yugoslavias implosion

Milošević continued to wage a campaign against Slovenia and
Croatia and planned a detailed scenario for unmaking Yugoslavia.
Because events followed each other with great speed, other republics
were unable to react. Immediately following the demonstrations
in Slovenia, Serbia declared a boycott of Slovenian goods, triggering
the economic disintegration of Slovenia. The message of the Serbian
politicians was that “No citizen of Serbia will beg the Slovenes
to stay in Yugoslavia.” Soon afterward, Slovenia passed a declaration
announcing the decision of the Slovene people to live in a sovereign
Slovenia.
Following the isolation of Slovenia, the Belgrade leadership
focused increasingly on Croatia, which for the most part failed to
react to Belgrade’s provocations. Only after a long period of vacillation
did Croatia resist, and a confrontation between Serbia and Croatia
began. Using the media, Belgrade manipulated the eruption of
Serbian nationalism; the Serbian population was used to organize
rallies in Croatia. The Serbian Interior Ministry (mup) was active in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, destabilizing it by engineering police scandals
(such as accusing Nenad Kecmanović of spying) as well as economic
scandals (involving Agrokomerc).
With Milošević setting the pace of and calling the shots on the
Yugoslav political scene through sheer determination and brazenness,
every attempt by the federal government to appease him further
upset the precarious balance. For instance, federal officials
meekly accepted the invitation (from the Serbian leadership)to
attend the June 1989 celebration of the 600th anniversary of the Battle
of Kosovo, only to be warned by Milošević: “Six centuries after the
Battle of Kosovo, we are in battles again; they are not armed, though
even such are not to be ruled out.” The lack of determination and
purpose in the federal leadership, as well as the republics’ political
and party leaderships, showed the degree to which politicians were
afraid to challenge Serbian nationalism. The absence of a broader
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