Vojislav Koštunica

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Vojislav Koštunica, 2001

Vojislav Koštunica ( Cyrillic Војислав Коштуница , pronunciation of the name ? / I ; born March 24, 1944 in Belgrade ) is a Serbian politician , lawyer and chairman of the Democratic Party of Serbia . Audio file / audio sample

From October 7, 2000 to March 7, 2003 he was President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and from 2004 to 2008 Prime Minister of Serbia .

Life

Koštunica comes from a Belgrade family of lawyers, his father Jovan Koštunica was a judge in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The family name Koštunica is derived from the Serbian village Koštunici in the Gornji Milanovac district, from which his great-grandfather Jovan Damjanović came. He was an adviser to the legendary Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenović and was named Koštunica after his place of origin Koštunici.

Vojislav Koštunica graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Law with a doctorate and then became an assistant at the University of Belgrade . He later worked at the Belgrade Social Science Institute on party pluralism and was involved in a dissident committee for freedom of expression . In 1974 Vojislav Koštunica was dismissed as a university lecturer for political reasons, as he had signed a declaration which was directed against the then newly adopted constitution of Yugoslavia and the administrative separation of the province of Kosovo from the then part of Serbia. Koštunica never belonged to the Yugoslav Communist Party . In 1989 he was one of the founders of the Democratic Party (DS) with Zoran Đinđić . In 1990 he was elected to the Serbian parliament. In 1992 he founded the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). The support of the Bosnian Serbs under Radovan Karadžić during the civil war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 was decisive for the separation of the DSS from the DS .

In 2000 he was nominated as a candidate for the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) electoral alliance, which was formed from 18 parties, for the presidential and parliamentary elections on September 24, 2000. After the election, government officials declared Koštunica to be the winner with 48.22 percent of all votes. Since he had not received an absolute majority, the electoral commission initially ordered a runoff election between him and incumbent Milošević for October 8 , which the DOS viewed as electoral fraud . After days of disputes over the outcome of the election, there were mass protests, a general strike and the cancellation of the election result. The regime of Slobodan Milošević was overthrown by a peaceful popular uprising on October 5, 2000 and Koštunica was celebrated as elected president. However, Koštunica made it clear: “ Milosevic will never be extradited to The Hague! “He greeted his compatriots with the words:“ Good evening, liberated Serbia - today we are making history. "

Even during his reign, Koštunica was the most important protection of the alleged war criminal Ratko Mladić from his arrest. This was reported by the Croatian daily Jutarnji list on May 28, 2011, citing cables from the US embassy in Belgrade, which had been published by the platform Wikileaks and in which Koštunica was accused. According to this, the Serbian government had known exactly where the Mladić was hiding since 2006. However, access was denied by Koštunica.

Koštunica with Condoleezza Rice in 2006 in Washington, DC

In August 2001 there was a break with the democratic DOS alliance, especially with the party Zoran Đinđićs, the DS, because Koštunica accused them of actively cooperating with criminal elements, but also because of the extradition of Serbian citizens abroad, which is the Serbian law prohibited, but was carried out in the Milošević case and other cases under pressure from the DS and later members of the LDP.

He was replaced as president in 2003 by Svetozar Marović (DPS). Koštunica has since been Prime Minister of Serbia in a coalition with Boris Tadićs DS. After Kosovo's declaration of independence in February 2008 and its recognition by the majority of EU countries, Koštunica moved away from the common course of rapprochement between Serbia and the European Union and de facto demanded a break in relations. This burdened the coalition with the still western oriented DS so much that Koštunica announced his resignation on March 8, 2008. At a press conference, he said that he no longer believed in the future of the governing coalition because Tadic's party was not seriously aiming for a return of Kosovo to the Serbian state association. On July 7, 2008, he handed over the mandate to his successor Mirko Cvetković .

family

Koštunica is married to the lawyer Zorica Radović.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Milosevic could not stop the breakup of Yugoslavia. In: ag-friedensforschung.de. June 23, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ State leadership protected Mladic for years. In: derstandard.at . November 28, 2011, accessed January 4, 2017 .
  3. ^ Dispute over Kosovo: Serbia's Prime Minister Kostunica gives up. In: Spiegel Online . March 8, 2008, accessed January 4, 2017 .

Web links

Commons : Vojislav Koštunica  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Koštunica, Vojislav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Коштуница, Војислав (Serbian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Serbian politician, President of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister of Serbia
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Belgrade