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Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević

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Bulldozer Revolution
Part of the Yugoslav Wars and the Colour revolutions

Top: Map of significant buildings during the protests
Bottom: Protesters at the House of the Federal Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as it was on fire
Date29 September – 5 October 2000 (2000-09-29 – 2000-10-05)
(6 days)
Location
Serbia, FR Yugoslavia
Caused by
Goals
Methods
Resulted inDOS victory
Parties

Anti-government protesters led by Democratic Opposition of Serbia

Civic organizations:

Supported by:
Government of Montenegro
 United States[8][9][10]
Lead figures
Number
Hundreds of thousands[11]
Unknown number of policemen
Casualties
Death(s)2 (non-violent)[11]
Injuries65[11]
This article is part of
a series about
Slobodan Milošević

President of Serbia and Yugoslavia

Elections

Family

Slobodan Milošević's signature

The Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević began in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the general election on 24 September 2000 and culminated in the downfall of Slobodan Milošević's government on 5 October 2000. As such, it is commonly referred to as the 5 October Revolution (Serbian: Петооктобарска револуција, Petooktobarska revolucija) or colloquially the Bulldozer Revolution[a] (Serbian: Багер револуција, Bager revolucija), after one of the most memorable episodes from the day-long protest in which a heavy equipment operator charged the Radio Television of Serbia building, considered to be symbolic of the Milošević regime's propaganda.

Prelude

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Milošević's rule has been described by observers as authoritarian or autocratic, as well as kleptocratic, with numerous accusations of electoral fraud, political assassinations, suppression of media freedom and police brutality.[12][13][14][15] He became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.[16] His role in the Yugoslav Wars led to international sanctions against Yugoslavia, which had a devastating impact on the Yugoslav economy and society, while NATO bombing significantly damaged the country's infrastructure.[17][18] While the overthrow of Milošević was reported as a spontaneous revolution, there had been a year-long battle involving thousands of Serbs in a strategy to strip the leader of his legitimacy, turn his security forces against him, and force him to call for elections, the result of which he would not acknowledge.[19]

In 1998, a dozen students met to form Otpor! (Serbian for "resistance"). Analysing the mistakes of the 1996–97 protests, they realised they needed more effective organisation, strategy, planning, recruiting, and everything necessary for a sustained fight. Galvanised by outrage over new laws that imposed political control of their universities and harassment of independent media, the Otpor students called for the removal of Milošević and the establishment of democracy and the rule of law.[19][20]

Prior to this, Milošević was cracking down on opposition, non-government organisations and independent media. From 1991 onwards there were campaigns of civil resistance against his administration that were to culminate in the largely non-violent revolution of October 2000.[21] As the end of his first term in office of the president of Yugoslavia approached (previously, he had been elected president of Serbia, in two terms, from 1989 to 1997), on 6 July 2000, the rules of the election of the president were changed. Whilst the president of Yugoslavia had previously been chosen for one term only by the legislature, in the Yugoslav parliament, it was now to be directly elected via the two-round voting system of presidential elections with a maximum of two terms.[22] Many onlookers believed that Milošević's intentions for supporting such reforms had more to do with holding power than with improving democracy.[23] On 27 July 2000, the authorities announced that the early elections were to be held 24 September 2000, although Milošević's term wouldn't expire until 23 July 2001. The elections for the upper house of the federal parliament, Council of Citizens (Veće građana), as well as the local elections were also scheduled to be held on the same date.[24]

On 25 August 2000, Ivan Stambolić, a former mentor and political ally of Milošević, was mysteriously kidnapped and detained from his home and was summarily executed in Fruška Gora. The hit was believed to have been initiated by Milošević so he could prevent Stambolić from being a potential electoral opponent. His decomposed body was found three years later in March 2003.[25][26] The four officers who had kidnapped him were sentenced. Milošević was charged for initiating the assassination.[27][28]

Soon after the announcement, the anti-government youth movement Otpor! led the campaign to topple the administration and introduce a transparent democracy. To unify opposition, eighteen parties in Serbia formed the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition, with Vojislav Koštunica as the candidate to confront Milošević. Apart from this, two major opposition parties, Serbian Radical Party and Serbian Renewal Movement also had candidates (Tomislav Nikolić and Vojislav Mihailović, respectively), but the main battle of the elections was the one between Milošević and Koštunica. The election campaign lasted for about two months and was extremely tense, with numerous incidents, accusations of treason, independent media shutdowns and even murders.[citation needed]

Elections

[edit]
Main article: 2000 Yugoslavian general election

The vote took place on 24 September 2000. The DOS coalition reported that Vojislav Koštunica won over half of the votes, enough to defeat Milošević in a single round. The government-controlled Federal Electoral Committee claimed that no candidate won over 50% of the votes and that a second round between Koštunica and Milošević would take place.[29] The vote was largely boycotted in Montenegro and by Kosovo Albanians (not under Yugoslav control). Yet, Milošević officially won by a large margin in these parts of the country.[citation needed] These unexpected results provoked stronger accusations of election fraud and led DOS to call for peaceful protests to topple the government.[30]

Some obvious irregularities could be found in the Federal Electoral Committee official results. For example, the sum of the numbers of valid and invalid votes was not equal to the number of voters; the sum of the numbers of the voters voting at the polling stations and the voters voting at home exceeded the total number of voters; the sum of the numbers of the used and the unused ballot papers was short by 117,244 in comparison to the number of eligible voters, the number of eligible voters was different from the one announced before the elections and has differed in the presidential, federal and local elections results.[31]

All of these discrepancies provoked massive outrage.[32] The results were declared false immediately after Milošević was removed, and revised official results were released shortly afterwards. The new results were practically the same, except for the number of total votes and the votes for Milošević, both of which were lower by 125,000–130,000 votes, thus giving Koštunica an absolute, if narrow, first-round victory; Koštunica finished with just 11,843 votes over the threshold to avoid a runoff (4,916,920 voters cast their votes, so 2,458,461 votes were needed for a "50% of turnout + 1 vote" first round victory; Koštunica got 2,470,304 votes[33]).

Differences between the official results proclaimed
by Federal Electoral Committee before and after 5 October
Candidate Nominator Official results
(28 September 2000)[34] 		Official results
(10 October 2000)[35]
Votes % Votes %
Vojislav Koštunica Democratic Opposition of Serbia 2,474,392 48.96% 2,470,304 50.24%
Slobodan Milošević SPS–JUL–SNP 1,951,761 38.62% 1,826,799 37.15%
Tomislav Nikolić Serbian Radical Party 292,759 5.79% 289,013 5.88%
Vojislav Mihailović Serbian Renewal Movement 146,585 2.90% 145,019 2.95%
Miodrag Vidojković Affirmative Party 46,421 0.92% 45,964 0.93%
Total valid votes (percentage of total votes) 4,911,918 97.20% 4,778,929 97.19%
Invalid votes (percentage of total votes) 135,371 2.68% 137,991 2.81%
Total votes (turnout) 5,053,428 69.70% 4,916,920 71.55%
Eligible voters 7,249,831   6,871,595  
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Protests and overthrow

[edit]

The protests initially started with strikers at the Kolubara mines on 29 September, which produced most of Serbia's electricity.[36] The protest reached its height on 5 October 2000. Several hundred thousand protesters from all over Serbia arrived in Belgrade to protest, chanting "Gotov je!" ("He's finished!")[37][10] Unlike previous protests, there was no large scale police crackdown. The parliament was partially burned during the protests.[38]

Ljubisav Đokić[b] (1943-2020) was a wheel loader operator who became the main symbol of the overthrow.[39] Đokić turned on his wheel loader and filled a public broadcaster building in Belgrade with it. The loader served as a kind of elevator and bullet protection. Đokić had a spinal deformity and at the time he was a timber yard and construction material warehouse owner.

The building's tenant, Serbian state television RTS, had for a decade been a symbol and bastion of Milošević's rule. When their studios were taken over, the station was quickly renamed Novi RTS ("New RTS") as a sign that the regime had lost power.[40]

Although the protest was mostly peaceful, without a larger escalation of violence, 65 people were injured in the riots[11] and two people died:

  • Jasmina Jovanović fell under a wheel loader[41] or, according to other sources, a truck.[11]
  • Momčilo Stakić succumbed to a fatal heart attack.[42]

In the time between elections and the protest, Milošević said that he would gladly resign but only when his term expired in June 2001. Due to pressure caused by the protests, Milošević resigned on 5 October 2000.

U.S. involvement in the revolution

[edit]

For a year leading up to the elections, the United States-funded consultants played a crucial role in the anti-Milošević campaign.[9] The key symbol of the campaign was the slogan Gotov je! (Serbian Cyrillic: Готов је!, meaning "He is finished!"), created by Otpor!. Part of the U.S. funding of the opposition (a reported $41 million) included 2.5 million stickers with the slogan and 5,000 spray cans for anti-Milošević graffiti.[9] Material was channeled by the U.S. Department of State through QUANGOs.[8][9][10] In the months leading up to the election, the National Endowment for Democracy provided funding to opposition parties and media, unions and student groups, with Otpor! being the largest beneficiary.[43]

Slobodan Homen, head of international affairs at Otpor, recalled how Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at a June 2000 meeting in Berlin that she wanted to see Milošević removed from power.[44] Homen also met at the U.S. Embassy in Hungary with former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia William Dale Montgomery.[44] According to Montgomery, "Milošević was personal for Madeleine Albright, a very high priority."[44] He added: "She wanted him gone, and Otpor was ready to stand up to the regime with a vigor and in a way that others were not. Seldom has so much fire, energy, enthusiasm, money — everything — gone into anything as into Serbia in the months before Milošević went".[44]

The International Republican Institute trained 400 activists outside the country, who returned to Serbia and trained another 15,000 people to observe polling stations inside the country.[9] On election day, the opposition was able to get a minimum of two trained observers to each polling station in Serbia.[9] Each observer's participation was paid at $5 - money provided by the West (in 2000, the average monthly salary in the country was $30).[9] Researcher David Shimer wrote that most Serbs did not realize that the U.S. was directing the opposition's electoral strategy and funding the creation and distribution of campaign materials, although this was no secret.[45]

Among other things, U.S. President Bill Clinton instructed the CIA to direct efforts to prevent the Serbian leader from winning the presidential election.[45] According to the American president, "There’s a death threshold, and Milošević crossed it."[45] Vince Houghton, who later became historian of the International Spy Museum, said the U.S. had no intention of allowing Milošević to remain in power.[10] John Sipher, who became station chief in Serbia immediately after Milosevic's ouster, said the agency spent "certainly millions of dollars" on the campaign against Milošević, organizing meetings with opposition leaders outside the country and "providing them with cash" inside Serbia.[45] Also, he said, "Many of the key players who became senior figures in the follow-on government continued to meet with us and continued to tell us that it was our efforts that led to their success."[45]

CIA Deputy Director John E. McLaughlin noted that "I know stuff about that, but I’m not able to talk about it."[45] Douglas Wise, a CIA official who worked in the Balkans, said Milosevic was a "genocidal maniac"; when asked whether U.S. intelligence supported protests against the Serbian president, he said "It was a broad-spectrum involvement."[45] David Shimer quotes an unnamed senior U.S. administration official in 2000 who took umbrage at the revelations of former U.S. intelligence officers: "I can’t talk about what we did or didn’t do. I’m just not going to talk about it...They may not take their oaths and legal obligations seriously, but I do."[45]

Aftermath

[edit]

A DOS victory was guaranteed in parliamentary elections in December, where they achieved a two-thirds majority. On 1 April 2001, Milošević was detained by Serbian police and later transferred to The Hague to be prosecuted by the ICTY. He died in his cell on 11 March 2006, a few months before the conclusion of his four-year trial.[46][47]

Soon after the overthrow, Ljubisav Đokić started opposing the new government, saying it had done almost nothing to improve the standard of the war-torn country. He even said that during Milošević's regime he was the owner of a company which operated with success, but that post-Milošević politicians made such unhealthy economic conditions, that his business failed and he went bankrupt, even selling his iconic wheel loader and living on 180-euro social benefits.[48] Đokić died 11 July 2020.

The Bulldozer Revolution is thought to have inspired the Georgia's Rose Revolution. Serbia's opposition organisation Otpor has been involved in training students in civil disobedience in Georgia.[49]

See also

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Annotations

[edit]
  1. ^ The protest is frequently named the "Bulldozer Revolution" after one of the most memorable episodes from the day-long protest in which heavy equipment operator Ljubisav Đokić, fired up his machine – actually neither an excavator nor a bulldozer, but rather a wheel loader.
  2. ^ Serbian Cyrillic: Љубисав Ђокић; nicknamed "Džo" ("Џо"), the Serbian phonetical translation of Joe

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Nicović, Boško (4 October 2010). "Hronologija: Od kraja bombardovanja do 5. oktobra". B92.net (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  2. ^ Rowland, Jacky (18 March 2000). "Serbia clamps down on media". BBC News. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  3. ^ "Clashes after Serb media raid". BBC News. 17 May 2000. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  4. ^ a b Webel, Charles; Galtung, Johan (12 March 2017). Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies. Routledge. p. 75. ISBN 9781134154814.
  5. ^ Ash, Timothy Garton (3 November 2000). "Today we will be free or die". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  6. ^ Rennebohm, Max (8 September 2011). "Serbians overthrow Milosevic ("Bulldozer Revolution"), 2000". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  7. ^ a b Three Points. YouTube (video). 1 September 2000. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  8. ^ a b Thompson, Nicholas (9 January 2007). "This ain't your momma's CIA". Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on 9 January 2007.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Dobbs, Michael (11 December 2000). "U.S. advice guided Milosevic opposition". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
  10. ^ a b c d Shane, Scott (17 February 2018). "Russia isn't the only one meddling in elections. We do it, too". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Parties, citizens mark 5 October". B92.net. 5 October 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  12. ^ "Milosevic: Serbia's fallen strongmany". BBC News. 30 March 2001. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  13. ^ Sell, Louis (1999). "Slobodan Milošević: A political biography". Problems of Post-Communism. 46 (6): 12–27. doi:10.1080/10758216.1999.11655857.
  14. ^ Keen, Mike; Mucha, Janusz (2013). Autobiographies of Transformation: Lives in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 176.
  15. ^ Byrne, Richard (2 November 2009). "Balkan bottom line". Foreign Policy.
  16. ^ "Milosevic indictment makes history". CNN. 27 May 1999.
  17. ^ Becker, Richard (2005). "The role of sanctions in the destruction of Yugoslavia (excerpt)". NATO in the Balkans (Report). IA center. Archived from the original on 4 March 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  18. ^ Zunes, Stephen (6 July 2009). "The US war on Yugoslavia: Ten years later". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  19. ^ a b Steve York (April 2003). Bringing Down a Dictator. aforcemorepowerful.org (TV documentary). PBS. Archived from the original on 24 April 2006. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  20. ^ Lakey, George; Marovic, Ivan (22 May 2024). "Overcoming Despair and Apathy to Win Democracy". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  21. ^ Vejvoda, Ivan (2009). "Civil Society vs. Milošević: Serbia, 1991–2000". In Roberts, Adam; Ash, Timothy G. (eds.). Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The experience of non-violent action from Gandhi to the present. Oxford University Press. pp. 295–316. ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6.
  22. ^ Erlanger, Steven (7 July 2000). "Change in Yugoslav Constitution Allows Milosevic to Seek Another Term as President". The New York Times.
  23. ^ "Milosevic: No signs of bowing out". BBC News. 6 July 2000.
  24. ^ "Izbori 24. Septembra". B92. 27 July 2000.
  25. ^ "Detention and Disappearance of Ivan Stambolic". b92.net.
  26. ^ "Ex-Serb president's body found". CNN. 28 March 2003.
  27. ^ "Milosevic charged over killing of rival". Europe. BBC News. 24 April 2003.
  28. ^ "Ulemeku 40 godina, Markoviću 15". B92.net (in Serbian). 18 July 2005.
  29. ^ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives and Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate by the Department of State in Accordance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended, Volume 1. U.S. Government Printing Office. 2001. p. 1952.
  30. ^ Anderson, Gary L.; Herr, Kathryn G., eds. (2007). Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice. SAGE Publications. p. 1277. ISBN 9781452265650.
  31. ^ "OKO IZBORA 4" (PDF). CeSID (in Serbian). 2000. p. 59.
  32. ^ Годишњица Петог октобра. Radio Television of Serbia (in Serbian). 5 October 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  33. ^ "Serbia and Montenegro". Results. ElectionGuide.org.
  34. ^ "Official results of the election". Federal Electoral Committee (in Serbian). Government of Serbia. 28 September 2000.
  35. ^ "Serbia and Montenegro". Results. ElectionGuide.org.
  36. ^ "Neke vođe štrajka nisu bile na proslavi godišnjice". blic.rs. 10 January 2001. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  37. ^ "Serbia as one example of US meddling in foreign elections". 19 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  38. ^ "Yugoslav protesters set parliament on fire". The New York Times. 5 October 2000. p. 1.
  39. ^ "Simbol "oktobarske revolucije", bagerista Ljubisav Đokić Džo za "Glas": Ako ne budu dobri". Glas javnosti. 24 November 2000. (interview)
  40. ^ Radovic, Ivanka (August 2010). Radio-Television of Serbia (1989-2009): The changing role of state TV in a post-communist country. Communication and Information (Master of Science thesis). University of Tennessee.
  41. ^ "Otkriven spomenik Jasmini Jovanović". B92.net (in Serbian). 5 October 2002.
  42. ^ "Momčilo Stakić umro na ulicama Beograda". Glas javnosti (in Serbian). 6 October 2000.
  43. ^ Lamont, Christopher (2013). "Contested Sovereignty: The International Politics of Regime Change in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". In Lane, David; White, Stephen (eds.). Rethinking the 'Coloured Revolutions'. Routledge. ISBN 9781317987147.
  44. ^ a b c d Cohen, Roger (26 November 2000). "Who Really Brought Down Milosevic?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  45. ^ a b c d e f g h Shimer, David (2020). Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference. New York: Knopf. pp. 109–115. ISBN 978-0525659006.
  46. ^ Cohen, Roger (12 March 2006). "To His Death in Jail, Milosevic Exalted Image of Serb Suffering". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  47. ^ Simons, Marlise; Smale, Alison (12 March 2006). "Slobodan Milosevic, 64, Former Yugoslav Leader Accused of War Crimes, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  48. ^ "Šta sada radi Bagerista Džo?". B92.net (in Serbian). 5 October 2012., Љубисав Ђокић (in Serbian (Cyrillic script)).
  49. ^ "Georgian opposition copied Serbs' bloodless revolution". The Independent. 26 November 2003.

Further reading

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