Serbia and Montenegro

State Union of Serbia and Montenegro Državna zajednica Srbija i Crna Gora Државна Заједница Србија и Црна Гора
Federation, then State Union
← 1992–2006 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem Hej, Sloveni (English: "Hey, Slavs")
Capital		Belgrade
Languages		Serbo-Croatian (1992-1997) Serbian (1997-2006)
Government		Federation (1992-2003) State Union (2003-2006)
President
-	1992–1993	Dobrica Ćosić
-	1993–1997	Zoran Lilić
-	1997–2000	Slobodan Milošević
-	2000–2003	Vojislav Koštunica
-	2003–2006	Svetozar Marović
Prime Minister
-	1992–1993	Milan Panić
-	1993–1998	Radoje Kontić
-	1998–2000	Momir Bulatović
-	2000–2001	Zoran Žižić
-	2001–2003	Dragiša Pešić
Historical era		Post-Cold War
-	Constitution	April 27, 1992
-	Established	April 28, 1992
-	UN membership	November 1, 2000
-	Reconstitution as the State Union	February 4, 2003
-	Dissolution of the State Union	June 5, 2006
Area
-	2006	102,350 km² (39,518 sq mi)
Population
-	2006 est.	10,832,545
Density		105.8 /km²  (274.1 /sq mi)
Currency		Yugoslav dinar (1992-2003) Serbian dinar (2003-2006) Deutsche Mark (1999-2002) Euro (2002-2006)
Internet TLD		.yu
Calling code		+381
¹Membership as FRY ISO 3166-1=CS,UTC offset = +1

Serbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed in 1992 from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY): Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY; Serbian: Savezna Republika Jugoslavija, Савезна Република Југославија; SRJ, СРЈ). In 2003, it was reconstituted as a political union called the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro ( Serbian: Državna Zajednica Srbija i Crna Gora, Државна Заједница Србија и Црна Гора; SCG, СЦГ).

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia aspired to be a sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by other former republics. The United Nations also denied its request to automatically continue the membership of the former state. Eventually, after the Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević from power in Serbia in 2000, the country rescinded those aspirations and accepted the opinion of Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession, and reapplied for and gained UN membership on November 2, 2000. From 1992 to 2000, some countries, including the United States, referred to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as "Serbia and Montenegro".

A loose confederation, Serbia and Montenegro were united only in certain realms, such as defense. The two constituent republics functioned separately throughout the period of the Federal Republic, and continued to operate under separate economic policies, as well as using separate currencies (the Euro was the only legal tender in Montenegro). On 21 May 2006, the Montenegrin independence referendum was held. Final official results indicated on 31 May that 55.5% of voters voted in favour of independence. The state union effectively came to an end after Montenegro's formal declaration of independence on 3 June 2006, and Serbia's formal declaration of independence on 5 June. Many view this as the final end of what was left of the former Yugoslavia.

History

With the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991 and 1992, only Serbia and Montenegro agreed to maintain the Yugoslav state, and established a new constitution for a new Yugoslavia in 1992. With the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe, the new state followed the wave of democratic change. It abandoned former communist symbolism: the red star was removed from the national flag, and the communist coat of arms was replaced by an white double-headed eagle with the arms of both Serbia and Montenegro within it. The new state also abandoned the collective presidency of the former SFRY and replaced it with the system consisting of a single president, who would be democratically elected, as well as a democratically elected government.

Yugoslav Wars

The FRY was suspended from a number of international institutions. This was due to the ongoing Yugoslav wars during the 1990s, which had prevented agreement being reached on the disposition of federal assets and liabilities, particularly the national debt. The Government of Yugoslavia supported Croatian and Bosnian Serbs in the wars from 1992 to 1995. Because of that, the country was under economic and political sanctions, which resulted in economic disaster that forced thousands of its young citizens to emigrate from the country.

In a BBC documentary, called the Death of Yugoslavia, and later in his testimony before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia during the trial of Slobodan Milošević, Yugoslav official Borisav Jović revealed that the Bosnian Serb army arose from the Yugoslav army forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He claimed that he had realized that Bosnia and Herzegovina was about to be recognized by the international community, and since Yugoslav People's Army troops were still located there at that point, their presence on Bosnian territory could have led to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia being accused of aggression. To avoid this, he and Milošević decided to move all JNA soldiers originating from Serbia and Montenegro back into Serbia and Montenegro, and to move all JNA soldiers originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this way, every Bosnian Serb was transferred from the Yugoslav army to what became the newly created Bosnian Serb Army. Through this, the Bosnian Serb army also received extensive military equipment and full funding from the FRY, as the Bosnian Serb faction alone could not pay for the costs. Furthermore, Serbian Radical Party founder and paramilitary Vojislav Seselj has publicly claimed that Serbian President Milošević personally asked him to send paramilitaries from Serbia into Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also the Bosnian Serb Army was led by an ex-Yugoslav military commander, Ratko Mladić, an extremely controversial figure, who served the Yugoslav during the Croatian War of 1991 to 1992, who has been accused of committing war crimes in Bosnia.

In 1995, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević represented the FRY and Bosnian Serbs at peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, USA, which negotiated the end of war in Bosnia with the Dayton Agreement.

Growing Separatism

From 1996, Montenegro began to sever economic ties with Serbia as it formed a new economic policy and adopted the Deutsche Mark as its currency. Subsequent governments of Montenegro carried out pro-independence policies, and political tensions with Serbia simmered despite political changes in Belgrade. Also, separatist Albanian paramilitaries began steady escalation of violence in 1998. Ethnic Albanians reacted on the suppression and genocidal moves of Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces (VJ and other paramilitary forces). The question whether the Federal Yugoslav state would continue to exist became a very serious issue to the government.

Kosovo War

With Milošević's second and last legal term as Serbian President expiring in 1997, he ran for, and was elected President of Yugoslavia in 1997. Upon taking office, Milošević gained direct control of the Yugoslav military and security forces, and directed them to engage Kosovo separatists. The conflict escalated from 1998 to 1999 and became a civil war, known as the Kosovo War.

From March 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) under the leadership of the United States waged war on Yugoslavia. NATO suspected that the Yugoslav government was committing genocide on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. This suspicion was based on the presence of Serbian ultra-nationalist and former paramilitary Vojislav Šešelj being Prime Minister of Yugoslavia; a fear of a repeat of atrocities similar to those committed by Serb forces in Bosnia; and suspicion of Milošević's influence in the previous war atrocities. NATO began an air campaign called Operation Allied Force against Yugoslav military forces and positions and suspected Serbian paramilitaries. The NATO campaign came under severe criticism for its attacks and many inaccurate bombings across Yugoslavia which killed many civilians. The Yugoslav government claimed the NATO attacks were a terror campaign against the country while NATO defended its actions as being legal. The air attacks against Belgrade by NATO were the first attacks on the city since World War II. Some of the worst massacres against civilian Albanians by Serbian forces occurred after NATO started its bombing of Yugoslavia. Cuska massacre, Podujevo massacre, were some of the massacres committed by the Serbian police and paramilitaries during the war. NATO promised to end its bombings of Yugoslavia, when Milošević agreed to end the Yugoslav campaign in Kosovo, withdraw Yugoslav & Serb security forces from the province. After an array of bombings, Milošević submitted and agreed to end Yugoslavia's anti-separatist campaign in Kosovo and allowed NATO forces to occupy Kosovo.

In June 1999, after the NATO bombings ended, NATO and other troops, entered the province and organized with the controversial Albanian separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) paramilitaries, to maintain order. NATO's decision to cooperate with the Kosovo Liberation Army was seen by Serbs as a pro-separatist stand on Kosovo. The KLA committed a number of atrocities during the Kosovo War. Before the handover of power, some 300,000 Kosovars, mostly Serbs, left the province, many had been expelled by the Albanians. The number of Serbs in Kosovo dropped drastically as Serbs fled Kosovo, fearing persecution by the KLA which had integrated into the Kosovo security force called KFOR. Despite the controversy, the United Nations proceeded to created a mandate in Kosovo, in which the province technically remained a part of Serbia (or the FRY as it was then), but was completely autonomous. The status of Kosovo was now greater than it had been between 1974 and 1990 when it was at its strongest; the province followed Montenegro in rejecting the Yugoslav/Serbian Dinar in place of the international currencies, and went even further: Kosovo's parliament created new car registration plates for its citizens, unlike Montenegro which continues to use the old FYR type licence plates two years after independence. Kosovo was sanctioned to deploy its own law enforcement, its own government, whilst all Yugoslav security forces (i.e. the military, police, militias and paramilitaries) were repelled from entering the region, breeching conditions which did allow a presence of Belgrade forces within Kosovo to protect objects of interest to the Serbs and the various other nationalities (such as the Orthodox monasteries, and the Catholic churches used by Kosovo's ethnic Croats). The U.N. mandate would remain in place for the full duration of the FYR and beyond; it continues to guarantee Kosovo's independence today.

State Union

In 2002, Serbia and Montenegro came to a new agreement regarding continued co-operation, which, among other changes, promised the end of the name Yugoslavia, since they were part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 4 February 2003, the federal parliament of Yugoslavia created a loose confederation - State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. A new Constitutional Charter was agreed to provide a framework for the governance of the country.

On Sunday, 21 May 2006, Montenegrins voted on an independence referendum, with 55.5% supporting independence. Fifty-five percent or more of affirmative votes were needed to dissolve the state union of Serbia and Montenegro. The turnout was 86.3% and 99.73% of the more than 477,000 votes cast were deemed valid.

The subsequent Montenegrin proclamation of independence on June 2006 and the Serbian proclamation of independence on 5 June ended the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and thus the last remaining vestiges of the former Yugoslavia.

Administrative divisions

Serbia and Montenegro was composed of four principal political units, consisting of two republics and two subordinate autonomous provinces:

• Republic of Serbia (capital: Belgrade)

• Vojvodina – autonomous province within Serbia (capital: Novi Sad)
• Kosovo and Metohija – autonomous province within Serbia. Under United Nations administration after Kosovo War (capital: Priština)

• Republic of Montenegro (capital: Podgorica)

Serbia

The territorial organization of the Republic of Serbia was regulated by the Law on Territorial Organization and Local Self-Government, adopted in the Assembly of Serbia on 24 July 1991. Under the Law, the municipalities, cities and settlements make the bases of the territorial organization.

Serbia was divided into 195 municipalities and 4 cities, which were the basic units of local autonomy. It had two autonomous provinces: Kosovo and Metohija in the south (with 30 municipalities), which was under the administration of UNMIK after 1999, and Vojvodina in the north (with 46 municipalities and 1 city). The part of Serbia that was neither in Kosovo nor in Vojvodina was called Central Serbia. Central Serbia was not an administrative division (unlike the two autonomous provinces), and it had no regional government of its own.

In addition, there were four cities: Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, each having an assembly and budget of its own. The cities comprised several municipalities, divided into "urban" (in the city proper) and "other" (suburban). Competences of cities and their municipalities were divided.

Municipalities were gathered into districts, which are regional centres of state authority, but have no assemblies of their own; they present purely administrative divisions, and host various state institutions such as funds, office branches and courts. The Republic of Serbia was than and is still today divided into 29 districts (17 in Central Serbia, 7 in Vojvodina and 5 in Kosovo, which are now defunct), while the city of Belgrade presents a district of its own.

Montenegro

Montenegro had 21 municipalities, and two urban municipalities, subdivisions of Podgorica municipality.

Politics

The Federal Assembly of FRY (1992–2003) was composed out of two chambers: the council of citizens and the council of republics. Whereas the council of citizens served as an ordinary assembly, representing the people of FRY, the council of republics was made equally by representatives from the federation's constituent republics, to ensure federal equality.

Under the FRY, the old collective presidency of the SFRY was dissolved and a single president was elected. The status of leadership of the Federal Yugoslav president was unstable with no president lasting more than four years in office. The first president from 1992 to 1993 was Dobrica Ćosić, a former communist Yugoslav partisan during World War II and later one of the writers of the controversial Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Despite being head of the country, Ćosić was forced out of office in 1993 due to his opposition to Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. Ćosić was replaced by Zoran Lilić who served from 1993 to 1997, and then followed by Milošević becoming Yugoslav President in 1997 after his last legal term as Serbian president ended in 1997. The presidential election in 2000 was accused of being the result of vote fraud. Yugoslav citizens took to the streets and engaged in riots in Belgrade demanding that Milošević be removed from power. Shortly afterwards Milošević resigned and Vojislav Koštunica took over as Yugoslav president and remained president until the state's reconstitution as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

After the federation was reconstituted as a state union, the new Assembly of the State Union was created. It was unicameral and was made up of 126 deputies, of which 91 were from Serbia and 35 were from Montenegro. The Assembly convened in the building of the old Federal Assembly of FRY, which now houses the Assembly of Serbia

In 2003, after the constitutional changes, new President of Serbia and Montenegro was elected. It was Svetozar Marović of Montenegro who remained in office until the breakup of the state union in 2006.

Geography

Serbia and Montenegro had an area of 102,350 square kilometres (39,518 sq mi), with 199 kilometres (124 mi) of coastline. The terrain of the two republics is extremely varied, with much of Serbia comprising plains and low hills (except in the more mountainous region of Kosovo and Metohija) and much of Montenegro consisting of high mountains. Serbia is entirely landlocked, with the coastline belonging to Montenegro. The climate is similarly varied. The north has a continental climate (cold winters and hot summers); the central region has a combination of a continental and Mediterranean climate; the southern region had an Adriatic climate along the coast, with inland regions experiencing hot, dry summers and autumns and relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall inland.

Belgrade, with its population of 1,574,050, is the largest city in the two nations: and the only one of significant size. The country's other principal cities were Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, Podgorica, Subotica, Pristina, and Prizren, each with populations of about 100,000-250,000 people.

Demographics

Serbia and Montenegro had more demographic variety than most other European countries. The three largest named nationalities were Serbs (62.3%), Albanians (mostly Ghegs) (16.6%) and Montenegrins (5%) according to the 1991 census. The country also had significant populations of Hungarians, Roma, Bulgarians, Ethnic Macedonians, Romanians and other eastern Romance peoples (including Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Vlachs), plus dozens of other Slavic peoples, namely Bosniaks, Croats, Bunjevci, Šokci, Goranci, Janjevci, Rusins, Slovaks, Muslims by nationality and Yugoslavs. Turkic subgroups still live in Kosovo (mostly Gagauz and Seljuks). There were a number of citizens who declared their nationality as Egyptian and Ashkali. These two were previously regarded as a part of Roma who are of the belief that they originated from present-day Egypt and Israel. Most of the ethnic diversity was situated in the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina, where smaller numbers of other minority groups may have be found. The large Albanian population was chiefly concentrated in Kosovo, with smaller populations in the Preševo and Bujanovac municipalities in Central Serbia, and in the south-east of Montenegro ( Ulcinj municipality). The large Bosniak and Montenegrin Muslim population lived in the Sandžak region on the border between Serbia and Montenegro.

Total Serbia-Montenegro - 10,019,657

• Serbia (total): 9,396,411
  • Vojvodina: 2,116,725
  • Central Serbia: 5,479,686
  • Kosovo: 1,800,000
• Montenegro: 623,246

• Major cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) - 2002 data (2003 for Podgorica):
  • Beograd (Belgrade): 1,280,639 (1,574,050 metro)
  • Novi Sad: 215,600 (298,139 metro)
  • Pristina: 200,000 (2002 estimation)
  • Niš: 173,390 (234,863 metro)
  • Kragujevac: 145,890 (175,182 metro)
  • Podgorica: 139,500 (169,000 metro)
  • Prizren: 121,000 (2002 estimation)
  • Subotica: 99,471 (147,758 metro)

According to an estimate from 2004, the State Union had 10,825,900 inhabitants.

According to a July 2006 estimate, the State Union had 10,832,545 inhabitants.

Economy

FR Yugoslavia

The FR Yugoslavia suffered significantly economically due to the loss of previous territories of the SFRY to the seceding states and due to mismanagement of the economy, and an extended period of economic sanctions. In the early 1990s, the FRY suffered from hyperinflation of the Yugoslav dinar. By the mid 1990s, the FRY had overcome the inflation. Further damage to Yugoslavia's infrastructure and industry caused by the Kosovo War left the economy only half the size it was in 1990. Since the ousting of former Federal Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition government has implemented stabilization measures and embarked on an aggressive market reform program. After renewing its membership in the International Monetary Fund in December 2000, Yugoslavia continued to reintegrate with other world nations by rejoining the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The smaller republic of Montenegro severed its economy from federal control and from Serbia during the Milošević era. Afterwards, the two republics had separate central banks whilst Montenegro began to use different currencies - it first adopted the Deutsch mark, and continued to use it until the mark fell into disuse to be replaced by euro. Serbia continued to use the Yugoslav Dinar, renaming it the Serbian dinar.

The complexity of the FRY's political relationships, slow progress in privatisation, and stagnation in the European economy were detrimental to the economy. Arrangements with the IMF, especially requirements for fiscal discipline, were an important element in policy formation. Severe unemployment was a key political and economic problem. Corruption also presented a major problem, with a large black market and a high degree of criminal involvement in the formal economy.

State Union

An extended period of economic sanctions, and the damage to FR Yugoslavia's infrastructure and industry caused by the Kosovo War left the economy only half the size it was in 1990. Since the ousting of former Federal Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition government has implemented stabilization measures and embarked on an aggressive market reform program. After renewing its membership in the International Monetary Fund in December 2000, Yugoslavia continued to reintegrate into the international community by rejoining the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. A World Bank- European Commission sponsored Donors' Conference held in June 2001 raised $1.3 billion for economic restructuring. An agreement rescheduling the country's $4.5 billion Paris Club government debts was concluded in November 2001; it will write off 66% of the debt; a similar debt relief agreement on its $2.8 billion London Club commercial debt has been reached in July 2004; 62% of the debt had been written off.

The smaller republic of Montenegro severed its economy from federal control and from Serbia during the Milošević era. During the Serbia and Montenegro period, both republics had separate central banks, different currencies - Montenegro first used the Deutsche Mark, then the euro when it replaced the Deutsch Mark, while Serbia used the Serbian dinar as official currency. The two states also had different customs tariffs, separate state budgets, police forces, and governments.

The southern Serbian province of Kosovo, while formally still part of Serbia (according to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244), moved toward local autonomy under the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo ( UNMIK) and was dependent on the international community for financial and technical assistance. The euro and the Yugoslav dinar were official currencies, and UNMIK collected taxes and managed the budget.

The complexity of Serbia and Montenegro's political relationships, slow progress in privatisation, and stagnation in the European economy were detrimental to the economy. Arrangements with the IMF, especially requirements for fiscal discipline, were an important element in policy formation. Severe unemployment was a key political economic problem. Corruption also presented a major problem, with a large black market and a high degree of criminal involvement in the formal economy.

Transport

Serbia, and in particular the valley of the Morava is often described as "the crossroads between the East and the West" - one of the primary reasons for its turbulent history. The valley is by far the easiest way of land travel from continental Europe to Greece and Asia Minor.

Until the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars, the ironically named highway "Bratstvo i jedinstvo" (Brotherhood and Unity) running through Croatia, Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia was one of Europe's most important transport arteries. It gradually resumed this role as the security situation stabilized.

Major international highways going through Serbia are E75 and E70. E763/ E761 is the most important route connecting Serbia with Montenegro.

The Danube, an important international waterway, flows through Serbia.

The Port of Bar was the largest seaport located in Montenegro.

Holidays

Holidays

Date	Name	Notes
1 January	New Year's Day	(non-working holiday)
7 January	Orthodox Christmas	(non-working)
27 January	Saint Sava's feast Day — Day of Spirituality
27 April	Constitution Day
29 April	Orthodox Good Friday	Date for 2005 only
1 May	Orthodox Easter	Date for 2005 only
2 May	Orthodox Easter Monday	Date for 2005 only
1 May	Labour Day	(non-working)
9 May	Victory Day
28 June	Vidovdan ( Martyr's Day)	In memory of soldiers fallen at the Battle of Kosovo

Holidays celebrated only in Serbia

• 15 February - Sretenje ( National Day, non-working)

Holidays celebrated only in Montenegro

• 13 July - Statehood Day (non-working)

Proposed flag and anthem

After the formation of Serbia and Montenegro, the Yugoslav tricolour was to be replaced by a new compromise flag. Article 23 of the Law for the implementation of the Constitutional Charter stated that a law specifying the new flag was to be passed within 60 days of the first session of the new joint parliament. Among the flag proposals, the popular choice was a flag with a shade of blue in between the Serbian tricolour and the Montenegrin tricolour of 1993-2004. The colour shade Pantone 300 C was perceived as the best choice. However the parliament failed to vote on the proposal within the legal time-frame and the flag was not adopted. In 2004, Montenegro adopted a radically different flag, as its independence-leaning government sought to distance itself from Serbia. Proposals for a compromise flag were dropped after this and the Union of Serbia & Montenegro never adopted a flag.

A similar fate befell the country's anthem and coat-of-arms to be; the above-mentioned Article 23 also stipulated that a law determining the State Union's flag and anthem was to be passed by the end of 2003. The official proposal for an anthem was a combination piece consisting of one verse of the Serbian anthem " Bože pravde" followed by a verse of the Montenegrin anthem, " Oj, svijetla majska zoro". This proposal was dropped after some public opposition, notably by Serbian Patriarch Pavle. Another legal deadline passed and no anthem was adopted. Serious proposals for the coat of arms were never put forward, probably because the coat of arms of the FRY, adopted in 1994 combining Serbian and Montenegrin heraldic elements, was considered adequate.

Thus, the State Union never officially adopted state symbols and continued to use the flag, arms and anthem of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by inertia until its dissolution in 2006.

Sports and contests

The country was represented at the 1998 FIFA World Cup as Yugoslavia, playing under the latter name despite the fact that Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina had separate football teams by this point, and the Croatian team also participated in the same tournament. The country was also represented as Yugoslavia at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Thus, throughout the 1990s, athletic teams from the country competed under the Yugoslavia name but were composed entirely of Serbian and Montenegrin athletes.

Serbia and Montenegro were represented by a single football team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament, despite having formally split just weeks prior to its start. The final squad was made up of players born in both Serbia and Montenegro.

They played their last ever international on 21 June 2006, a 3-2 loss to Côte d'Ivoire. Following the World Cup, this team has been inherited by Serbia, while a new one was to be organized to represent Montenegro in future international competitions.

They were represented by a single team in the Basketball World Championship 2006 as well. This team was also inherited by Serbia after the tournament, while Montenegro created a separate national basketball team afterwards, as well as the national teams of all other team sports.

The two countries were represented in the Miss Earth 2006 pageant by a single delegate, Dubravka Skoric. It is unknown if the two countries would field two different candidates in the pageant's succeeding editions.