Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States

lapses. The Milosˇević regime in Serbia appropriates
the Yugoslav name, under
which it pursues Serbian nationalist politics.
1991–1995 Large-scale bloody wars are fought in
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ethnic
militia conduct genocidal “ethnic cleansing”
practices. Thousands of churches
and mosques are destroyed. Religious institutions
support ethnic nationalist factions,
blaming each other for the war.
1998–1999 War in Kosovo. In retaliation for the Milosˇević
regime’s persecution and the Serbian
Church’s role as the ally of Serb nationalism,
Albanians attack Serb
churches and expel the Serb population.
The Orthodox Church remains in the
province, with a few Serbs as guardian of
Serb sacred sites.
1992–2000 International religious organizations and
foreign religious leaders provide humanitarian
aid and labor to reconcile hostile
religious institutions in the successor
states of the former Yugoslavia.
2000 The Milosˇević regime is ousted in Serbia,
and the Orthodox Church improves relations
with the state. The Tudjman regime
is voted out of power in Croatia, but the
Catholic Church continues to support the
radical ethnic nationalist opposition. Ethnic
nationalist parties, backed by religious
organizations, remain strong in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, now a multiethnic
country with a highly uncertain future.
2001 Slobodan Milosˇević is put under arrest
and brought before the International War
Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
at the Hague, Netherlands. A war between
Slavic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians
breaks out in the former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.
February 2002 The Milosˇević trial at the Hague begins.
The former Serb leader is charged with
genocide and crimes against humanity.
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