Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 19,778 (Mauritania)
IDPs: 17,000 (clashes between government troops and separatists in
Casamance region) (2005)
Illicit drugs:
transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and
South American cocaine moving to Europe and North America; illicit
cultivator of cannabis
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006
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@Serbia
Introduction Serbia
Background:
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was formed in 1918; its
name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929. Occupation by Nazi Germany
in 1941 was resisted by various paramilitary bands that fought each
other as well as the invaders. The group headed by Josip TITO took
full control of Yugoslavia upon German expulsion in 1945. Although
Communist, his new government and its successors (he died in 1980)
managed to steer their own path between the Warsaw Pact nations and
the West for the next four and a half decades. In the early 1990s,
post-TITO Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines: Slovenia,
Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were recognized as
independent states in 1992. The remaining republics of Serbia and
Montenegro declared a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in
April 1992 and, under President Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Serbia led
various military intervention efforts to unite ethnic Serbs in
neighboring republics into a "Greater Serbia." These actions led to
Yugoslavia being ousted from the UN in 1992, but Serbia continued
its campaign until signing the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In
1998-99, massive expulsions by FRY forces and Serb paramilitaries of
ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo provoked an international
response, including the NATO bombing of Belgrade and the stationing
of a NATO-led force (KFOR), in Kosovo. Federal elections in the fall
of 2000, brought about the ouster of MILOSEVIC and installed
Vojislav KOSTUNICA as president. The arrest of MILOSEVIC in 2001
allowed for his subsequent transfer to the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague to be tried for
crimes against humanity. In 2001, the country's suspension from the
UN was lifted, and it was once more accepted into UN organizations
under the name of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo has
been governed by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) since June 1999, under the authority of UN Security Council
Resolution 1244, pending a determination by the international
community of its future status. In 2002, the Serbian and Montenegrin
components of Yugoslavia began negotiations to forge a looser
relationship. In February 2003 lawmakers restructured the country
into a loose federation of two republics called Serbia and
Montenegro. The Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro
included a provision that allowed either republic to hold a
referendum after three years that would allow for their independence
from the state union. In the spring of 2006, Montenegro took
advantage of the provision to undertake a successful independence
vote enabling it to secede on 3 June. Two days later, Serbia
declared that it was the successor state to the union of Serbia and
Montenegro.
Geography Serbia
Location:
Southeastern Europe, between Macedonia and Hungary
Geographic coordinates:
44 00 N, 21 00 E