The European Exception: Civil-Military Relations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

Abstract

On 5 October 2000, the first rays of democratic change came to Serbia, around a decade after the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The decisive elements in the revolution that removed Slobodan Milosevic from office as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro — FRY) and from power were the will of the people on the streets and the changing of the guard. The latter was crucial. This was not a change of personnel in the guard. It was a change of that which they were guarding. Both the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Interior Ministry Forces had received orders and had been mobilized to use force against the protesting Serbian people and to protect Milosevic, who, against all assumptions, had lost the elections he had called as a precursor to launching an attack against Montenegro. Instead, both forces protected themselves and the people. The army’s Chief of Staff, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, previously regarded as a pro-Milosevic hardliner, went to Milosevic with a squad of special forces soldiers and told him to get out of office. This was the remarkable civil-military transformation that brought to an end a decade in which Milosevic had repeatedly sent his various armed forces into generally losing battles. It was the culmination of something that can be described as the ‘European exception’.