The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
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<strong>The</strong> Programme for the Long-Term Consolidation <strong>of</strong> the Yugoslav Economy,<br />
adopted in 1983, remained a mere proclamation, for nothing could<br />
be implemented without the consent <strong>of</strong> all six republics <strong>and</strong> the two au<strong>to</strong>nomous<br />
provinces Kosovo <strong>and</strong> Voivodina. <strong>The</strong> country was in the<br />
stranglehold <strong>of</strong> regional self-determination. Neither the reform projects<br />
nor the Commission <strong>to</strong> Reform the Economic System, convened at the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the ‘80s, succeeded in imposing a decisive turnaround. While the<br />
experts were dem<strong>and</strong>ing a market economy, pluralism <strong>of</strong> ownership,<br />
deregulation <strong>and</strong> privatization, ab<strong>and</strong>onment <strong>of</strong> the fixed organizational<br />
structure, creation <strong>of</strong> a uniform market for goods, labour <strong>and</strong> capital, reform<br />
<strong>of</strong> the banking system, opening <strong>of</strong> the Yugoslav economy <strong>and</strong> the<br />
restriction <strong>of</strong> the function <strong>of</strong> the state <strong>to</strong> indirect control <strong>of</strong> the economy,<br />
new legislation was passed in the areas <strong>of</strong> foreign investments, invoic -<br />
ing, financial aid, the export financing bank <strong>and</strong> foreign trade law that<br />
actually heightened the sense <strong>of</strong> legal insecurity amongst inves<strong>to</strong>rs.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se laws were frequently amended or suspended shortly after being<br />
passed.<br />
Out <strong>of</strong> the dead end <strong>of</strong> nationalism<br />
<strong>The</strong> dissension between the eight regions led in the parliament <strong>to</strong> biased<br />
considerations, <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> changes without any real change. Instead <strong>of</strong> addressing<br />
economic questions, the League <strong>of</strong> Communists – the Party –<br />
preferred <strong>to</strong> concern itself with staff <strong>and</strong> nationality issues that escalated<br />
<strong>to</strong> the breaking point. <strong>The</strong> party became a church without faith, leaving<br />
a spiritual void in<strong>to</strong> which nationalism moved. <strong>The</strong> ideological décor, the<br />
bottle, remained the same, only the liquid it held was now completely<br />
different.<br />
<strong>The</strong> crisis was most clearly noticeable in the poorest region, Kosovo. Income<br />
there was just one seventh <strong>of</strong> income in Slovenia. Many people<br />
sought possibilities <strong>to</strong> earn money in other parts <strong>of</strong> the country, so as <strong>to</strong><br />
feed their families. While the Albanians went abroad on a massive scale,<br />
where they could usually only work illegally, many Serbs sold their possessions<br />
<strong>and</strong> moved with their families <strong>to</strong> Serbia. In the language <strong>of</strong> the<br />
nationalists, this process was equated with the expulsion <strong>of</strong> the Serbs<br />
from their homel<strong>and</strong>.<br />
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