yugoslavias implosion

166
ChApter 2
eliminated in a “most humane manner.” 254 Croatia could not secede,
he said, at least not within the avnoj frontiers; only the Slovenes
had a chance to do so. He promised the assembly that Croats would
no longer live in Serbia, offered to supply trucks and trains to move
them out, and promised them that “when the government changes
in Serbia we will displace the lot of you.” 255 The Assembly listened in
silence and the Socialists rubbed their hands.
When the war in Bosnia escalated, Šešelj became Milošević’s
key ally in Parliament. However, that war also saw his first rift with
Milošević, which occurred after Milošević tried to persuade the Bosnian
Serbs to accept the Bosnia peace agreement, with Milošević
going as far as to characterize Šešelj as a “personification of violence
and primitiveness.” 256 Indeed, Šešelj’s rudeness and thuggery made
Milošević seem decent and acceptable in comparison. 257
The Loss of Slovenia
Back in 1991, when Šešelj was just beginning to trumpet his belligerent
rhetoric, the ypa was the only surviving Yugoslav institution
(albeit one with a Serbian leadership) that wanted to preserve
Yugoslavia or to create a new Yugoslavia for those nations, above all
the Serbs, who desired such a state. The attempt to preserve Yugoslavia,
however, was abandoned early on following the brief war in
Slovenia.
254 Osmica, 22 April 1992 .
255 Ibid .
256 Slavoljub Đukić, Između slave i anateme, Politička biografija Slobodana
Miloševića (Between Glory and Anathema, a Political Biography of
Slobodan Milošević), ( Beograd:Filip Višnjić, 1994) p . 311 .
257 Šešelj’s indictment charges him, inter alia, with “inflamatory speeches in the media, during
public events, and during visits to the volunteer units and other Serb forces in Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, instigating those forces to commit crimes” . See http://www.icty.
org/x/cases/seselj/ind/en/ses-ii030115e.pdf . Anthony Oberschall, an expert witness in his
trial, presented a report „Nationalistic Propaganda of Vojislav Šešelj: contents, tehniques,
objectives and influences, 1990 – 1994,“ in which he analysed most of his speeches .