This Europe: End of the road for an unloved relic born and bred in blood

Quietly, and without tears, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), the last remnant of former president Slobodan Milosevic's era, was consigned to the history books yesterday.

Like many Serbs, I woke up to find myself living in the third country in 12 years, without moving house. A place with a strange official name – the State Community of Serbia and Montenegro – replaced the FRY after its sister republics voted in favour of dissolving the federation.

Mr Milosevic created the FRY in 1992. It was an attempt to keep together what was left of the former six-member Yugoslav federation which fell apart in 1991, with wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Some remember the former Yugoslavia with nostalgia, as a time of peace, good life and free travel to the West.

But for many Serbs, Mr Milosevic's FRY meant wars, poverty, bombing and long queues for visas in front of the Western embassies. "It is high time Milosevic's Yugoslavia died," said Milutin Stefanovic,who owns a car repair workshop in Belgrade. "There are no tears, no sorrow as it becomes history".

Serbia and Montenegro will have autonomy for three years. After that, they can organise referendums for independence. It will be a civilised divorce, wanted by many on both sides.

"I was born in one state, spent a better part of my life in another and I want to see an independent Serbia in the future," said Natasa Vasovic, an officeworker.

The new state has a constitutional charter, created during 10 months of negotiations between Serbia and Montenegro, under the auspices of the European Union. It provides for a democratic infrastructure that will lead Serbia and Montenegro to EU membership.

The republics will have a common foreign and defence policy. The army will be reduced to an appropriate force, capable of joining Nato's Partnership for Peace programme. The two will keep their separate currencies. The new 120-member parliament of the union will be composed of MPs already sitting in the parliaments of the republics.

On the last day of the FRY, I walked home from the federal parliament where I had been watching the dissolution ceremonies. I was not at all nostalgic for the FRY. My mind instead went back to 5 October, 2000, when anti-Milosevic protesters set fire to the parliament. That day was more historic than the creation yesterday of a loose union of Serbia and Montenegro with a name that even its inhabitants find strange.