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Momčilo Stanojević

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Momčilo Stanojević (Serbian Cyrillic: Момчило Станојевић; born 1958) is a Kosovo Serb former politician. He served as mayor of Đakovica in the late 1990s and was a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 1997 to 2001. For most of his time in public life, Stanojević was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

Private career

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Stanojević was born to a prominent local family in Đakovica.[1] He is a graduated engineer.[2]

Politician

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Mayor of Đakovica (1996–99)

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The Socialist Party of Serbia won a landslide victory in Đakovica in the 1996 Serbian local elections, and Stanojević was chosen afterward as mayor of the municipality.[3][4] Relations between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo were generally poor in this period, and most members of the Albanian community were boycotting Serbia's political institutions in favour of their own parallel structures.

The militant Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was particularly active in Đakovica during the 1998–99 Kosovo War. In August 1998, Stanojević said that Serbs and Montenegrins in the area fully supported what he described as "the uncompromising fight against ethnic Albanian terrorism" by the Yugoslav Army and state security. He also said the KLA was losing support in the Albanian community and that many Albanians were requesting foodstuffs from state-owned shops due to exorbitant prices charged by KLA-aligned salesmen.[5] In December 1998, Stanojević said that the KLA had killed one ethnic Albanian police officer working in the municipality and injured another.[6] Đakovica was targeted in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and Stanojević reported significant civilians casualties after one such attack in March 1999.[7]

Human Rights Watch documented a pattern of state violence against ethnic Albanians in Đakovica during the Kosovo War and argued that all evidence pointed to close cooperation between various levels of the Serbian state apparatus. A witness was reported to have asked Stanojević, "What are you doing? Don't you want to live here after this?" Stanojević was, in this recounting of events, said to have responded that his orders were "coming from above."[8]

At Slobodan Milošević's trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), an ethnic Albanian witness from Đakovica – who was testifying in support of Milošević – said that he and other Albanians had participated in Stanojević's municipal security forces. The witness defended the Serbian state's actions against what he described as the "terrorist" KLA.[9]

Virtually all of Đakovica's significant Serb community, including Stanojević, fled the area at the end of the Kosovo War in June 1999, when KLA forces took control of the community. An article in The Times from this period referred to Stanojević as "a lackey of the Milošević regime" and noted (disapprovingly) that he had built a new Serbian Orthodox church during his mayoral term with municipal funds provided mostly by the majority Albanian community.[10]

Stanojević was for time placed on a list of persons who could not obtain visas for European Union (EU) countries. This occurred during a period of broader sanctions against Milošević's government.[11]

Parliamentarian (1997–2001)

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Stanojević appeared in the third position on the Socialist Party's electoral list for the Peć division in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election.[12] From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, with the remaining two-thirds distributed to other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions.[13] Stanojević was automatically elected when the list won twelve seats in the division.[14][15][16] The Socialist Party won the election and afterward formed a coalition government with the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and the Yugoslav Left (JUL), and Stanojević served as a government supporter.

SPS leader Slobodan Milošević fell from power in October 2000, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was held in December of that year. Prior to the election, Stanojević left the SPS and joined Zoran Lilić's breakaway Serbian Social Democratic Party (SSDP). Serbia's electoral system was reformed prior to the election, such that the entire country became a single electoral division.[17] The SSDP did not cross the electoral threshold to win representation in the assembly, and Stanojević's term ended when the new assembly convened in January 2001.

After the Kosovo War, it was reported that Stanojević was building a villa with apartments in Bar, Montenegro.[18]

References

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  1. ^ Tom Walker, "Mayor accused of ruling over town's devastation - Balkans War - Serb Refugees," The Times, 18 June 1999, p. 15.
  2. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (29 Пећ), Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.
  3. ^ Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 19, 90.
  4. ^ Council Decision amending Decision 1999/319/CFSP implementing Common Position 1999/318/CFSP concerning additional restrictive measures against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Council of the European Union (made available via EU monitor), 30 May 2000, accessed 24 March 2024.
  5. ^ "SERBS, MONTENEGRINS SUPPORT SECURITY FORCES * DJAKOVICA OFFICIAL", Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-08-12, accessed 26 March 2024.
  6. ^ "One ethnic Albanian reported killed, one injured by rebels in Kosovo," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 11 December 1998 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 2008 gmt 11 Dec 98).
  7. ^ "'Considerable number' said killed in NATO attack on Djakovica," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 27 March 1999 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1115 gmt 27 Mar 99).
  8. ^ Djakovica (Gjakove) Municipality, Human Rights Watch Reports, 2001, accessed 26 March 2024.
  9. ^ Trial of Slobodan Milošević – Wednesday, 17 August 2005, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, accessed 26 March 2024.
  10. ^ Tom Walker, "Mayor accused of ruling over town's devastation - Balkans War - Serb Refugees," The Times, 18 June 1999, p. 15.
  11. ^ "Prosireni spisak lica koja ne mogu dobiti vize za zemlje EU", B92, 1 March 2000, accessed 25 March 2024.
  12. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (29 Пећ), Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.
  13. ^ Guide to the Early Election Archived 16 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017.
  14. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године (Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997.) године, Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.
  15. ^ PRVA SEDNICA, 03.12.1997., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 23 August 2023.
  16. ^ SKUPŠTINA SRBIJE - 250 mesta, Archived 2001-02-04 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 2 August 2023.
  17. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (8 Српска социјал-демократска партија – Зоран Лилић), Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 11 February 2024.
  18. ^ Aleksandar Rajević, "Svedočanstvo s Kosova", Vreme, 21 June 2001, accessed 27 March 2004.
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