that country's coastline. However, harbors on Montenegro's coastline, including Bar, Kotor, and Tivat, provide shipping access to the ocean. Belgrade, located on the Danube River in Serbia, also serves as a major shipping center. The national airline, Jugoslovenski Aero Transport (JAT), operates out of international airports in Belgrade and Podgorica, as well as several smaller domestic airports.
In Serbia and Montenegro in 1996 there were 18 daily newspapers and about 600 newspapers published less frequently. Most were printed in the Serbo-Croatian language using the Cyrillic alphabet, while others were in Albanian, Hungarian, or other minority languages. Important dailies include Danas and Politika, both published in Belgrade. A state-owned monopoly controls broadcasting in the country, operating five radio stations and three television networks. During the Miloševi? era, the popular media was under tight censorship. State control was largely dismantled after Miloševi?'s fall in 2000, and today the media is frequently critical of the government.
In 2002 Serbia and Montengro recorded exports of $2.3 billion and imports of $6.3 billion. The imbalance between imports and exports reflects the fundamental weakness of the nation's economy, including insufficient export-oriented business sectors. Continued difficulties in relations with the outside world, especially the refusal of the UN and other international organizations to recognize the legitimacy of the country, made securing loans, foreign investment, trade credits, and normal trade relations difficult, if not impossible throughout the 1990s. Main imports include machinery and transport equipment, fuel, manufactured goods, and raw materials. Exports include chemicals, manufactured goods, and food and live animals. Primary trading partners for both imports and exports are Germany, Italy, and Russia, and other former Communist countries.
Banking remains one of the Serbia and Montenegro's weakest economic sectors. Most commercial banks operate on the margins of profitability. After the fall of the Miloševi? regime, many businesses owed large sums of money to the banks and showed little inclination or ability to pay them back. The banking system was reorganized in 2001 to mobilize funds for the reconstruction of the economy.
The currency of the republic of Serbia is the new dinar. The bank of issue is the National Bank of Serbia. The new dinar is not accepted in Montenegro, which uses instead the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union (EU).
The Economy section of this article was contributed by David Dyker and reviewed by Robert M. Hayden.
After the other republics seceded from Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro established the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) on April 27, 1992, under a new constitution. The constitution provided for a democratic form of government, with a president and a Federal Assembly. Officially, the two constituent republics each had a great deal of autonomy, with their own presidents and assemblies. However, before October 2000 the constitutional structure of the federation's government bore little relation to the way the country was actually governed. The formal institutions of government served primarily as tools for the personal rule of Slobodan Miloševi?, the federation president from 1997 to 2000. Prior to becoming federation president Miloševi? was president of Serbia, and that republic's government had more power in the FRY than the federal government. Opponents of Miloševi? came to power in Montenegro in 1997, and after that time Montenegro took little part in the institutions and activities of the FRY.
After the Miloševi? regime collapsed, a democratic government was established in the FRY following federal elections in September 2000 and also in the republic of Serbia after elections there in January 2001. Over the next two years, representatives of the governments of Serbia, Montenegro, and the FRY drafted a constitutional charter for Serbia and Montenegro as the basis for a new union between the two republics. This charter was adopted by the legislatures of each republic in January 2003, and it was adopted and proclaimed by the FRY parliament on February 4, 2003. At that time the FRY ceased to exist; it was succeeded by a new state called simply Serbia and Montenegro. The constitutional charter provides for a shared central government with a narrow range of competence and very few powers; almost all government authority rests with the constituent republics. By the terms of the charter, each of the two republics may seek full independence by popular referenda to be held in 2006.
The president of Serbia and Montenegro is both the chief of state and the head of government. The president chairs the council of ministers, which performs the executive duties of the union. There is no prime minister. The president is nominated by the speaker and deputy speaker of parliament and then confirmed by parliamentary vote. The president formally represents Serbia and Montenegro at home and abroad, promulgates the laws passed by the parliament, and is a member of the Supreme Defense Council, which oversees state defense. The president may also call new elections for the parliament. The president may not be from the same republic as the speaker of the parliament, and the presidency must alternate between the two constituent republics. Thus, a president may not continue in office for more than a single four-year term.
Members of the council of ministers are chosen by the president and approved by the parliament. The council of ministers includes the minister of foreign affairs, the minister of defense, the minister for international economic cooperation, and the minister for human and minority rights.
The parliament of Serbia and Montenegro has a single chamber with 126 members, 91 from Serbia and 35 from Montenegro. Until 2005 members of parliament will be elected from among the members of the national assemblies of Serbia and of Montenegro, by those assemblies. After this time, members of the parliament will be popularly elected for terms of four years. All citizens aged 18 or older can vote.
Bills are passed by a majority vote of all members of parliament, provided that such a majority includes majorities of the members of each of the republics. The powers of the parliament are quite limited, and virtually all decisions require a high degree of consensus. Most legislative authority remains with each of the member republics.
D Judiciary and Local Government
The Court of Serbia and Montenegro is the highest court of the central government. It has an equal number of judges from each member republic, who are appointed by the parliament after nomination by the council of ministers. Judges appointed to this court serve a single term of six years. The court determines whether laws and regulations violate the constitution. It also settles disputes between institutions of the central government, between the central government and one or both member republics, and between the member republics. In addition, the Court of Serbia and Montenegro may rule on petitions brought by citizens who assert that their rights under the constitutional charter have been violated.
Each of the member republics also has its own complete governmental system, with legislative, judicial, and executive branches. On the local level Serbia is divided into 29 regions. Montenegro has 21 municipalities.
Political parties in Serbia and Montenegro are generally unstable organizations. Parties tend to form around individual leaders, and they gain or lose in members and influence as these leaders succeed or fail. Politicians also have a tendency to break away from parties to form new ones as vehicles for advancing their personal political ambitions. Thus, the organizational strength of political parties is less important than the popularity of individual politicians who lead the parties.
During the period of Communist rule (1945-1990), only the Communist Party functioned in Yugoslavia. In 1990 Slobodan Miloševi? transformed the Communist Party of Serbia into the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The SPS dominated elections in the FRY until September 2000, when Miloševi? lost the election for the presidency to Vojislav Koštunica. Koštunica was then head of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a coalition of small parties that had united to defeat Miloševi?.
After Miloševi?'s defeat, the SPS lost much of its membership and influence. Several parties within the DOS coalition, notably the Democratic Party (DS) and Koštunica's own party, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS in Serbian initials), gained members and influence.
In theory citizens of Serbia and Montenego are entitled to a wide range of social services, including medical care and retirement benefits. In practice, however, the effects of international economic sanctions through much of the 1990s and the gross mismanagement of the economy by the Miloševi? regime left much of the population impoverished. State-supported medical services have not been adequately financed, while pensions, tiny at best, have been paid months late, if at all.
The country's military is the Army of Serbia and Montenegro, which is composed almost entirely of ethnic Serbs. The military has a relatively small core of professional and noncommissioned officers and depends on conscription (mandatory for all males) and reserves for manpower. The commander in chief of the armed forces is the Supreme Defense Council, which includes the president of Serbia and Montenegro and the presidents of both member republics. The council makes decisions by consensus. Public order in Serbia and Montenegro is also maintained by police, most of whom are in the service of the separate member republics.
After the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the FRY proclaimed itself the legal successor of that state. But international organizations rejected this claim, and beginning in 1992 Yugoslav membership in all major international organizations was suspended or cancelled. In 1992 the United Nations (UN) refused to allow the FRY to assume the former country's seat in the UN General Assembly and directed the FRY to submit a new request for membership. After the ouster of Miloševi? in 2000, the FRY applied for membership in the UN and was admitted as a new member. Since then, Serbia and Montenegro has been admitted to many international organizations, including the Council of Europe.
The Government section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
This section covers events in Serbia and Montenegro from just before the breakup of former Yugoslavia in 1991 to the present day. For the earlier history of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro and the former country of Yugoslavia, see Serbia; Montenegro; and Yugoslavia.
A Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia
From the end of World War II (1939-1945) until 1990, Yugoslavia was a Communist-ruled federal state—in its later years almost a confederation—of six republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia) and two autonomous provinces within Serbia (Kosovo and Vojvodina). By 1990 federal institutions, which had proved incapable of coping with ten years of deepening economic crisis, were almost entirely paralyzed by disputes among the republics and a rising tide of divisive ethnic conflicts and separatist movements. Popular support for the regime and the unified state was rapidly declining.
The disintegration in January 1990 of the central ruling party, called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, paved the way for multiparty elections in all six republics later that year. These elections were won by nationalist parties that were also non-Communist in all of the republics except Serbia and Montenegro, whose December elections were the last in the series. Serbian president Slobodan Miloševi?, a staunch advocate of Serb nationalist causes, was reelected. His party, renamed the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS; called the League of Communists of Serbia until 1990), won 194 of the 250 seats in Serbia's National Assembly. The League of Communists of Montenegro, a satellite of Miloševi?'s Serbian party since 1988, won a similar majority in Montenegro. International observers claimed that the elections in Serbia and Montenegro were unfair, citing in particular Miloševi?'s total control and manipulation of mass media during the campaign.
Miloševi? had already incited conflicts with other republics and achieved what he called “the reunification of Serbia” by ending the autonomous status (first granted in 1946) of Kosovo and Vojvodina in 1989. Non-Serbs responded with growing demands for greater autonomy or separation from what they believed was becoming a Serb-dominated (and again Communist) Yugoslavia. In Kosovo, the Albanian majority, comprising 90 percent of the population, engaged in passive resistance to increasing repression and boycotted Serbian elections in 1990 and afterwards.
Negotiations among the new leaders of the republics failed to produce a formula to preserve the unity of Yugoslavia. Between June 1991 and March 1992, four of the republics seceded. In two cases, declarations of independence were followed by ethnic wars in which the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army supported the Serbs in the republics. Both Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on June 25, 1991. In Slovenia, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army made a failed, ten-day attempt to thwart the republic's secession. In Croatia a six-month civil war ensued between ethnic Serbs and Croats that left more than 30 percent of Croatia under Serb control. Macedonia seceded in November 1991, becoming the only republic to achieve independence without violence. Bosnia and Herzegovina (often referred to simply as Bosnia) declared independence in March 1992. War broke out in Bosnia between Bosnian Serbs (armed and supported by Serbia) and Bosnian Croats (with similar backing from Croatia), who fought each other and Bosnia's Muslims. The fighting continued until late 1995. By 1993 Bosnian Serbs controlled about 70 percent of Bosnia and Croats controlled about 20 percent (See also Wars of Yugoslav Succession).
On April 27, 1992, Serbia and Montenegro declared themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), thus tacitly acknowledging the independence of the four breakaway republics. While the international community recognized the independence of the breakaway republics (except Macedonia due to a dispute with Greece over the name and other issues) by mid-1992, international organizations failed to recognize the FRY as the legal successor to the former Yugoslavia.
B Economic and Political Developments
In May 1992 the United Nations (UN) imposed economic sanctions on the FRY in an attempt to halt Serbian support of Bosnian Serb offensives and atrocities in Bosnia. The sanctions dealt a further blow to an already crippled economy, and living standards in Serbia and Montenegro declined significantly. By the following year an estimated 750,000 people in the FRY had lost their jobs. Miloševi? and his allies aroused further discontent by personally acquiring many state companies in the name of privatization. In 1994 the UN lifted nontrade sanctions against the FRY—those affecting travel, sport, and cultural contacts—partly on the condition that the FRY would cut off aid to Bosnian and Croatian Serbs, which did not happen.
Developments in the other former republics continued to affect the FRY's economy in the mid-1990s. In 1995 Croatian government troops regained most of the regions of Croatia that Croatian Serb nationalists had controlled since 1991, which produced a flood of Serb refugees estimated at 646,000 into the FRY. This created additional economic strain and social unrest. In December 1995 the Dayton peace accord was signed, ending the fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Meanwhile, in the years following the formation of the FRY, the government of Serbia under Miloševi? had more power than the federal government or the government of Montenegro. Elections in Serbia and the FRY produced fluctuations in legislative seats and mandates, but no reduction in Miloševi?'s hold on power, nor in that of his party, the SPS. In Serbia's presidential and parliamentary elections in December 1992, which were termed unfair by international observers and opposition parties, Miloševi? was reelected president but the SPS lost its majority in the Serbian Assembly. The SPS, however, retained power by forming a minority government with the support of a new ultranationalist party, the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), created and led by Vojislav Šešelj.
After Miloševi?'s reelection, his supporters in the Federal Assembly voted to oust the FRY's first president, Serbian writer Dobrica ?osi?, and its first prime minister, Serbian-American businessman Milan Pani?. Both originally had been Miloševi?'s choices, but had begun to challenge his authority. Their replacements, Montenegrin Rade Konti? as prime minister and Serbian Zoran Lili? as president, were fully supportive of Miloševi?. Meanwhile, Momir Bulatovi?, president of Montenegro since 1990, was reelected. His party, the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPSCG), retained the largest share of seats in the Montenegrin parliament. The DPSCG fully supported Miloševi?'s policies.
In October 1993, threatened with a no-confidence vote proposed by the SRS, Miloševi? dissolved the Serbian Assembly and scheduled elections for December. The SPS won the largest share of legislative seats, although still short of a majority. A coalition of opposition parties called the Democratic Movement for Serbia (DEPOS; later reformed as Zajedno, meaning “Together”) moved into second place, while the SRS dropped to third.
Federal elections in this period produced similar results. In November 1996 a coalition of the SPS, New Democracy (ND), and the Yugoslav United Left (JUL), led by Miloševi?'s wife, Mirjana Markovi?, won the majority of seats in the FRY's federal legislature. However, Serbian local elections produced Zajedno victories in Belgrade and several other cities. Miloševi? nullified these results, citing election irregularities. This sparked daily protest demonstrations in Belgrade and elsewhere, which continued until Zajedno-led local governments were finally installed in February 1997. Zajedno leaders pledged to drive Miloševi? from power, but the coalition quickly crumbled into factions.
In July 1997 Miloševi?, barred by the Serbian republican constitution from another term as Serbian president, was elected president of the FRY. This shifted the political dynamics of the FRY, moving actual power from the government of Serbia to the federal government. With Miloševi?'s move to the federal government, the SRS made significant gains in Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections that fall. Nevertheless, a coalition of the SPS and the JUL captured the greatest number of seats, while Milan Milutinovi?, an ally of Miloševi?, won the Serbian presidency. In Montenegro, Milo Djukanovi?, previously a supporter but now an open critic of Miloševi?, defeated Miloševi? supporter Bulatovi? to become president.
When Miloševi?'s supporters also lost the parliamentary elections in Montenegro in May 1998, the SPS and its allies violated the federal constitution to install Bulatovi?, the loser of the Montenegrin presidential elections, as federal prime minister. After that time, Montenegro's government regarded the federal government as illegitimate, and some Montenegrin politicians spoke of possible secession. However, public opinion within Montenegro on whether to remain in a union with Serbia remained bitterly divided, even after Miloševi?'s ouster in 2000. Such divisions stirred concerns at home and abroad that any move toward secession could trigger clashes in Montenegro between pro-Serb and pro-independence camps. In March 2002 leaders of Serbia and Montenegro signed an EU-brokered agreement to preserve the union between the two republics. This agreement led to the adoption of a new constitutional charter in February 2003, which provided for a looser federal union and changed the name of the country to Serbia and Montenegro.
In foreign affairs, Miloševi?, although still blamed by most of the international community for instigating civil wars and Serb war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia, skillfully maneuvered himself into acceptance by the United States and the UN as an essential peacemaker in Bosnia. His role in securing the Dayton peace accord prompted the UN to lift the remaining sanctions against the FRY in October 1996, except for an “outer wall” of financial sanctions. Because of this outer wall, the FRY still could not join international organizations or receive aid from international financial institutions and the U.S. government.
By 1998 the main reason for keeping the outer wall in place was the ongoing conflict between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, in southwestern Serbia. Miloševi? had ended Kosovo's autonomous status in 1989, and in 1990 the Serbian government had dissolved Kosovo's parliament and imposed direct Serbian rule. Years of passive resistance proved fruitless, and in the mid-1990s a militant ethnic Albanian separatist group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), formed in the province. The KLA attacked Serbian police in Kosovo repeatedly in late 1997 and early 1998, and in March 1998 Serbian police in the province responded with disproportionate retaliation, killing many Albanians who were not involved with the KLA. Growing numbers of Albanians joined or supported the KLA, which gained at least partial control over nearly 40 percent of Kosovo by early summer. Yugoslav army units joined Serbian police in driving both the KLA and civilians into the mountains or abroad by systematically bombarding, pillaging, and burning homes and villages from which attackers had come.
In October 1998, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), provoked into action by portrayals of Serbian brutality in the international mass media, threatened an aerial bombardment of Yugoslav military targets unless Serbia withdrew its army and police to barracks. Under intensive diplomatic and military pressure, Miloševi? agreed to a partial withdrawal of Serbian police and FRY troops and to negotiations aimed at restoring some autonomy to Kosovo. He did not honor the agreement, however. The KLA continued its own attacks, and heavy fighting in Kosovo resumed in November.
Under growing international pressure, the Yugoslav government and Kosovar Albanian representatives agreed to negotiate near Paris, France, in February and March 1999, but the parties could not agree on a peaceful solution. Miloševi? rejected a plan to place a NATO security force in Kosovo that would also have free passage throughout Serbia. This rejection prompted NATO forces, led by the United States, to begin air strikes against military and other targets throughout Yugoslavia in late March. Serbian-led assaults on ethnic Albanians intensified, with Serbian police and Yugoslav army units burning whole villages and forcing the residents to flee.
The United Nations estimated that nearly 640,000 people were forced from Kosovo between March 1998 and the end of April 1999. The largest number of refugees fled to Albania, while many others fled to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or to Montenegro. In late May the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) unsealed an indictment accusing Miloševi? and four other senior Yugoslav officials of committing war crimes in Kosovo. One of the officials indicted was Serbian president Milan Milutinovi?.
On June 3, 1999, Miloševi? finally agreed to an international peace plan for Kosovo. A diplomatic envoy from Russia, usually regarded as an ally of the FRY, participated in the negotiations between the FRY and NATO that led to an agreement. FRY military leaders approved the agreement on June 9, following intense negotiations over the details of FRY troop withdrawals and the composition of an international security force to be posted in Kosovo. After verifying that FRY troops were beginning to withdraw from Kosovo, NATO suspended its bombing on June 10, and the UN Security Council authorized peacekeeping forces to enter the province. As many as 50,000 international peacekeepers were to help ensure the safe return of Kosovar refugees, who numbered about 780,000 by the time the peace agreement was reached. As NATO-led troops began occupying Kosovo, the UN Security Council set up a temporary administration for the province. Tens of thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanians fled the province as revenge attacks by Albanians on Serbs and Roma, in particular, mounted. (Many Roma were accused of spying for the Serbs, stealing, or participating in the persecution of ethnic Albanians).
Miloševi? emerged from defeat in Kosovo, his third lost war, with his control over a desperately poor, isolated, and now badly bomb-damaged Serbia apparently undiminished. In July 2000 he dictated amendments to the constitution of the FRY that provided for popular (rather than parliamentary) election and reelection of the federal president. He then called early elections, to be held at the end of September 2000, for the federal presidency and parliament, as well as for municipal assemblies.
Miloševi? fatally miscalculated the reaction of the opposition and Serbia's voters. A total of 18 opposition parties, whose fragmentation and quarrels had previously helped him hold on to power, united to form the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) and to back a joint candidate for president of the FRY, Vojislav Koštunica. Koštunica, a scholar of constitutional law, was widely respected as a moderate Serb nationalist with a consistently democratic, anti-communist, and anti-Miloševi? record. On election day, September 24, 2000, Koštunica won 53 percent of the vote to Miloševi?'s 35 percent—despite blatant vote-rigging and fraud on the part of Miloševi?'s supporters. Koštunica's absolute majority made a runoff election unnecessary. The DOS won 59 of 138 seats in the federal parliament's more powerful Chamber of Citizens (compared to 44 seats for a united slate of Miloševi?'s SPS and his wife's JUL) and also won control of about 100 municipal governments.
After several days of silence, the SPS-dominated Federal Election Commission announced a different and clearly not credible result, giving Koštunica 49 percent of the vote and therefore requiring a runoff election. Shortly thereafter the Federal Constitutional Court annulled the elections of September 24. The DOS called for a countrywide general strike and mass demonstrations in Belgrade on October 5. On that day the demonstrators, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people from all over Serbia, stormed and occupied the FRY parliament building and the government radio-television station while police retreated or joined them. Serbia's almost nonviolent revolution ended its first phase on October 6, 2000, when Miloševi? met with Koštunica, congratulated him on his victory, and announced his own defeat on national television. The Yugoslav army's high command pledged its loyalty to its new commander in chief. Formally inaugurated the following day, Koštunica pledged that the FRY, still including Montenegro and Kosovo, would now “rejoin Europe.”
Other bastions of the old regime were still to be won, including Serbia's powerful presidency and parliament. In October 2000, after difficult negotiations, DOS and SPS leaders agreed to hold new elections for Serbia's parliament in December. In the elections the DOS won 64 percent of the vote and 176 of the 250 seats. The SPS took only 14 percent of the vote and 37 seats. Zoran Djindjic, a leader of the DOS and head of the Democratic Party (DS), became prime minister of Serbia. He pledged to push for democratic and economic reforms and called for the arrest and prosecution—in Serbian courts—of people accused of committing atrocities during the wars of Yugoslav succession.
Meanwhile, ethnic Albanian insurgents launched armed attacks on Yugoslav police forces and against Serb civilians in a thin buffer zone that NATO had insisted be set up on the Serbian side of the Kosovo border. Yugoslav army forces were not permitted to enter the buffer zone. In December 2000 the UN Security Council condemned the insurgents. After NATO forces failed to rein in the insurgents on the Kosovo side of the border, Yugoslav army troops were allowed to reenter the buffer zone in March 2001.
In March 2001 the Serbian government arrested Miloševi?. He was charged with embezzlement and abuse of power. The Yugoslav government rejected demands by the ICTY that it hand him over for prosecution by that tribunal, located in The Hague. However, in June the Serbian government, responding to international pressure, extradited Miloševi? to the ICTY to face trial, despite a ruling by the Yugoslav Constitutional Court to stop his handover. Western leaders praised the transfer and pledged more than $1 billion to help rebuild the Yugoslav economy, although most of that aid consisted of canceling old debts incurred under the reign of Yugoslav leader Josip Tito. Miloševi?'s trial before the ICTY began in February 2002.
In 2002 two elections for the presidency of Serbia were ruled invalid because fewer than 50 percent of the electorate voted, the minimum required for a presidential election. The president of the National Assembly of Serbia, Nataša Micic, was named acting president in January 2003 when the previous president's term expired. Micic thus became the first woman ever to serve as head of the Serbian state.
In February 2003 lawmakers in Serbia and Montenegro formally approved a new constitutional charter for the shared central government, and in March the parliament of the new union was inaugurated. Shortly afterward, the parliament elected the union's first president, Svetozar Marovic, a native of Montenegro. Marovic replaced the former president of the FRY, Vojislav Koštunica, whose term ended after the FRY was dissolved. A proponent of Serbia and Montenegro's future membership in the European Union (EU), Marovic pledged to carry out comprehensive economic and democratic reforms, bring the country's army and police entirely under civilian control, and cooperate fully with the ICTY.
Also in March 2003, Serbian prime minister and Democratic Party (DS) leader Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in Belgrade. Some government officials blamed criminal groups with links to Miloševi? for the killing. The DS appointed Zoran Zivkovic to succeed Djindjic as prime minister. Boris Tadic, a former defense minister of Serbia and Montenegro, was chosen to lead the DS. Meanwhile, the Serbian government announced plans to hold another presidential election in the republic. In the election, held in November 2003, Serbia failed for a third time to elect a president due to low voter turnout. The Serbian parliament subsequently repealed the 50 percent turnout requirement, and another presidential vote was scheduled for June 2004.
Elections for the Serbian parliament in December 2003 failed to produce a majority coalition. In March 2004, after several months of deadlock between the parties, Koštunica was named prime minister of Serbia. Koštunica, leader of the reformist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), succeeded in forging a minority coalition government with support from the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS)—formerly led by Miloševi?.
In the presidential runoff election in June 2004, Tadic was elected Serbia's new president. In a close election, Tadic defeated Tomislav Nikolic, a former Miloševi? ally and leader of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party. A reformer intent on improving relations with the European Union, NATO, and the United States, Tadic had voiced strong support for extraditing Serbian war crimes suspects to the ICTY for prosecution. Nikolic had opposed the extraditions.
The History section of this article was contributed by Dennison Rusinow and reviewed by Robert M. Hayden.
Contributed By:
Dennison Rusinow
Robert M. Hayden
David Dyker
Serbia and Montenegro: Flag and Anthem
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