Yugoslavia Without Yugoslavs

The Kragujevac weekly ``Svetlost'' brings the story of Azra Vidovic, who says: ``When I was coming here, after I managed to get out of Sarajevo, I kept thinking how I would say my name Azra. I wondered if I dared say it out loud. These are terrible times, when one is afraid of everything, even one's own name.'' Azra is Muslim, and a refugee from Sarajevo. Her husband is a Serb, and has remained in Sarajevo. Both of them always declared themselves as Yugoslavs. When filling out forms, Azra wrote down that her husband was a Serb and that she was Muslim: ``This is the first time I've ever written this down...''

This mechanism, which is manifested in a fear from saying one's name out loud, makes it clear to Yugoslavs that they ``don't exist,'' and forces them to change their nationality. This is a kind of ``statistical genocide,'' and certainly a forced change of identity.

The draft law on citizenship being drawn up in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (see text by prof. Gasa Knezevic), states that ``all members of the Serbian and Montenegrin people who flee to Yugoslav territory with the aim of settling there,'' will be issued citizenship should they ask for it, and will so become equal in status with those who have attained it by birth, the principle of blood and the principle of territory.

In his book ``The Uncertainty of Human Rights--From Autocracy to Democracy,'' Vojin Dimitrijevic, an expert on international law, writes that the states which are falling apart (the USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia), have not offered many of their citizens the choice of choosing their citizenship, and they are forced to go through various tests based on length of residence, knowledge of the culture, language, etc. This could affect half the population in Lithuania who ``speak Russian.'' The possibility that such persons could be left without citizenship is being hushed down with a typically nationalistic excuse, namely, that they can get the citizenship of their ``mother'' state.

What is the ``mother state'' of people who declare themselves as being of a Yugoslav nationality?

The new Yugoslav law promises citizenship to all interested Yugoslav emigrants (it does not specify which Yugoslavia is being referred to) and members of their families. It is a fact, however, that the law is not very magnanimous to those who have declared themselves as Yugoslavs. The Federal Yugoslavia claims to be the inheritor of the Socialist Yugoslavia. However, by rejecting ethnic Yugoslavs, the Federal Yugoslavia is taking a stand identical to that of the ``secessionist states.'' The Croatian Constitution mentions a few minor ethnic groups, but does not mention Yugoslavs, even though they were the second largest non-Croat group in the 1991 census. Yugoslavs made up 2.2% of the population, i.e., there were twice as many of them as there were Muslims who are placed second in the Constitution. In spite of a systematic policy which discouraged the declaration of the Yugoslav national option, 1,219,045 citizens or 6% of the population declared themselves as such in the 1981 census.

Under the Socialist Yugoslavia Constitution, citizens enjoyed both republican and federal citizenships. Changing one's republican citizenship was simple, one made a statement to this effect in front of the competent body and took another republican citizenship. This however, was rarely done, since there were no practical reasons for such a move. The Yugoslav passport was highly esteemed worldwide.

When the war broke out, those who had declared themselves as Yugoslavs were surprised to find out that one little red letter in their passport determined their republican nationality and was crucial in determining whether they could travel to one of the former republics (each had its own code).

In the meantime, problems with regard to regulating one's Yugoslav citizenship multiplied. Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officers and federal civil servants who remained faithful to the oath they had given, found themselves in quandary when Yugoslavia started disintegrating. There are many indications that they were checked up on, quietly removed from their posts, and faced various forms of discrimination. Many of them are now practically without citizenship rights, they can't register an apartment or other property, nor can they regulate any other rights. There was talk this spring that pensions would be made conditional to regulating citizenship. Anxiety was alleviated with official promises that deadlines for regulating citizenship would be prolonged and that it was enough to submit a request. The pertinent forms contain a clause which is tantamount to giving up the other citizenship, which gives rise to fear among many that they will not be able to meet with family members and children living in another state. An example to point is the case of general Milan Aksentijevic who was expelled after Slovenia's secession. His children and grandchildren (his son Zivojin was born in Slovenia) remained in Slovenia, while Aksentijevic moved to Zagreb. During the war in Croatia he was captured and held prisoner for 72 days, after which he was exchanged. Aksentijevic then moved to Sarajevo where he was told by an UNPROFOR officer that he had been pensioned off. He came to Serbia with his wife Ana, who is Slovenian, and was given temporary accommodation in Kragujevac. After a while, as happened often, legal attempts were made at throwing him out of the flat. In his letter to Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic, Aksentijevic complained that he could not get the necessary documents, since they concerned a now foreign and hostile state, from which he had been expelled: ``Dear Sir, now that my army and country no longer need me, I would, if I could, like to be with my family and grandchildren, even if I have to live like a slave, rather than be a burden to your military fund. But that army is mine too, it's just that I don't understand why it treats me in this fashion?'' Aksentijevic's story is an indirect illustration of our topic because he is a Serb citizen by birth. The story does however, throw light on the problems faced by others who don't have this status, and face losing their jobs, passports, apartments and pensions.

There was a great demand for Yugoslav passports in Belgrade last year and the year before. Many refugees tried to get Serbian identity cards, the first step to acquiring a passport. The Belgrade municipality of Zvezdara issued 3,500 citizenship papers in 1992, while 4,000 were issued in Novi Beograd. It was an open secret that a passport was worth 1,500 dollars. Marriages for the sole purpose of acquiring the necessary papers were made. Papers issued by the military authorities from the Bosnian Serb side of the Drina River played an important role in regulating one's refugee status.

A revision of refugee identity cards has been announced for this spring, which probably means that only pregnant women and the very old will be able to retain the status. It is indicative that the authorities have started an organized form of pressure on some humanitarian institutions (The Soros Fund, SponaSerbian Renewal Movement sponsored organization, etc.) which aid refugees. With the help of radical elements, the authorities have brought pressure to bear on men from the Serb Republic in Bosnia Herzegovina to return. There were cases of the enforced mobilization of refugees, a move opposed by the UNHCR. Federal Human Rights Minister Margit Savovic, a naturalized Yugoslav, who was supposed to defend the refugees, took the side of the authorities.

On the other hand, Serbian and Montenegrin citizens have been stripped of all property rights in Croatia (houses and summer houses at the seaside). The Yugoslav authorities have launched propaganda arrows against Croatian citizenship papers (the domovnica) and even carried out a survey among Serbian citizens on who had property in the secessionist republics, but have not shown much enthusiasm or interest in protecting their citizens' rights so far.

The new draft Law on citizenship enables Socialist Yugoslavia citizens who on the day this Law goes into force, and are not citizens of Serbia or Montenegro, to acquire Yugoslav citizenship if they have lived in Yugoslav territory for the past three years without interruption, to submit a request for citizenship in the period of 12 months after this law goes into effect. It is necessary to sign a statement that the person making the request does not hold a foreign citizenship, and if he/she has attained such, to request that it be annulled.

The fact that the state demands a three years' domicile in Yugoslavia, could mean that the legislators wish to slow down the migration from the Serb Krajinas to Serbia and Montenegro.

Yugoslavia has announced that it will tolerate a dual citizenship. Former Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic urged this solution in order to leave Belgrade with a mechanism for protecting Serbs across the Drina River.

The 1990 Croatian Constitution said that ``Croatia is the state of the Croatian people and other peoples and minorities who are its citizens''; Serbia (introduction to the 1990 Constitution) is ``above all,'' the state of the Serbian people ``which ensures for members of other nations and nationalities, the realization of national rights''; Macedonia (preamble to the 1991 Constitution), is ``the national state of the Macedonian people, and it guarantees a permanent coexistence with people living in Macedonia.'' ``Slovenia is the state of all its citizens, and is based on the permanent and unalienable right of the Slovenian people to commitment.''

The calling on the right to self-determination, and the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has turned a very large group of people who once enjoyed full citizenship rights into foreigners, without their having been given a chance to decide on anything. My land is now in the territory of a hostile state and will be nationalized, my property is in the territory of a hostile state and will be confiscated, my freedom of movement in the territory of a hostile state will now be controlled. Theoretically, it was possible to help alleviate these problems in the following manner: all citizens of the former Socialist Yugoslavia could be recognized multi-citizenship in all the states of the former Socialist Yugoslavia territory, or citizens of the mother state would have the same legal rights in the other states of the ex Yugoslavia. The European Movement of Serbia has launched the idea for the drafting of a Charter on Freedom and Rights, which takes as its point of departure a realistic general clause of equality which lists freedoms and rights with regard to property, freedom of movement, inheritance, etc. These rights and freedoms could be concluded by agreement and have international guarantees, and they would be enjoyed by all the citizens of the former Yugoslavia regardless of their present citizenship. The agreement would set down the mechanism which would give legal guarantees and ensure international protection and arbitrage in the event that they were violated.