yugoslavias implosion

his attention to the Serbian police, transforming the public security
service into a parallel military organization. 203
Nothing could stem the tide of Serbian populism, and implementation
of the Serbian national project began in mid-1988. Mistrust
of the ypa grew in all republics, Slovenia in particular. Mladina,
a provocative weekly magazine of the Slovenian Communist Party
that had a youthful readership, often criticized the army as a retrograde
institution. In response, the authorities arrested Janez Janša,
the military correspondent for Mladina and two other people, and
charged them with leaking military secrets. The documents in question
were believed to be the plans for a takeover of Slovenia by the
ypa. The crisis of relations between Slovenia and the ypa came to a
head during Janša’s trail .Thousands of citizens demonstrated every
day of the trial until the suspects were released from custody in 1989.
Speculation that the Army might step in to salvage the fractured
Yugoslavia increased in the country and abroad. Many members of
the military and political circles in Serbia believed that the West was
in favor of preserving Yugoslavia and that the West might support
extraordinary measures under certain circumstances. Rumors circulated
that the West had indicated to the ypa’s leadership that it would
raise no objection to the ypa staging a coup and deposing Milošević.
Veljko Kadijević said that such rumors were a “very transparent
203 Budimir Babović, testimony delivered on June 13, 2003, in the trial of Milošević before the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . He also said “Throughout
this period, Slobodan Milošević had a position which de jure enabled him to directly control
the highest level of the police hierarchy and thus exert a decisive influence on police
organization in Serbia . Moreover, in some respects he had an obligation to exercise control
and prevent breaking of the law . During the one-party system, he was the president of
the party in power, controlling all the other levers of authority which only carried out the
party’s will . When the multiparty system was introduced, Milošević remained president of
the Presidency, then president of the Republic of Serbia . His authority and obligations were
then defined by the constitution and the law . His position relative to the Serbian police was
not weakened when he moved from the post of Serbian president to that of president of
the FRY . He retained undiminished power and acquired constitutional and legal authority
because, as FRY president, he became the ex officio president of the Supreme Defense
Council . In this capacity, he had legal authority over the police forces in peace and war .”
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