Did Slobodan Milošević as President of Serbia have the right to revoke Kosovo and Vojvodina's limited autonomy

Question

Without getting side tracked or taking the oppertunity to go on about ones conclusions in Yugoslavia was Slobodan Milošević in a position to make that decision? Or did he just do it and no one challenged him on it at the time?

Answer 1

No. Kosovo was a federal unit as well. It was an unlawful act even by the Serbian Constitution. But everyone in the Serbian parliament kept their mouths shut. Here's the article that explains it:

Search for string "March 28 1989" in following article:

http://www.kosova.com/artikulli/37510

And a lot more here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VPPdgAZ...

Answer 2

I don't know if he had the right to do it or not in legal and formal way, but definitely it was a very bad move. It was both unfair to the people of Kosovo and it was also a bad decision for Serbia, because it was the reason why UCK (Kosovian armed militia that fought against Serbia) was created and became so popular in Kosovo. I would risk the hypothesis that if Kosovo's autonomy was not revoked, perhaps Kosovo would still be the part of Serbia.

It is a historical paradox that people of Kosovo had more rights and autonomy under communist regime of Yugoslavia, than under the rule of Milosevic...