yugoslavias implosion

192
ChApter 2
the irrational use of force and eventually the total collapse of the ypa,
or rather of its pro-Yugoslav segment. In the aftermath of the Vukovar
debacle, the pro-Yugoslav ypa leaders were retired and the remaining
commanders ethnically cleansed, so that the army finally became a
purely Serbian force in terms of both make-up and objectives.
The Army of Yugoslavia (vj) inherited from its predecessor the
fundamental problem of manpower: the young conscripts who made
up most of its ranks did not want to fight and many of them fled the
country to avoid being mobilized. They were replaced by volunteers
with highly questionable professional skills and morals. Their
wholesale use first by the ypa and then by the vj (as well as by the
Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina) degraded the
army morally and made it responsible for heinous crimes, including
genocide.
In Kosovo, too, the army failed to grasp the situation, fooled
itself into thinking it could hold off the might of nato, and engaged
in activities that saw its supreme commander sent to The Hague.
Yet, since the end of the Kosovo war, the army (which since
Montenegro’s independence has been renamed, accurately for once,
the Army of Serbia) has continued to play a prominent part in Serbian
politics since its defeat in Kosovo. It took an active part in the
political processes that led to the change of government in 2000,
playing the role of go-between in replacing Milošević with Vojislav
Koštunica. A segment of the army was actively involved in campaigns
against the pro-Europe prime minister Zoran Đinđić. It
resisted any changes for a long time, primarily to avoid being called
to account before the icty.
In 2006, however, the Serbian Army did join nato’s Partnership
for Peace, opening the path toward full nato membership. Further
transformation of the Serbian Army will depend, as is the case with
the militaries in most other post-communist countries, on its relationship
with nato.