Serbian Civil Unrest

In Serbia in 2000, one year after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombings and a few years into U.N. sanctions, 9 years of war and economic collapse, there was a critical mass of dissatisfaction to ensure popular support for an uprising. A network of organizations including political parties, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil groups, and informal gatherings that had been active for years and cooperated to a degree got organized and involved. With financial, logistical, and propaganda help from abroad to create a broad coalition under the slogan “Unity, Victory, Changes” the network engaged in election campaigning and supported Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), headed by Dr. Dragoljub Mićunović, in opposing the continuing leadership of Slobodan Milošević. Dr. Mićunović has since died under mysterious circumstances at The Hague International War Crimes Tribunal.

The key elements of dissatisfaction were the dictatorship, the devastation of wars, the sanctions, and the NATO bombings. The key players in the resistance were DOS, NGOs, Otpor! (Resistance!), students, miners, workers, independent media, and ordinary citizens. They drew on the Polish solidarity movement, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Serbian demonstrations of 1991 and 1996–1997 as key models of resistance.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) dissolved in 1991. Wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia (in its southern province Kosovo) followed. Milošević, president of Serbia and later the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro) and Serbia again 1988 to 2000, had all formal and informal power. His rule was authoritarian and nontransparent. His policies were devastating to the whole region.

There were U.N. sanctions against SFRY from 1991 to 1999, culminating in NATO bombing in 1999. Serbia was unable to recover from wars, sanctions, bombing, and lawlessness.

On November 17, 1996, Slobodan Milošević lost the municipal elections and annulled them. Tens of thousands of Serbs took to the streets in Belgrade and other cities. Students, who spearheaded the protests, demanded that the results be recognized. Eventually, after 3 months, Milošević made concessions and the movement ran out of steam.

Milošević called an election to be held in September of 2000. Election campaigning included NGOs, especially Otpor!, a student organization. Koštunica won by 52% making the second round unnecessary. Milošević denied the election results. DOS and the worker's unions threatened a general strike. A big Belgrade rally was organized by DOS with the help of NGOs, Otpor!, workers' unions, and unofficial contacts with army and police. Milošević responded by trying to engineer electoral fraud. He claimed that Koštunica won less than 50% of the vote, which would necessitate a runoff. DOS refused to participate in the runoff, and called for street protests and blockades to force the regime to recognize the election results.

Though many rallies were held in the days following the September 24 elections, most were smaller than the opposition hoped for. What changed everything was the outbreak of a strike at the Kolubara mine complex on September 29. Kolubara is the largest coal mine in Serbia (it employs 17,000) and supplies coal to the Nikola Tesla electricity plant in Obrenovac, which produces half of Serbia's electricity. The strike had a huge effect. Within days a general strike was proclaimed, the first in Yugoslavia since World War II. Some 4,500 miners at the Kostoloc mine in eastern Serbia joined the strike, as did workers in other industries in Niš, Čačak, Pančevo, and Užice. In Kragujevac, 30,000 auto workers and laborers in the armaments industry demonstrated against Milošević.

...