Yearbook 2016
Serbia. In March, the UN General Court in The Hague freed the leader of the radical nationalist party Radical Party (SRS), Vojislav Šešelj, from prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Balkan wars in the early 1990s.
Šešelj, who spent 11 years in detention in The Hague, has been in Serbia for over a year, where he was allowed to return for cancer treatment. The current population of Serbia is 8,737,382. The liberating judgment caused consternation and anger, not least in Bosnia and Croatia. Šešelj himself paid tribute to the judges in The Hague and said he would seek millions in damages.
As expected, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić announced a new election and the third two-year parliamentary elections were held in April. As a reason, Vučić indicated that the country needed four stable years ahead of itself to prepare for EU membership. His Nationalist Progressive Party (SNS) lost some seats but retained its own majority in Parliament. Second largest was the Socialist Party (SPS) followed by the SRS.
Despite SNS’s strong position, it took just over three months for a new government to be completed. In addition to SNS, it also included SPS and some small lots. The government included Ana Brnabić who was given responsibility for local self-government. She became the first openly gay minister in Serbia, a country that distinguished itself as a stronghold for gays.
According to thereligionfaqs, extensive protests erupted since a number of buildings on the Sava River were demolished at night by masked men, of all doomed to quickly prepare the site for an exclusive billion-dollar construction project, funded by the United Arab Emirates. Protesters repeatedly gathered on the streets, accusing the government of involvement in the disputed construction project, which they claimed was unconstitutional and not in the public interest.
WW2
World War II formed into a triple settlement:
- between the majority of the Yugoslav peoples and the occupying powers,
- as a settlement between several of the ethnic groups – especially Serbs and Croats,
- as a class struggle between the working class and supporters of the royal, Serbian gunman.
The resistance struggle was led by two conflicting groups: On the one hand, the “Chetniks” who were nationalists, faithful to the king and led by Draza Mihajlovic. On the other partisans led by Croatian Josip Broz – better known under his nom de guerre, Tito. This group consisted of communists advocating a united Yugoslavia, as well as anti-Nazi forces from all republics except Serbia. They later joined the Yugoslav Communist League (LCY). The communists managed to unite and organize large parts of the people to fight against the occupying powers, fascism and ethnic oppression. The partisans held liberated territories throughout the war. On November 29, 1943, 208 delegates from all over the country participated in the 2nd meeting of the Antifascist Council for National Liberation of Yugoslavia, where they ousted the king and decided to establish the country as a federation similar to the national groups.
The war was very bloody. The Germans and their fascist Croatian allies – ustasha – carried out ethnic cleansing among the Serbian and Muslim population, but eventually LCY managed to take over. After the final liberation in May 1945, a provisional government was formed under the leadership of Tito. It received support from both the Soviet Union and England. 2 million Yugoslavs had died during the war and 3.5 million had lost their homes. The country was in ruins.