Vojvodina ‐ the next stage of the dismantling process?

Abstract

As of spring 1999, the only remaining multi‐ethnic region of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) inhabited by a substantial Serb population that had escaped large‐scale, bloody inter‐ethnic clashes and massive violations of human rights has been Vojvodina. The national question and the pro‐autonomy movement are potential sources of secession in Vojvodina. However, the Serbian demographic domination in most of the territory of Vojvodina, the moderate, compromise‐oriented, and fractured political parties of national minorities, the lowland mentality and inter‐ethnic tolerance of the native population, and the lack of serious coercion of national minorities make the risks of spontaneous eruption of inter‐ethnic conflicts relatively small. However, external factors such as the secession from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) of Montenegro and/or Kosovo and NATO military intervention in the FRY may result in serious assaults on minorities and conflict in Vojvodina.