yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 2
“the generals’ party.” While other East European countries’ armed
forces were in the process of depoliticization, in Yugoslavia the army
was creating its own party—and, moreover, a party with the word
“Communist” in its title.
The ypa’s official spokesman, Colonel Vuk Obradović, said in
April 1990 that the Federal Secretariat for National Defense was following
and analyzing initiatives concerning the so-called depoliticization
of the ypa from the point of view of the need for the Army
to maintain its all-Yugoslav character. 216 A former head of the ypa
General Staff, General Stevan Mirković, asserted that the Army was
not against the multiparty system but warned against its being introduced
in Yugoslavia too quickly. 217 The ypa saw in Milošević a man
who was openly for Yugoslavia, who wanted to strengthen the federal
state in the same way the ypa wanted to. The ypa advocated the
creation of a new Yugoslavia, not only in order to have a state of its
own, but because it believed that there were “nations in Yugoslavia
[that] really wanted to live in a joint state.” 218
The ypa was fiercely critical of the outcome of the multiparty
elections in Slovenia and Croatia (discussed below), branding them
as a victory of right-wing forces opposed to the constitution and
identifying the Socialists, who won the first multiparty election in
Serbia, as its ideological partner. The general staff judged that the
country was on the brink of civil war and insisted on a joint meeting
of the Supreme Command and the Presidency of the sfry. At the
meeting, which took place on March 12–15, 1991, the ypa proposed
imposing a state of emergency, raising the combat preparedness of
the ypa, and adopting urgent measures to keep the system within the
country’s basic law while reaching agreement on the future organization
of Yugoslavia.
216 “More on Election Impact”, Daily Report East Europe, April 26, 1990 p . 79 .
217 “Mirković on removing LCY from Army” FBIS-EEU-90–098 p . 81 .
218 Veljko Kadijević, Moje viđenje raspada, p . 90 .