Serbia’s Sandžak Under Milošević: Identity, Nationalism and Survival

Abstract

Sandžak has the largest Muslim Slav (Bosniak) community in the Balkans outside Bosnia–Herzegovina. In 1990, Sandžak Bosniaks organized a branch of the Party of Democratic Action (Alija Izetbegovic’s party) and began to agitate for regional autonomy. During the 1990s under Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, local Bosniaks became the victims of state terror that saw widespread official discrimination and the ethnic cleansing of entire villages. In spite of having a high birth rate, the Bosniak population of Sandžak declined by 7.88% in the years 1991–2002 entirely because of the Milosevic regime’s policies. Since the overthrow of Milosevic, however, the Belgrade government has begun investing in the region’s infrastructure and economy. As a result, the situation for Bosniaks of Sandžak has improved since 2001.