Civil Vojvodina: 35 Years Ago the Destruction of Yugoslavia Began in Novi Sad

Novi Sad, Serbia (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

The Civil Vojvodina NGO coalition recalled on Oct. 5 that, 35 years ago, the regime of Slobodan Milosevic did away with Vojvodina's autonomy in an anti-constitutional way in a violent street coup and that on that day the destruction of Yugoslavia began and that the result was a "materialistically and morally ruined" Vojvodina.

"It soon became clear that Vojvodina was only the first victim of Serbia's imperialistic policy, because the coup d'etat to Yugoslavia was dealt in this object lesson. By completely divesting Vojvodina of its autonomy, followed by Kosovo and its autonomy, Slobodan Milosevic continued to impose his will on the other republics, which led to the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia," the Civil Vojvodina said.

It added that the "trampling" of Vojvodina's autonomy was made official in Serbia's 1990 Constitution and that after that Vojvodina no longer had a single functional prerogative. "The 1990 Serbian Constitution was, however, the first secessionist constitution in Yugoslavia,"  the Civil Vojvodina said.

It added that Vojvodina, but also the larger share of the post-Yugoslav space, was still living with the consequences of Serbia's "hegemonistic policy," still dominant in the public sphere, as one could see in its attitude toward Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo as well as the "Serbinization of Vojvodina," whose multiculturalism had no perspective in the nationalistic and centralized state of Serbia.