...my own determination to avoid getting into a pissing match with a skunk, I must briefly repudiate these lies. These events were now more than 15 years ago and some of our younger readers could get taken in by Milan's revisionist bullshit. So: By changing the Serbian constitution in defiance of the system created by the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, Milosevic and his nationalist gang gutted both. Under the 1974 constitution, Kosova and Vojvodina were entitled to the same representation in the federal parliament as the six republics; by yanking their autonomy and appropriating their parliamentary votes for Serbia, Milosevic effectively changed the federal constitution. This is openly admitted by the very pro-Serb website History of Kosovo and Metohija, maintained by the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Prizren. (Note to the uninitiated: Metohija is the Serb-majority region of northern Kosova, and refering to the province as "Kosovo and Metohija" is a clear indication of pro-Serb leanings). It writes:

Serbia - the largest of the Yugoslav republics...was already antagonized by the constitutional changes of 1971 and 1974 which had established an asymmetrical relationship between this republic and its two autonomous provinces (Voyvodina and Kosovo and Metohia). Serbia's demands for reform of the Yugoslav Federation were at once countered by Slovenia and then by Croatia... With its constitutional amendments of 1989 and 1990, Serbia did away with the disputed provisions of the 1974 Constitution.

Happy?

Both the de jure changes to the Serbian constitution and the de facto changes to the federal constitution were illegal; Kosova's parliament by the time the changes were voted on was an illegitimate body thanks to the Milosevic-instrumented purge of ethnic Albanian legislators, party leaders and civil servants. It all took place in an atmosphere of terror, with army troops breaking strikes and protests against the changes in Kosova.

By the time of Bosnia's secession in 1992, Bosnian territory had already been used by the Yugoslav National Army to shell the Croatian city of Dubrovnik across the mountain border. This made all too clear that remaining in Yugoslavia at that point (especially following the secession of Croatia and Slovenia) would have meant accepting second-class citizenship, with Serbia holding a decisive parliamentary bloc (in explicit violation of the 1974 constitution), as well as virtual military occupation.

Other sources which acknowledge that the Serbian constitutional amendments of 1989 also changed the federal constitutional order include:

"Brief History of Yugoslavia,"
at Religious Tolerance

Kosova page, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)

"Kosovo Background" page, Global Security

1998 House Resolution 313 by Rep. Elliot Engels (D-NY), "with respect to self-determination for the people of Kosova"