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started in Bosnia—to unleash his “war-hardened volunteers” in case<br />

of any roadblocks or insurgency. 251<br />

Šešelj had been opposed to recognizing a sovereign Macedonia,<br />

which was a part of Serbia before the creation of the Kingdom of<br />

Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. In this regard, he advocated the use of<br />

force and the partition of Macedonia between Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria,<br />

and Albania. 252<br />

The Programmatic Declaration placed special emphasis on<br />

Kosovo, urging the “suppression of the Albanian separatist rebellion<br />

by all means” and the taking of such measures as “preventing any<br />

form of Kosovo-Metohija politico-territorial autonomy, expelling<br />

allegedly 360,000 Albanian immigrants, preventing extension of state<br />

grants to national minorities, declaring a state of war and imposing<br />

military rule, dissolving the local organs of civil government<br />

financed from the state budget, closing down or conserving all local<br />

factories and production facilities, and abolishing all welfare payments<br />

to Albanians, especially those conducive to the excessive birth<br />

rate.” 253<br />

This program served as the informal agenda of the Serbian<br />

regime and its blueprint for creating a Greater Serbia. Cunning politicians,<br />

members of Milošević’s Socialist Party of Serbia conspired<br />

behind the scenes and let parties such as Šešelj’s trumpet their war<br />

objectives. The Radical Party emphasized the need to establish a<br />

Greater Serbia.<br />

In the Serbian Assembly in 1992, Šešelj urged the expulsion of<br />

Croats from Vojvodina and Serbia, calling them the biggest enemies<br />

of the Serbian people and a “nation of criminals and cowards.”<br />

Being a fifth column and “Ustasha collaborators,” they needed to be<br />

251 NIN, January 21, 1992 .<br />

252 Ibid . P .41 .<br />

253 Programme Declaration of the Serbian Radical Party, Velika Srbija, br .9 . May 1991, p . 6–7<br />

165<br />

ChApter 2

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