This Europe: Long live Yugoslavia, if only in name

Although Yugoslavia has officially been consigned to history, the name continues to confuse those who live there.

Hundreds of thousands of people seem to have been caught unawares by a vote last month in which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Many companies, including the national carrier Yugoslav Airlines (JAT), say they will keep the name for nostalgic or practical reasons. "They know us as JAT. I don't know what else the name could be," a pilot said.

The Museum of Yugoslav History and the Yugoslav Drama Theatre will also keep their names.

But sports fans don't know how to cheer. "Yu-go-sla-via was easy," said Vladimir Ignjatovic, a teacher. "You can't shout 'Serbia and Montenegro'. That sounds stupid."

Yugoslav passports will be valid for at least three years until Serbia and Montenegro decide whether to stay together. But explaining that the country has no flag or national anthem is not so easy. The old ones have not been replaced, although that should be this year.

Internet providers do not know if the "yu" domains need renaming. Yet Yugoslavia lives on in cyberspace, where people spend hours chatting about how things used to be.

Yugoslavia, the "land of south Slavs", was founded 84 years ago. It became a Communist country after the Second World War, led by Josip Broz Tito, but fell apart in the wars of the 1990s, when Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia and Macedonia broke away.