FACTBOX: Profile of Serbia, torn between East and West
(Reuters) - Serbia's election on Sunday is effectively a decision on whether it moves towards Europe or digs in its heels out of nationalist defiance over the loss of Kosovo.
Here is a profile of the country.
HISTORY
The first Serbian state emerged in the 10th century, fell to the Ottoman Empire in the early 15th century and achieved independence from the Turks in 1878. Land under Belgrade's control grew after World War One with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In World War Two, anti-fascist forces led by Josip Broz Tito emerged victorious and proclaimed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with Serbs the lead nation thanks to its larger population. After Tito died in 1980, divisions grew with the rise of Serb nationalist Slobodan Milosevic. Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared independence in 1991, Bosnia in 1992. Milosevic opposed Croatia and Bosnia's secession and backed Serb minorities there with arms and money. He revoked the autonomy of Kosovo province, provoking a rebellion by its Albanian majority. A NATO bombing campaign in 1999 expelled Serb forces accused of atrocities against civilians and the United Nations took control of Kosovo. Milosevic was overthrown in October 2000. Reformist PM Zoran Djindjic, appointed in 2001, was assassinated in 2003. Montenegro voted in 2006 to leave its union with Serbia, and Serbia went solo for the first time since 1918. After almost nine years in limbo, Kosovo declared independence in February 2008 with European Union and U.S. support, provoking sometimes-violent protests in Serbia, and ethnic Serb areas in Bosnia and north Kosovo. The Serbian government collapsed in March, divided over the country's future path.
LAND & PEOPLE
Landlocked Serbia lies at the heart of the Balkans, bordering Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania Bulgaria, Macedonia and its former province Kosovo. The 2002 census, which excluded Kosovo, puts the population at some 7.5 million people, with Serbs an 83 percent majority among two dozen ethnic groups such as Hungarians, Roma, Albanians, Muslims and Slovaks. The dominant religion is Orthodox Christianity and the official language Serbian in the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet. Hungarian is spoken in the northern Vojvodina province, and Albanian in southern areas that border Kosovo.
POLITICS
The fragile coalition of pro-Western liberals and nationalists collapsed in March, divided over whether Belgrade should pursue European Union membership despite the bloc's support for Kosovo's secession. The election will be a neck and neck race between nationalists and liberals, with the Kosovo versus EU issue in the foreground. The dilemma reflects public ambivalence: 70 percent of Serbs support joining the European Union, but the number drops once the EU stance on Kosovo comes into play.
Brussels, keen to boost the pro-Western camp, signed a pre-accession pact with Serbia last week, but said it would only put it into effect once outstanding issues from Belgrade's role in the Yugoslav wars are resolved: four ethnic Serbs are on the run from the U.N. war crimes court, among them Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, whom the EU wants arrested.
ECONOMY
The economy is recovering from mismanagement and the sanctions of the 1990s coupled with damage to industry and infrastructure inflicted by the NATO bombing. It has been posting strong growth in recent years, -- 7.5 percent in 2007 -- monthly salaries average 350 euros ($536) and a third of the population is unemployed. There has been significant progress in restructuring state companies and big foreign investment has gone into the telecom and energy sectors, but double-digit inflation remains a concern and the dinar currency is vulnerable to political jitters.
(Writing by Ellie Tzortzi)
