The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

In order to bring historic rights into line with the demand for independence,
an ethnic harmonization of the population was now the goal of
the new state. For the non-Serbian population and for the minorities,
this meant for all practical purposes compulsory assimilation and marginalization.
This first royal Yugoslavia was in essence not a state under the rule of
law. The problems built into its foundations spread throughout the pop -
ulation, most of which lived in agricultural village communities, and traditionally
conducted neighbourly relations in certain ways, regardless of
national or religious affiliation, since they depended on them for subsist -
ence. In those days, without travel or media use – the population was
80% illiterate – the new citizens living in remote regions hardly knew
each other at all; they had no idea how others lived and what they want -
ed. Thus, the Serbs thought they had liberated the others, and expected
gratitude and material recognition in return. The economic gap between
industrially developed Slovenia and Croatia and war-ravaged Serbia
strengthened this attitude. In turn, the people in Slovenia and Croatia
rejected the new state because of its higher taxes, because of the disadvantage
to which they were subjected by the currency reform, and
because of the strong preferential treatment given Serbs in the administration
and the army.
The first shots
Frustration and quarrels soon dispelled the joy of liberation from foreign
rule. The power struggle was determined by politicians and intellectuals,
and carried out in strong language in the press and in parliament. In the
common state, many Slovenian and Croatian representatives felt oppressed
as they had never before been in their history. Stjepan Radic,
the Croatian leader of the Peasants’ Party, demanded in parliament the
transformation of the state into a confederation. In response, on June
28, 1928, as so often the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, a Serbian
representative shot at Radic, fatally injuring him, killing two other representatives,
and seriously injured two more. These were the first casualties
in the battle between the Serbs and the Croats.
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