The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between
Croat
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...
forces loyal to the
Government of Croatia
The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...
—which had declared
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
from the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
(SFRY)—and the
Serb
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
-controlled
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska a ...
(JNA) and
local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat operations in
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
by 1992. In Croatia, the war is primarily referred to as the "Homeland War" ( hr, Domovinski rat) and also as the "
Greater-Serbian Aggression" ( hr, Velikosrpska agresija).
In Serbian sources, "War in Croatia" ( sr-cyr, Рат у Хрватској, Rat u Hrvatskoj) and (rarely) "War in Krajina" ( sr-cyr, Рат у Крајини, Rat u Krajini) are used.
A majority of Croats wanted Croatia to leave Yugoslavia and become a sovereign country, while many ethnic Serbs living in Croatia, supported by
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
,
opposed the secession and wanted Serb-claimed lands to be in a common state with Serbia. Most Serbs sought a new Serb state within a Yugoslav federation, including areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with ethnic Serb majorities or significant minorities,
and attempted to conquer as much of Croatia as possible.
Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, but agreed to postpone it with the
Brioni Agreement
The Brioni Agreement, also known as the Brioni Declaration ( hr, Brijunska deklaracija, sr, Brionska deklaracija, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Брионска декларација, sl, Brionska deklaracija), is a document signed by representativ ...
and cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia on 8 October 1991.
The JNA initially tried to keep Croatia within Yugoslavia by occupying all of Croatia.
[ Kadijević (1993), pp. 134–135] After this failed, Serb forces established the self-proclaimed
proto-state
A quasi-state (some times referred to as state-like entity or proto-state) is a political entity that does not represent a fully institutionalised or autonomous sovereign state.
The precise definition of ''quasi-state'' in political literature f ...
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sh, Република Српска Крајина, italics=no / or РСК / ''RSK'', ), known as the Serbian Krajina ( / ) or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, ...
(RSK) within Croatia which began with the
Log Revolution
The Log Revolution ( sh, Balvan revolucija / ) was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990, in areas of the Republic of Croatia (1990–1991), Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by Serbs of Croatia, ethnic Serbs.
A f ...
. After the
ceasefire of January 1992 and international recognition of the Republic of Croatia as a sovereign state,
the front lines were entrenched, the
United Nations Protection Force
The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav War ...
(UNPROFOR) was deployed,
and combat became largely intermittent in the following three years. During that time, the RSK encompassed , more than a quarter of Croatia.
In 1995, Croatia launched two major offensives known as
Operation Flash
Operation Flash ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Operacija Bljesak, Операција Бљесак) was a brief Croatian Army (HV) offensive conducted against the forces of the self-declared proto-state Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) from 1&nda ...
and
Operation Storm
}) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a front against the self-declared proto-state Re ...
;
these offensives effectively ended the war in its favor. The remaining
(UNTAES) zone was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia by 1998.
The war ended with Croatian victory, as it achieved the goals it had declared at the beginning of the war: independence and preservation of its borders.
Approximately 21–25% of Croatia's economy was ruined, with an estimated US$37 billion in damaged infrastructure, lost
output
Output may refer to:
* The information produced by a computer, see Input/output
* An output state of a system, see state (computer science)
* Output (economics), the amount of goods and services produced
** Gross output in economics, the value of ...
, and refugee-related costs.
Over 20,000 people were killed in the war,
and refugees were displaced on both sides. The Serbian and Croatian governments began to progressively cooperate with each other, but tensions remain, in part due to verdicts by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...
(ICTY) and
lawsuits filed by each country against the other.
In 2007, the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...
(ICTY) returned a guilty verdict against
Milan Martić
Milan Martić ( sr-cyr, Милан Мартић; born 18 November 1954) is a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the president of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina between 1994 and 1995, during the Croatian War of In ...
, one of the Serb leaders in Croatia, for having colluded with
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
and others to create a "unified Serbian state".
Between 2008 and 2012, the ICTY had prosecuted Croatian generals
Ante Gotovina
Ante Gotovina (born 12 October 1955) is a Croatian retired lieutenant general and former French senior corporal who served in the Croatian War for Independence. He is noted for his primary role in the 1995 Operation Storm. In 2001, the Intern ...
,
Mladen Markač
Mladen Markač (; born 8 May 1955) is a Croatian retired general. He was a Commander of Croatian Special Police during Operation Storm during the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995), and afterwards held the rank of Colonel General. Later, ...
and
Ivan Čermak for alleged involvement in the crimes related to
Operation Storm
}) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a front against the self-declared proto-state Re ...
. Čermak was acquitted outright, and the convictions of Gotovina and Markač were later overturned by an ICTY Appeals Panel.
The
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
dismissed
mutual claims of genocide by Croatia and Serbia in 2015. The Court reaffirmed that, to an extent, crimes against civilians had taken place, but it ruled that specific
genocidal intent
Genocidal intent is the '' mens rea'' for the crime of genocide. "Intent to destroy" is one of the elements of the crime of genocide according to the 1948 Genocide Convention. There are some analytic differences between the concept of intent under ...
was not present.
Background
Political changes in Yugoslavia
![Stevan_Kragujevic,_Slobodan_Milosevic,_portret](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Stevan_Kragujevic%2C_Slobodan_Milosevic%2C_portret.jpg)
In the 1970s, Yugoslavia's
socialist regime became severely splintered into a liberal-decentralist nationalist faction led by Croatia and Slovenia that supported a decentralized federation to give greater autonomy to Croatia and Slovenia, versus a conservative-centralist nationalist faction led by Serbia that supported a centralized federation to secure Serbia's and the Serbs' interests across Yugoslavia—as they were the largest ethnic group in the country as a whole. From
1967 to 1972 in Croatia and
1968 and
1981 protests in Kosovo, nationalist doctrines and actions caused ethnic tensions that destabilized Yugoslavia. The suppression by the state of nationalists is believed to have had the effect of identifying
Croat nationalism
Croatian nationalism is nationalism that asserts the nationality of Croats and promotes the cultural unity of Croats.
Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure for Magyarization of Cr ...
as the primary alternative to
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
itself and made it a strong underground movement.
A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the
weakening of the
communist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, as symbolized by the
fall
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...
of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
in 1989. In Croatia, the regional branch of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
, the
League of Communists of Croatia
League of Communists of Croatia ( sh, Savez komunista Hrvatske or SKH) was the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). It came into power in 1945. Until 1952, it was known as Communist Party of Croatia (''Komunistička ...
, had lost its ideological potency.
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
and
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
wanted to move towards
decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
.
SR Serbia
, life_span = 1944–1992
, status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia
, p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia
, flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg
, p2 ...
, headed by
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
, adhered to centralism and single-party rule, and in turn effectively ended the autonomy of the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
by March 1989, taking command of their votes in the
Yugoslav federal presidency.
Nationalist ideas started to gain influence within the ranks of the still-ruling League of Communists, while Milošević's speeches, notably the 1989
Gazimestan speech
The Gazimestan speech ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Govor na Gazimestanu, Говор на Газиместану) was given on 28 June 1989 by Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia, at the Gazimestan monument on the Kosovo field. It ...
in which he talked of "battles and quarrels", favored continuation of a unified Yugoslav state — one in which all power would continue to be centralized in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
.
[ Brown & Karim (1995), p. 116]
In the autumn of 1989, the Serbian government pressured the Croatian government to allow a series of Serb nationalist rallies in the country, and the Serbian media and various Serbian intellectuals had already begun to refer to the Croatian leadership as "
Ustaše
The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian Fascism, fascist and ultranationalism, ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaš ...
", and began to make reference to
genocide and other crimes committed by the Ustaše between 1941 and 1945. The Serbian political leadership approved of the rhetoric and accused the Croatian leadership of being "blindly nationalistic" when it objected.
Having completed the
anti-bureaucratic revolution in
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
, Kosovo, and Montenegro, Serbia secured four out of eight federal presidency votes in 1991,
which rendered the governing body ineffective as other republics objected and called for reform of the Federation.
[ Frucht (2005), p. 433] In 1989, political parties were allowed and a number of them had been founded, including the
Croatian Democratic Union ( hr, Hrvatska demokratska zajednica) (HDZ), led by
Franjo Tuđman, who later became the first
president of Croatia
The president of Croatia, officially the President of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Predsjednik Republike Hrvatske), is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the military and chief representative of the Republic of Croatia both within the ...
.
Tuđman ran on a nationalist platform with a program of "national reconciliation" between Croatian communists and former Ustašes (fascists) being a key component of his party's political program. Accordingly, he also integrated former Ustaše members into the party and state's apparatus.
![Franjotudjman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Franjotudjman.jpg)
In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up on ethnic lines, with the Croatian and Slovene factions demanding a looser federation at the 14th Extraordinary Congress. At the congress, Serbian delegates accused the Croatian and Slovene delegates of "supporting separatism, terrorism and genocide in Kosovo". The Croatian and Slovene delegations, including most of their ethnic Serb members, eventually left in protest, after Serbian delegates rejected every proposed amendment.
January 1990 also marked the beginning of court cases being brought to Yugoslavia's Constitutional Court on the matter of secession.
[Igor Primoratz, Aleksandar Pavković. ''Identity, Self-determination and Secession''. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006. p158.] The first was the Slovenian Constitutional Amendments case after Slovenia claimed the right to unilateral secession pursuant to the right of self-determination. The Constitutional Court ruled that secession from the federation was only permitted if there was the unanimous agreement of Yugoslavia's republics and autonomous provinces.
The Constitutional Court noted that 1974 Constitution's Section I of the Basic Principles of the Constitution identified that self-determination including secession "belonged to the peoples of Yugoslavia and their socialist republics".
The matter of Kosovo secession was addressed in May 1991 with the court claiming that "only the peoples of Yugoslavia" had the right to secession, Albanians were considered a minority and not a people of Yugoslavia.
The 1990 survey conducted among Yugoslav citizens showed that ethnic animosity existed on a small scale.
Compared to the results from 25 years before, Croatia was the republic with the highest increase in ethnic distance. Furthermore, there was significant increase of ethnic distance among Serbs and Montenegrins toward Croats and Slovenes and vice versa.
Of all respondents, 48% of Croats said that their affiliation with Yugoslavia is very important to them.
In February 1990,
Jovan Rašković
Jovan Rašković ( sr-cyr, Јован Рашковић, ; 5 July 1929 – 28 July 1992) was a Croatian Serb psychiatrist, academic and politician.
Early life
Rašković was born in Knin in 1929. During World War II, after an Ustasha pogrom which ...
founded the
Serb Democratic Party (SDS) in
Knin
Knin (, sr, link=no, Книн, it, link=no, Tenin) is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagr ...
, whose program aimed to change the regional division of Croatia to be aligned with ethnic Serb interests.
[ Goldstein (1999), p. 214] Prominent members of the RSK government, including
Milan Babić
Milan Babić ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Бабић; 25 February 1956 – 5 March 2006) was a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the first president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a self-proclaimed state largely populated by ...
and
Milan Martić
Milan Martić ( sr-cyr, Милан Мартић; born 18 November 1954) is a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the president of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina between 1994 and 1995, during the Croatian War of In ...
, later testified that Belgrade directed a propaganda campaign portraying the Serbs in Croatia as being threatened with genocide by the Croat majority. On 4 March 1990, 50,000 Serbs rallied at
Petrova Gora and shouted negative remarks aimed at Tuđman,
chanted "This is Serbia",
and expressed support for Milošević.
The
first free elections in Croatia and Slovenia were scheduled for a few months later.
The first round of elections in Croatia was held on 22 April, and the second round on 6 May.
The HDZ based its campaign on greater sovereignty (eventually outright independence) for Croatia, fueling a sentiment among Croats that "only the HDZ could protect Croatia from the aspirations of Milošević towards a Greater Serbia". It topped the poll in the elections (followed by
Ivica Račan's reformed communists,
Social Democratic Party of Croatia
The Social Democratic Party of Croatia ( hr, Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske, SDP) is a social-democratic political party in Croatia. The SDP is anti-fascist, progressive, and strongly pro-European. The SDP was formed in 1990 as the succe ...
) and was set to form a new
Croatian Government
The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...
.
A tense atmosphere prevailed on May 13, 1990, when a
football game was held at Zagreb in
Maksimir Stadium
Maksimir Stadium ( hr, Stadion Maksimir, ) is a multi-use stadium in Zagreb, Croatia. It takes its name from the surrounding neighbourhood of Maksimir. The venue is primarily the home of Dinamo Zagreb, the top club of the country with 23 league ...
between
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
's
Dinamo team and Belgrade's
Red Star. The game erupted into violence between the Croatian and Serbian fans and with the police.
On 30 May 1990, the new
Croatian Parliament
The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sab ...
held its first session. President Tuđman announced his manifesto for a new Constitution (ratified at the end of the year) and a multitude of political, economic, and social changes, notably to what extent minority rights (mainly for Serbs) would be guaranteed. Local Serb politicians opposed the new constitution. In 1991, Croats represented 78.1% and Serbs 12.2% of the total population of Croatia, but the latter held a disproportionate number of official posts: 17.7% of appointed officials in Croatia, including police, were Serbs. An even greater proportion of those posts had been held by Serbs in Croatia earlier, which created a perception that the Serbs were guardians of the communist regime. This caused discontent among the Croats despite the fact it never actually undermined their own dominance in SR Croatia. After the HDZ came to power, many Serbs employed in the public sector, especially the police, were fired and replaced by Croats. This, combined with Tuđman's remarks, i.e. "Thank God my wife is not a Jew or a Serb", were distorted by Milošević's media to spark fear that any form of an independent Croatia would be a new "
Ustashe state". In one instance, TV Belgrade showed Tuđman shaking hands with German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
(who would be the first government leader in the world to recognise independent Croatia and Slovenia) accusing the two of plotting "a Fourth Reich". Aside from the firing of many Serbs from public sector positions, another concern among Serbs living in Croatia was the HDZ's public display of the ''
šahovnica'' (Croatian checkerboard) in the
Croatian coat of arms
The coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Grb Republike Hrvatske) consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard ( chequy) that consists of 13 red and ...
, which was associated with the fascist Ustaše regime. This was a misconception as the checkerboard had a history going back to the fifteenth century and was not identical to the one that was used in the WW2-era
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist It ...
.
However, Tuđman's xenophobic rhetoric and attitude towards Croatian Serbs as well as his support for former Ustaše leaders did little to ease Serb fears.
Civil unrest and demands for autonomy
Immediately after the
Slovenian parliamentary election and the
Croatian parliamentary election in April and May 1990, the JNA announced that the
Tito
Tito may refer to:
People Mononyms
* Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman
* Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journ ...
-era doctrine of "general people's defense", in which each republic maintained a
Territorial defense force ( sh, Teritorijalna obrana) (TO), would henceforth be replaced by a centrally directed system of defense. The republics would lose their role in defense matters, and their TOs would be disarmed and subordinated to JNA headquarters in Belgrade, but the new Slovenian government acted quickly to retain control over their TO.
On 14 May 1990, the weapons of the TO of Croatia, in Croat-majority regions, were taken away by the JNA, preventing the possibility of Croatia having its own weapons as was done in Slovenia.
Borisav Jović
Borisav Jović ( sr-Cyrl, Борисав Јовић, ; 19 October 1928 – 13 September 2021) was a Serbian economist, diplomat and politician who served as the President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1991.
He was Yugoslavia's amb ...
, Serbia's representative in the Federal Presidency and a close ally of Slobodan Milošević, claimed that this action came at the behest of Serbia.
According to Jović, on 27 June 1990 he and
Veljko Kadijević
Veljko Kadijević ( sr-Cyrl, Вељко Кадијевић; 21 November 1925 – 2 November 2014) was a Serbian general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the Yugoslav government from 1988 until his resignatio ...
, the Yugoslav Defence Minister, met and agreed that they should, regarding Croatia and Slovenia, "expel them forcibly from Yugoslavia, by simply drawing borders and declaring that they have brought this upon themselves through their decisions". According to Jović, the next day he obtained the agreement of Milošević. However, Kadijević, of mixed Serb-Croat heritage and a
Yugoslav Partisan
The Yugoslav Partisans, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, was loyal to Yugoslavia and not a Greater Serbia; Kadijević believed that if Slovenia left Yugoslavia the state would collapse and thus he discussed with Jović about possibly using the JNA to impose
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
in Slovenia to prevent this potential collapse and was willing to wage war with the secessionist republics to prevent their secession. Kadijević considered the political crisis and ethnic conflict to have been caused by the actions of foreign governments, particularly Germany, which he accused of seeking to break up Yugoslavia to allow Germany to exercise a sphere of influence in the Balkans.
[Sabrina P. Ramet. Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. Cambridge University Press, 2005. P117.] Kadijević regarded the Croatian government of Tuđman to be a fascist-inspired and that Serbs had the right to be protected from Croatian "armed formations".
After the election of Tuđman and the HDZ, a Serb Assembly was established in
Srb, north of Knin, on 25 July 1990 as the political representation of the Serb people in Croatia. The Serb Assembly declared "sovereignty and autonomy of the Serb people in Croatia".
[ Martić verdict, pp 44–49.]
In August 1990, an unrecognized
mono-ethnic referendum was held in regions with a substantial Serb population which would later become known as the
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sh, Република Српска Крајина, italics=no / or РСК / ''RSK'', ), known as the Serbian Krajina ( / ) or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, ...
(RSK) (bordering western
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
) on the question of Serb "sovereignty and autonomy" in Croatia.
This was an attempt to counter changes made to the constitution. The Croatian government sent police forces to police stations in Serb-populated areas to seize their weapons. Among other incidents, local Serbs from the southern hinterlands of Croatia, mostly around the city of
Knin
Knin (, sr, link=no, Книн, it, link=no, Tenin) is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagr ...
, blocked roads to tourist destinations in Dalmatia. This incident is known as the "
Log Revolution
The Log Revolution ( sh, Balvan revolucija / ) was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990, in areas of the Republic of Croatia (1990–1991), Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by Serbs of Croatia, ethnic Serbs.
A f ...
".
Years later, during Martić's trial, Babić claimed he was tricked by Martić into agreeing to the Log Revolution, and that it and the entire war in Croatia was Martić's responsibility, and had been orchestrated by Belgrade. The statement was corroborated by Martić in an interview published in 1991.
Babić confirmed that by July 1991 Milošević had taken over control of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).
The Croatian government responded to the blockade of roads by sending special police teams in helicopters to the scene, but were intercepted by
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
The Air Force and Air Defence ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Ратно ваздухопловство и противваздушна одбрана, Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazdušna odbrana ; abbr. sh-Cyrl-Latn, label=none, separator=/, РВ и ПВ ...
fighter jets and forced to turn back to
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
. The Serbs felled pine trees or used bulldozers to block roads to seal off towns like Knin and
Benkovac
Benkovac () is a town in the interior of Zadar County, Croatia.
Geography
Benkovac is located where the plain of Ravni Kotari and the karstic plateau of Bukovica meet, 20 km from the town of Biograd na Moru and 30 km from Zadar. Th ...
near the
Adriatic coast
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to the ...
. On 18 August 1990, the Serbian newspaper ''
Večernje novosti'' claimed "almost two million Serbs were ready to go to Croatia to fight".
On 21 December 1990, the
SAO Krajina
The Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Srpska autonomna oblast Krajina, Српска аутономна област Крајина) or SAO Krajina () was a self-proclaimed Serbian autonomous region (oblast) wit ...
was proclaimed by the municipalities of the regions of Northern
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
and
Lika, in south-western Croatia. Article 1 of the Statute of the SAO Krajina defined the SAO Krajina as "a form of territorial autonomy within the Republic of Croatia" in which the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, state laws, and the Statute of the SAO Krajina were applied.
On 22 December 1990, the Parliament of Croatia ratified the new constitution,
which was seen by Serbs as taking away rights that had been granted by the Socialist constitution. The constitution did define Croatia as "the national state of the Croatian nation and a state of members of other nations and minorities who are its citizens: Serbs ... who are guaranteed
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...
with citizens of Croatian nationality ..."
Following Tuđman's election and the perceived threat from the new constitution,
Serb nationalists in the
Kninska Krajina region began taking armed action against Croatian government officials. Croatian government property throughout the region was increasingly controlled by local Serb municipalities or the newly established "Serbian National Council". This would later become the government of the breakaway
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sh, Република Српска Крајина, italics=no / or РСК / ''RSK'', ), known as the Serbian Krajina ( / ) or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, ...
(RSK).
After it was discovered that
Martin Špegelj
Martin Špegelj (11 November 1927 – 11 May 2014) was a Croatian army general and politician who served as the second defense minister of Croatia and, later, the chief of staff of the newborn Croatian army and inspector-general of the army. His ...
had pursued a campaign to acquire arms through the black market in January 1991 an ultimatum was issued requesting disarming and disbanding of Croatian military forces considered illegal by the Yugoslav authorities.
Croatian authorities refused to comply, and the Yugoslav army withdrew the ultimatum six days after it was issued.
On 12 March 1991, the leadership of the Army met with the
Presidency of the SFRY in an attempt to convince them to declare a
state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
which would allow for the army to take control of the country. Yugoslav army chief
Veljko Kadijević
Veljko Kadijević ( sr-Cyrl, Вељко Кадијевић; 21 November 1925 – 2 November 2014) was a Serbian general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the Yugoslav government from 1988 until his resignatio ...
declared that there was a conspiracy to destroy the country, saying:
Jović claims that Kadijević and the Army in March 1991 supported a
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
as a way out of the crisis but then changed their minds four days later.
Kadijević's response to this was that "Jović is lying".
Kadijević claims he was invited to a meeting in March 1991 in Jović's office, two days after
huge protests organized by Vuk Drašković on the streets of Belgrade, where Milošević, according to Kadijević, requested that the army take control of the country through a military coup.
Kadijević's apparent response was to inform Milošević that he could not make such a decision by himself, and that he'd discuss the request with army leaders and later inform Jović's office about their decision.
Kadijević then said that their decision was against the putsch and that he informed Jović's office in written form about it.
Jović claims that such document doesn't exist.
Ante Marković
Ante Marković (; 25 November 1924 – 28 November 2011) was a Croatian and Yugoslav politician, businessman and engineer. Marković is most notable for having served as the last prime minister of SFR Yugoslavia.
Early life
Marković, was a Bos ...
has described that after the Presidency meeting failed to achieve the results the Army wanted that Kadijević met with him with the proposed coup d'état against the secessionist republics.
[Lenard J. Cohen, Jasna Dragović-Soso. ''State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia's Disintegration''. Purdue University Press, 2008. P323.] During the meeting Marković responded to Kadijević by saying that the plan failed to arrest Milošević.
Kadijević replied "He is only one fighting for Yugoslavia. Without him, we could not be proposing this." Marković rejected the plan and afterwards communication between Kadijević and Marković broke down.
Military forces
Serb and Yugoslav People's Army forces
![JNA offensive plan 1991](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/JNA_offensive_plan_1991.jpg)
The JNA was initially formed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to carry out
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
against occupying
Axis forces
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. The success of the
Partisan movement led to the JNA basing much of its operational strategy on guerrilla warfare, as its plans normally entailed defending against
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
or
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
attacks, where other types of warfare would put the JNA in a comparatively poor position. That approach led to maintenance of a
Territorial Defense system.
On paper, the JNA seemed a powerful force, with 2,000
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s and 300
jet aircraft
A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines.
Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...
(mainly
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
or locally produced). However, by 1991, the majority of this equipment was 30 years old, as the force consisted primarily of
T-54/55
The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks ...
tanks and
MiG-21
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...
aircraft.
[ Western European Union (1986), p. 107] Still, the JNA operated around 300
M-84 tanks (a Yugoslav version of the Soviet
T-72
The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ha ...
) and a sizable fleet of
ground-attack aircraft, such as the
Soko G-4 Super Galeb
The Soko G-4 Super Galeb ( en, Super Seagull), also referred to as N-62, is a Yugoslav single-engine, advanced jet trainer and light ground-attack aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Technical Institute at Žarkovo and manufactured by the SOK ...
and the
Soko J-22 Orao
The Soko J-22 Orao ( sr-cyr, text=Oрао, translation=eagle) is a Yugoslav twin-engined, subsonic ground-attack and aerial reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed and built in collaboration by SOKO in Yugoslavia and by Avioane Craiova i ...
, whose armament included
AGM-65 Maverick
The AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground missile (AGM) designed for close air support. It is the most widely produced precision-guided missile in the Western world, and is effective against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, ...
guided missiles.
[ Finlan (2004), pp. 20–21] By contrast, more modern cheap anti-tank missiles (like the
AT-5) and anti-aircraft missiles (like the
SA-14
The 9K34 Strela-3 (russian: 9К34 «Стрела-3», 'arrow', NATO reporting name: SA-14 Gremlin) is a man-portable air defense missile system ( MANPADS) developed in the Soviet Union as a response to the poor performance of the earlier 9K32 S ...
) were abundant and were designed to destroy much more advanced weaponry. Before the war the JNA had 169,000 regular troops, including 70,000 professional
officer
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...
s. The fighting in
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
brought about a great number of desertions, and the army responded by mobilizing Serbian reserve troops. Approximately 100,000 evaded the
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...
, and the new conscripts proved an ineffective fighting force. The JNA resorted to reliance on
irregular militias.
Paramilitary units like the
White Eagles,
Serbian Guard
The Serbian Guard ( sr, Српска гарда / ''Srpska garda'') was a Serbian paramilitary active in the Croatian War with close ties to the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). Eighty percent of the guard's members were members of the SPO. Th ...
, Dušan Silni, and
Serb Volunteer Guard
The Serb Volunteer Guard ( sr, Српска добровољачка гарда, СДГ / ''Srpska dobrovoljačka garda'', SDG), also known as Arkan's Tigers (or only Tigers; sr, Арканови тигрови, links=no / ''arkanovi tigrovi'', ...
, which committed a number of massacres against Croat and other non-Serbs civilians, were increasingly used by the Yugoslav and Serb forces.
There were also foreign fighters supporting the RSK, mostly from
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
With the retreat of the JNA forces in 1992, JNA units were reorganized as the
Army of Serb Krajina, which was a direct heir to the JNA organization, with little improvement.
By 1991, the JNA officer corps was dominated by Serbs and
Montenegrins
Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro.
Genetics
Accordin ...
; they were overrepresented in Yugoslav federal institutions, especially the army. 57.1% of JNA officers were
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
, while Serbs formed 36.3% of the population of Yugoslavia. A similar structure was observed as early as 1981.
[ Mann (1996), p. 363] Even though the two peoples combined comprised 38.8% of the population of Yugoslavia, 70% of all JNA officers and
non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...
s were either Serbs or Montenegrins. In July 1991, the JNA was instructed to "completely eliminate Croats and Slovenes from the army", most of whom had already begun to desert en masse.
Croatian forces
![Serb T-55 Battle of the Barracks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Serb_T-55_Battle_of_the_Barracks.JPG)
The
Croatian military was in a much worse state than that of the Serbs. In the early stages of the war, lack of military units meant that the
Croatian Police
Law enforcement in Croatia is the responsibility of the Croatian Police ( hr, Hrvatska policija), which is the national police force of the country subordinated by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia, carrying out certain task ...
force would take the brunt of the fighting. The
Croatian National Guard
The Croatian National Guard ( hr, Zbor narodne garde or ZNG) was an armed force established by Croatia in April and May 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. Although it was established within the framework of the Ministry of the Interi ...
( hr, Zbor narodne garde), the new Croatian military, was formed on 11 April 1991, and gradually developed into the
Croatian Army
The Croatian Army ( hr, Hrvatska kopnena vojska or HKoV) is the largest and most significant component of the Croatian Armed Forces (CAF).
Role and deployment
The fundamental role and purpose of the Croatian Army is to protect vital national i ...
( hr, Hrvatska vojska) by 1993. Weaponry was in short supply, and many units were either unarmed or were equipped with obsolete World War II-era rifles. The Croatian Army had only a handful of tanks, including World War II-surplus vehicles such as the
T-34
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...
, and its Air Force was in an even worse state, consisting of only a few Antonov
An-2 biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
crop-dusters that had been converted to drop makeshift bombs.
[ Frucht (2005), p. 562]
In August 1991, the Croatian Army had fewer than 20
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Br ...
s. After general
mobilization
Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories and ...
was instituted in October, the size of the army grew to 60 brigades and 37 independent battalions by the end of the year.
In 1991 and 1992, Croatia was also supported by 456 foreign fighters, including British (139), French (69), and German (55). The
seizure of the JNA's barracks between September and December helped to alleviate the Croatians' equipment shortage.
By 1995, the balance of power had shifted significantly. Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were capable of fielding an estimated 130,000 troops; the Croatian Army,
Croatian Defence Council
The Croatian Defence Council ( hr, Hrvatsko vijeće obrane or HVO) was the official military formation of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, an unrecognized entity that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996. The HVO wa ...
( hr, Hrvatsko vijeće obrane) (HVO), and the
Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( bs, Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine or ARBiH), often referred to as Bosnian Army, was the military force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was established by the government of ...
could field a combined force of 250,000 soldiers and 570 tanks.
Course of the war
1991: Open hostilities begin
First armed incidents
Ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred, inter-ethnic hatred, racial hatred, or ethnic tension refers to notions and acts of prejudice and hostility towards an ethnic group in varying degrees.
There are multiple origins for ethnic hatred and the resulting ethnic conflic ...
grew as various incidents fueled the
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
machines on both sides. During his testimony before the ICTY, one of the top Krajina leaders, Milan Martić, stated that the Serb side started using force first.
The conflict escalated into armed incidents in the majority-Serb populated areas. The Serbs
attacked Croatian police units in Pakrac in early March,
while one
Josip Jović
Josip Jović (21 November 1969 – 31 March 1991) was a Croatian policeman who was killed during the Plitvice Lakes incident. He is widely considered the first Croatian fatality of the Croatian War of Independence.
Jović was born on 21 Novem ...
is widely reported as the first police officer killed by Serb forces as part of the war, during the
Plitvice Lakes incident
The Plitvice Lakes incident ( hr, Krvavi Uskrs na Plitvicama or ''Plitvički krvavi Uskrs'', both translating as "Plitvice Bloody Easter") was an armed clash at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence. It was fought between Croatian po ...
in late March 1991.
In March and April 1991, Serbs in Croatia began to make moves to secede from that territory. It is a matter of debate to what extent this move was locally motivated and to what degree the Milošević-led Serbian government was involved. In any event, the
SAO Krajina
The Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Srpska autonomna oblast Krajina, Српска аутономна област Крајина) or SAO Krajina () was a self-proclaimed Serbian autonomous region (oblast) wit ...
was declared, which consisted of any Croatian territory with a substantial Serb population. The Croatian government viewed this move as a rebellion.
From the beginning of the Log Revolution and the end of April 1991, nearly 200 incidents involving the use of explosive devices and 89 attacks on the Croatian police were recorded.
The
Croatian Ministry of the Interior started arming an
increasing number of special police forces, and this led to the building of a real army. On 9 April 1991, Croatian President Tuđman ordered the special police forces to be renamed ''Zbor Narodne Garde'' ("National Guard"); this marks the creation of a separate military of Croatia.
Significant clashes from this period included the
siege of Kijevo, where over a thousand people were besieged in the inner Dalmatian village of Kijevo, and the
Borovo Selo killings, where Croatian policemen engaged Serb paramilitaries in the eastern Slavonian village of Borovo and suffered twelve casualties.
Violence gripped eastern Slavonian villages: in
Tovarnik
Tovarnik (, sr-Cyrl, Товарник, hu, Felsőtárnok, german: Sankt Georg, la, Ulmo) is a municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in Croatia next to the border with Serbia with the town of Šid and the village of Ilinci on the other sid ...
, a Croat policeman was killed by Serb paramilitaries on 2 May, while in
Sotin, a Serb civilian was killed on 5 May when he was caught in a crossfire between Serb and Croat paramilitaries.
On 6 May, the
1991 protest in Split
The 1991 protest in Split was a street protest against the Yugoslav People's Army (''Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija'' – JNA) held in Split, Croatia on 6 May 1991. The protest was organised by the Croatian Trade Union Association in the Brodos ...
against the siege of Kijevo at the Navy Command in Split resulted in the death of a Yugoslav People's Army soldier.
On 15 May,
Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić (; born 24 December 1934) is a Croatian lawyer and politician who served as President of Croatia from 2000 to 2010. Before serving two five-year terms as president, he was prime minister of SR Croatia (1990) after the fir ...
, a Croat, was scheduled to be the chairman of the rotating presidency of Yugoslavia. Serbia, aided by Kosovo, Montenegro, and Vojvodina, whose presidency votes were at that time under Serbian control, blocked the appointment, which was otherwise seen as largely ceremonial. This maneuver technically left Yugoslavia without a
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
and without a
commander-in-chief.
Two days later, a repeated attempt to vote on the issue failed.
Ante Marković
Ante Marković (; 25 November 1924 – 28 November 2011) was a Croatian and Yugoslav politician, businessman and engineer. Marković is most notable for having served as the last prime minister of SFR Yugoslavia.
Early life
Marković, was a Bos ...
, prime minister of Yugoslavia at the time, proposed appointing a panel which would wield presidential powers. It was not immediately clear who the panel members would be, apart from defense minister
Veljko Kadijević
Veljko Kadijević ( sr-Cyrl, Вељко Кадијевић; 21 November 1925 – 2 November 2014) was a Serbian general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the Yugoslav government from 1988 until his resignatio ...
, nor who would fill position of JNA commander-in-chief. The move was quickly rejected by Croatia as unconstitutional. The crisis was resolved after a six-week stalemate, and Mesić was elected president — the first non-communist to become Yugoslav head of state in decades.
Throughout this period, the federal army, the JNA, and the local
Territorial Defense Forces continued to be led by federal authorities controlled by Milošević.
Helsinki Watch
Helsinki Watch was a private American non-governmental organization established by Robert L. Bernstein in 1978, designed to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watch b ...
reported that Serb Krajina authorities executed Serbs who were willing to reach an accommodation with Croat officials.
Declaration of independence
On 19 May 1991, the Croatian authorities held a
referendum on independence with the option of remaining in Yugoslavia as a looser union.
Serb local authorities issued calls for a
boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...
, which were largely followed by Croatian Serbs. The referendum passed with 94% in favor.
The newly constituted Croatian military units held a military parade and review at
Stadion Kranjčevićeva
Stadion u Kranjčevićevoj ulici (''Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević, Kranjčević Street Stadium''), also known as Stadion Concordije between 1921 and 1945, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Trešnjevka neighbourhood, in the Croatian capital ...
in Zagreb on 28 May 1991.
The parliament of Croatia declared Croatia's independence and dissolved its association with Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991.
[ Brown & Karim (1995), p 117] The Croatian parliament's decision was partially boycotted by left-wing parliament deputies. The
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
and the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was a key element of the détente process during the Cold War. Although it did not have the force of a treaty, it recognized the boundaries of postwar Europe and established a mechanism f ...
urged Croatian authorities to place a three-month
moratorium on the decision.
The government of Yugoslavia responded to the declarations of independence of Croatia and Slovenia with Yugoslav Prime Minister
Ante Marković
Ante Marković (; 25 November 1924 – 28 November 2011) was a Croatian and Yugoslav politician, businessman and engineer. Marković is most notable for having served as the last prime minister of SFR Yugoslavia.
Early life
Marković, was a Bos ...
declaring the secessions to be illegal and contrary to the Constitution of Yugoslavia, and supported the JNA taking action to secure the integral unity of Yugoslavia.
In June and July 1991, the
short armed conflict in Slovenia came to a speedy end, partly because of the ethnic homogeneity of the population of Slovenia.
[ It was later revealed that a military strike against Slovenia, followed by a planned withdrawal, was conceived by Slobodan Milošević and ]Borisav Jović
Borisav Jović ( sr-Cyrl, Борисав Јовић, ; 19 October 1928 – 13 September 2021) was a Serbian economist, diplomat and politician who served as the President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1991.
He was Yugoslavia's amb ...
, then president of the SFR Yugoslavia presidency. Jović published his diary containing the information and repeated it in his testimony at the Milošević trial at the ICTY.
Croatia agreed to the Brioni Agreement
The Brioni Agreement, also known as the Brioni Declaration ( hr, Brijunska deklaracija, sr, Brionska deklaracija, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Брионска декларација, sl, Brionska deklaracija), is a document signed by representativ ...
that involved freezing its independence declaration for three months, which eased tensions a little.
Escalation of the conflict
In July, in an attempt to salvage what remained of Yugoslavia, JNA forces were involved in operations against predominantly Croat areas. In July the Serb-led Territorial Defence Forces started their advance on Dalmatian coastal areas in Operation Coast-91
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Operation (game), ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* Operations (magazine ...
. By early August, large areas of Banovina were overrun by Serb forces.
With the start of military operations in Croatia, Croats and a number of Serbian conscripts started to desert the JNA ''en masse'', similar to what had happened in Slovenia. Albanians
The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...
and Macedonians started to search for a way to legally leave the JNA or serve their conscription term in Macedonia; these moves further homogenized the ethnic composition of JNA troops in or near Croatia.
One month after Croatia declared its independence, the Yugoslav army and other Serb forces held something less than one-third of the Croatian territory, mostly in areas with a predominantly ethnic Serb population. The JNA military strategy partly consisted of extensive shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
ing, at times irrespective of the presence of civilians. As the war progressed, the cities of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...
, Gospić
Gospić () is a town in the mountainous and sparsely populated region of Lika, Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Lika-Senj County. Gospić is located near the Lika River in the middle of a karst field ( Ličko Polje).
Gospić is the ...
, Šibenik
Šibenik () is a historic city in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is a political, educational, transport, industrial and tourist center of Šibenik-Knin County, and is also the ...
, Zadar
Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...
, Karlovac
Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. According to the 2011 census, its population was 55,705.
Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located on the Zagreb- Rijeka highway and railway line, south-west of Zagre ...
, Sisak, Slavonski Brod
Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...
, Osijek
Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...
, Vinkovci
Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city's registered population was 28,247 in the 2021 census, the total population of the city was 31,057, making it the largest town of the county. Surrounde ...
, and Vukovar
Vukovar () ( sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, hu, Vukovár, german: Wukowar) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern region of Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka and the Danube. Vukovar is the seat of ...
all came under attack by Yugoslav forces. The United Nations (UN) imposed a weapons embargo
Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they m ...
; this did not affect JNA-backed Serb forces significantly, as they had the JNA arsenal at their disposal, but it caused serious trouble for the newly formed Croatian army. The Croatian government started smuggling weapons over its borders.
In August 1991, the Battle of Vukovar
The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Before the Croatian War of Independence the Bar ...
began. Eastern Slavonia was gravely impacted throughout this period, starting with the Dalj massacre
The Dalj massacre was the killing of 56 or 57 Croats in Dalj, Croatia on 1 August 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. In addition to civilian victims, the figure includes 20 Croatian policemen, 15 Croatian National Guard (''Zbor n ...
, and fronts developed around Osijek
Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...
and Vinkovci
Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city's registered population was 28,247 in the 2021 census, the total population of the city was 31,057, making it the largest town of the county. Surrounde ...
in parallel to the encirclement of Vukovar. In September, Serbian troops completely surrounded the city of Vukovar. Croatian troops, including the 204th Vukovar Brigade, entrenched themselves within the city and held their ground against elite armored and mechanized brigades of the JNA, as well as Serb paramilitary units. Vukovar was almost completely devastated; 15,000 houses were destroyed. Some ethnic Croatian civilians had taken shelter inside the city. Other members of the civilian population fled the area ''en masse''. Death toll
''Death toll'' is the number of dead as a result of a war, disaster, or other event.
It may also refer to:
* '' Death Toll'', 2008 action film
* ''High-Ballin, 1978 action comedy film also released as ''Death Toll''
See also
* List of list ...
estimates for Vukovar as a result of the siege range from 1,798 to 5,000. A further 22,000 were exiled from Vukovar immediately after the town was captured.
Some estimates include 220,000 Croats and 300,000 Serbs internally displaced
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
A ...
for the duration of the war in Croatia.[ Zanotti (2011), pp. 111] In many areas, large numbers of civilians were forced out by the military. It was at this time that the term ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
—the meaning of which ranged from eviction to murder—first entered the English lexicon.
On October 3, the Yugoslav Navy
The Yugoslav Navy ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска ратна морнарица, Jugoslavenska ratna mornarica, Yugoslav War Navy), was the navy of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1992. It was essentially a coastal defense force with the miss ...
renewed its blockade of the main ports of Croatia. This move followed months of standoff for JNA positions in Dalmatia and elsewhere now known as the Battle of the Barracks
The Battle of the Barracks ( hr, Bitka za vojarne) was a series of engagements that occurred in mid-to-late 1991 between the Croatian National Guard (ZNG, later renamed the Croatian Army) and the Croatian police on one side and the Yugoslav Pe ...
. It also coincided with the end of Operation Coast-91
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Operation (game), ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* Operations (magazine ...
, in which the JNA failed to occupy the coastline in an attempt to cut off Dalmatia's access to the rest of Croatia.
On October 5, President Tuđman made a speech in which he called upon the whole population to mobilize and defend against "Greater Serbian imperialism" pursued by the Serb-led JNA, Serbian paramilitary formations, and rebel Serb forces. On 7 October, the Yugoslav air force attacked the main government building in Zagreb, an incident referred to as the bombing of the Banski Dvori. The next day, as a previously agreed three-month moratorium on implementation of the declaration of independence expired, the Croatian Parliament severed all remaining ties with Yugoslavia. 8 October is now celebrated as Independence Day in Croatia. The bombing of the government offices and the Siege of Dubrovnik that started in October were contributing factors that led to European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU) sanctions against Serbia. On 15 October after the capture of Cavtat
Cavtat (, it, Ragusa Vecchia, lit=Old Ragusa) is a village in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. It is on the Adriatic Sea coast south of Dubrovnik and is the centre of the Konavle municipality.
History
Antiquity
The original city was ...
by the JNA, local Serbs led by Aco Apolonio proclaimed the Dubrovnik Republic
hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world"
, population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century
, currency = ...
. The international media focused on the damage to Dubrovnik's cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...
; concerns about civilian casualties and pivotal battles such as the one in Vukovar were pushed out of public view. Nonetheless, artillery attacks on Dubrovnik damaged 56% of its buildings to some degree, as the historic walled city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, sustained 650 hits by artillery rounds.
Peak of the war
In response to the 5th JNA Corps advance across the Sava River
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...
towards Pakrac
Pakrac is a town in western Slavonia, Croatia, population 4,842, total municipality population 8,460 (census 2011). Pakrac is located on the road and railroad connecting the regions of Posavina and Podravina.
Name
In Croatian the town is known a ...
and further north into western Slavonia, the Croatian army began a successful counterattack
A counterattack is a tactic employed in response to an attack, with the term originating in "war games". The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, while the specific objectives typically seek ...
in early November 1991, its first major offensive operation of the war. Operation Otkos 10
Operation Swath-10 ( hr, Operacija Otkos-10) was a military offensive undertaken by the Croatian Army (''Hrvatska vojska'', or HV) against the SAO Western Slavonia Territorial Defense Forces on Bilogora Mountain in western Slavonia. Occurring f ...
(31 October to 4 November) resulted in Croatia recapturing an area between the Bilogora Bilogora (Bilo-gora, or ''Bilogorje'', ''Bilo-gorje'') is a low mountainous range in Central Croatia. It consists of a series of hills and small plains some 80 kilometres in length stretching in the direction northwest-southeast, along the southwest ...
and Papuk mountains. The Croatian Army recaptured approximately of territory in this operation.
The Vukovar massacre took place in November; the survivors were transported to prison camps such as Ovčara and Velepromet, with the majority ending up in Sremska Mitrovica prison camp. The sustained siege of Vukovar attracted heavy international media attention. Many international journalists were in or near Vukovar, as was UN peace mediator Cyrus Vance, who had been Secretary of State to former US President Carter
Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to:
Geography United States
* Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Carter, Montana, a census-designated place
* Carter ...
.
Also in eastern Slavonia, the Lovas massacre
The Lovas killings ( hr, masakr u Lovasu, sr, zločini u Lovasu, script=Latn, ) involved the killing of 70 Croat civilian residents of the village of Lovas between 10 and 18 October 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The killings ...
occurred in October and the Erdut massacre
The Erdut killings were a series of murders of 37 Hungarians, Hungarian and Croats, Croat civilians in the village of Erdut, Croatia committed by Croatian Serb forces and Serb Volunteer Guard paramilitaries between November 1991 and June 1992, ...
in November 1991, before and after the fall of Vukovar.[ Milošević indictment, p. 17] At the same time, the Škabrnja massacre and Gospić massacre
The Gospić massacre was the mass killing of 100–120 predominantly Serb civilians in Gospić, Croatia during the last two weeks of October 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The majority of the victims were ethnic Serbs arrested i ...
occurred in the Dalmatian hinterland.
On 14 November, the Navy blockade of Dalmatian ports was challenged by civilian ships. The confrontation culminated in the Battle of the Dalmatian channels, when Croatian coastal and island based artillery damaged, sank, or captured a number of Yugoslav navy vessels, including ''Mukos'' PČ 176, later rechristened PB 62 ''Šolta''. After the battle, the Yugoslav naval operations were effectively limited to the southern Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...
.
Croatian forces made further advances in the second half of December, including Operation Orkan 91
Operation Hurricane-91 ( hr, Operacija Orkan-91) was a military offensive undertaken by the Croatian Army (''Hrvatska vojska'' – HV) against the Yugoslav People's Army (''Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija'' – JNA) and SAO Western Slavonia Terri ...
. In the course of Orkan '91, the Croatian army recaptured approximately of territory. The end of the operation marked the end of a six-month-long phase of intense fighting: 10,000 people had died; hundreds of thousands had fled and tens of thousands of homes had been destroyed.
On December 19, as the intensity of the fighting increased, Croatia won its first diplomatic recognition
Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral declarative political act of a state that acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state (may be also a recognized state). Recognition can be accorde ...
by a western nation—Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
—while the Serbian Autonomous Oblasts From August 1990 to November 1991, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, several Serb Autonomous Regions, or Districts ( sr, Српска аутономна област (САО) / ) were proclaimed in the Yugoslav republics of SR Croatia and SR Bosnia ...
in Krajina and western Slavonia officially declared themselves the Republic of Serbian Krajina. Four days later, Germany recognized Croatian independence. On December 26, 1991, the Serb-dominated federal presidency announced plans for a smaller Yugoslavia that could include the territory captured from Croatia during the war.
However, on December 21, 1991 for the first time in the war Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...
was under attack. The Serbian Forces attacked the airport near the city of Vrsar
Vrsar ( vec, Orsera) is a small seaside town and a municipality in Istria, Croatia located 9 kilometers south of Poreč. The historical center is located on top of a hill, including the St. Martin parish church and the 40-meter high bell tower. I ...
, situated in the south-western of the peninsula between the city of Poreč
Poreč (; it, Parenzo; la, Parens or ; grc, Πάρενθος, Párenthos) is a town and municipality on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, in Istria County, west Croatia. Its major landmark is the 6th-century Euphrasian Basilica, wh ...
and Rovinj
Rovinj (; it, Rovigno; Istriot: or ; grc, Ρυγίνιον, Rygínion; la, Ruginium) is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 14,294 (2011). Located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, it is a p ...
, with two MiG-21
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...
and two Galeb G-2
The Soko G-2 Galeb ( en, Seagull) is a Yugoslav single engine, two-seater jet trainer and light ground-attack aircraft. The G-2 was developed during the 1950s by the Aeronautical Technical Institute at Žarkovo as a replacement for the Lockhee ...
. Afterwards, Yugoslav airplanes carpet bombed Vrsar's Crljenka airport, resulting in two deaths. Mediated by foreign diplomats, ceasefires were frequently signed and frequently broken. Croatia lost much territory, but expanded the Croatian Army from the seven brigades it had at the time of the first ceasefire to 60 brigades and 37 independent battalions by December 31, 1991.[ Thomas, (2006), pp. 21–25]
The Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia The Arbitration Commission of the Conference on Yugoslavia (commonly known as Badinter Arbitration Committee) was an arbitration body set up by the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community (EEC) on 27 August 1991 to provide the confer ...
, also referred to as Badinter Arbitration Committee, was set up by the Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
of the European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
(EEC) on August 27, 1991, to provide the Conference on Yugoslavia with legal advice. The five-member Commission consisted of presidents of Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
s in the EEC. Starting in late November 1991, the committee rendered ten opinions. The Commission stated, among other things, that SFR Yugoslavia was in the process of dissolution and that the internal boundaries of Yugoslav republics may not be altered unless freely agreed upon.
Factors in favour of Croatia's preservation of its pre-war borders were the Yugoslav Federal Constitution Amendments of 1971, and the Yugoslav Federal Constitution of 1974. The 1971 amendments introduced a concept that sovereign rights were exercised by the federal units, and that the federation had only the authority specifically transferred to it by the constitution. The 1974 Constitution confirmed and strengthened the principles introduced in 1971. The borders had been defined by demarcation commissions in 1947, pursuant to decisions of AVNOJ in 1943 and 1945 regarding the federal organization of Yugoslavia.
1992: Ceasefire
A new UN-sponsored ceasefire
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
, the fifteenth in just six months, was agreed on January 2, 1992, and came into force the next day. This so-called Sarajevo Agreement
The Vance plan ( hr, Vanceov plan, sr, Vensov plan, italics=yes) was a peace plan negotiated by the former United States Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in November 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. At that time, Vance was the ...
became a lasting ceasefire. Croatia was officially recognized by the European Community on January 15, 1992. Even though the JNA began to withdraw from Croatia, including Krajina, the RSK clearly retained the upper hand in the occupied territories due to support from Serbia. By that time, the RSK encompassed of territory. The area size did not encompass another of occupied territory near Dubrovnik, as that area was not considered part of the RSK.
Ending the series of unsuccessful ceasefires, the UN deployed a protection force in Serbian-held Croatia—the United Nations Protection Force
The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav War ...
(UNPROFOR)—to supervise and maintain the agreement. The UNPROFOR was officially created by UN Security Council Resolution 743 on February 21, 1992. The warring parties mostly moved to entrenched positions, and the JNA soon retreated from Croatia into Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a new conflict was anticipated. Croatia became a member of the UN on May 22, 1992, which was conditional upon Croatia amending its constitution to protect the human rights of minority groups and dissidents.
Expulsions of the non-Serb civilian population remaining in the occupied territories continued despite the presence of the UNPROFOR peacekeeping troops, and in some cases, with UN troops being virtually enlisted as accomplices.
The Yugoslav People's Army took thousands of prisoners during the war in Croatia, and interned them in camps in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The Croatian forces also captured some Serbian prisoners, and the two sides agreed to several prisoner exchange
A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange.
Geneva Conventions
Under the Geneva Convent ...
s; most prisoners were freed by the end of 1992. Some infamous prisons included the Sremska Mitrovica camp, the Stajićevo camp
The Stajićevo camp (''Logor Stajićevo'') was an agricultural farm in Stajićevo near Zrenjanin, Serbia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia, then FRY) where Croatian prisoners of war and civilians were kept by Serbian authorities. The camp also acted a ...
, and the Begejci camp in Serbia, and the Morinj camp in Montenegro. The Croatian Army also established detention camps, such as the Lora prison camp
The Lora prison camp was a prison camp in Split, Croatia. It was active from 1992 to 1997 with mainly Serbian residents of Split and prisoners of war being imprisoned throughout the Croatian War of Independence. The camp was the site of human rig ...
in Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, enterta ...
.
Armed conflict in Croatia continued intermittently on a smaller scale. There were several smaller operations undertaken by Croatian forces to relieve the siege of Dubrovnik, and other Croatian cities (Šibenik, Zadar and Gospić) from Krajina forces. Battles included the Miljevci plateau incident
The Battle of the Miljevci Plateau was a clash of the Croatian Army (''Hrvatska vojska'' - HV) and forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), fought on 21–23 June 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. The battle represented the ...
(between Krka and Drniš
Drniš is a town in Croatia, located in inland Dalmatia, about halfway between Šibenik and Knin.
History
The name Drniš was mentioned for the first time in a contract dated March 8, 1494. However, there are traces of older Middle Ages' fortr ...
), on June 21–22, 1992, Operation Jaguar at Križ Hill near Bibinje
Bibinje (, it, Argimbusi, la, Vibiana) is a village and a municipality in southern Croatia, situated southeast from Zadar, between the Adriatic tourist road and the sea, having a four-kilometer coastline with beaches and pathways. According to ...
and Zadar, on May 22, 1992, and a series of military actions in the Dubrovnik hinterland: Operation Tigar
Operation Tiger ( hr, Operacija Tigar) was a Croatian Army (HV) offensive conducted in areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina near Dubrovnik between 1 and 13 July 1992. It was designed to push the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) away fro ...
, on 1–13 July 1992, in Konavle
Konavle () is a municipality and a small region located southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
It is administratively part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the center of the municipality is Cavtat.
Demographics
The total municipality population wa ...
, on 20–24 September 1992, and at Vlaštica on September 22–25, 1992. Combat near Dubrovnik was followed by the withdrawal of JNA from Konavle, between September 30 and October 20, 1992. The Prevlaka
Prevlaka () is a small peninsula in southern Croatia, near the border with Montenegro, at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor on the eastern Adriatic coast.
Because of its strategic location in the southern Adriatic, in the aftermath of the SFR Yu ...
peninsula guarding entrance to the Bay of Kotor
The Bay of Kotor ( Montenegrin and Serbian: , Italian: ), also known as the Boka, is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated around the bay. It is also the southernmost part of the hi ...
was demilitarized and turned over to the UNPROFOR, while the remainder of Konavle was restored to the Croatian authorities.
1993: Croatian military advances
Fighting was renewed at the beginning of 1993, as the Croatian army launched Operation Maslenica
Operation Maslenica was a Croatian Army offensive launched in January 1993 to retake territory in northern Dalmatia and Lika from Krajina Serb forces, with the stated military objective of pushing the Serbs back from approaches to Zadar, Masl ...
, an offensive operation in the Zadar area on January 22. The objective of the attack was to improve the strategic situation in that area, as it targeted the city airport and the Maslenica Bridge, the last entirely overland link between Zagreb and the city of Zadar until the bridge area was captured in September 1991. The attack proved successful as it met its declared objectives, but at a high cost, as 114 Croat and 490 Serb soldiers were killed in a relatively limited theater of operations.
While Operation Maslenica was in progress, Croatian forces attacked Serb positions to the east. They advanced towards the Peruća Hydroelectric Dam and captured it by January 28, 1993, shortly after Serb militiamen chased away the UN peacekeepers protecting the dam. UN forces had been present at the site since the summer of 1992. They discovered that the Serbs had planted 35 to 37 tons of explosives spread over seven different sites on the dam in a way that prevented the explosives' removal; the charges were left in place. Retreating Serb forces detonated three of explosive charges totaling 5 tons within the high dam in an attempt to cause it to fail and flood the area downstream. The disaster was prevented by Mark Nicholas Gray, a colonel in the British Royal Marines
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
, a lieutenant at the time, who was a UN military observer at the site. He risked being disciplined for acting beyond his authority by lowering the reservoir level, which held of water, before the dam was blown up. His action saved the lives of 20,000 people who would otherwise have drowned or become homeless.
Operation Medak Pocket
Operation Medak Pocket ( sh, script=Latn, Operacija Medački džep, ) was a military operation undertaken by the Croatian Army between 9 – 17 September 1993, in which a salient reaching the south suburbs of Gospić, in the south-central Lika ...
took place in a salient south of Gospić, from September 9–17. The offensive was undertaken by the Croatian army to stop Serbian artillery in the area from shelling nearby Gospić. The operation met its stated objective of removing the artillery threat, as Croatian troops overran the salient, but it was marred by war crimes. The ICTY later indicted Croatian officers for war crimes. The operation was halted amid international pressure, and an agreement was reached that the Croatian troops were to withdraw to positions held prior to September 9, while UN troops were to occupy the salient alone. The events that followed remain controversial, as Canadian authorities reported that the Croatian army intermittently fought against the advancing Canadian Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry before finally retreating after sustaining 27 fatalities. The Croatian ministry of defense and UN officer's testimonies given during the Ademi-Norac trial deny that the battle occurred.
On February 18, 1993, Croatian authorities signed the Daruvar Agreement with local Serb leaders in Western Slavonia. The aim of the secret agreement was normalizing life for local populations near the frontline. However, authorities in Knin learned of this and arrested the Serb leaders responsible. In June 1993, Serbs began voting in a referendum on merging Krajina territory with Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Feder ...
. Milan Martić, acting as the RSK interior minister, advocated a merger of the "two Serbian states as the first stage in the establishment of a state of all Serbs" in his April 3 letter to the Assembly of the Republika Srpska. On January 21, 1994, Martić stated that he would "speed up the process of unification and pass on the baton to all Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević" if elected president of the RSK". These intentions were countered by the United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...
(UNSC) Resolution 871 in October 1993, when the UNSC affirmed for the first time that the United Nations Protected Areas, i.e. the RSK held areas, were an integral part of the Republic of Croatia.
During 1992 and 1993, an estimated 225,000 Croats, as well as refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, settled in Croatia. Croatian volunteers and some conscripted soldiers participated in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war ...
. In September 1992, Croatia had accepted 335,985 refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, most of whom were Bosniak civilians (excluding men of drafting age). The large number of refugees significantly strained the Croatian economy and infrastructure. The American Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith
Peter Woodard Galbraith (born December 31, 1950) is an American author, academic, commentator, politician, policy advisor, and former diplomat.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he helped uncover Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds. From 1993 ...
, tried to put the number of Muslim refugees in Croatia into a proper perspective in an interview on 8 November 1993. He said the situation would be the equivalent of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
taking in 30,000,000 refugees.
1994: Erosion of support for Krajina
In 1992, the Croat-Bosniak conflict erupted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, just as each was fighting with the Bosnian Serbs. The war was originally fought between the Croatian Defence Council
The Croatian Defence Council ( hr, Hrvatsko vijeće obrane or HVO) was the official military formation of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, an unrecognized entity that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996. The HVO wa ...
and Croatian volunteer troops on one side and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( bs, Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine or ARBiH), often referred to as Bosnian Army, was the military force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was established by the government of ...
(ARBiH) on the other, but by 1994, the Croatian Army had an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 troops involved in the fighting. Under pressure from the United States, the belligerents agreed on a truce in late February, followed by a meeting of Croatian, Bosnian, and Bosnian Croat representatives with US Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Warren Minor Christopher (October 27, 1925March 18, 2011) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician. During Bill Clinton's first term as president, he served as the 63rd United States Secretary of State.
Born in Scranton, North Dakota, ...
in Washington, D.C. on February 26, 1994. On March 4, Franjo Tuđman endorsed the agreement providing for the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists ...
and an alliance between Bosnian and Croatian armies against the Serb forces.
This led to the dismantling of Herzeg-Bosnia
The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia ( hr, Hrvatska Republika Herceg-Bosna) was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bo ...
and reduced the number of warring factions in Bosnia and Herzegovina from three to two.
In late 1994, the Croatian Army intervened in Bosnia from November 1–3, in Operation Cincar near Kupres
Kupres ( sr-cyrl, Купрес) is a town and municipality located in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 5,057 inhabitants, while the town of Kupres has ...
, and from November 29 – December 24 in the '' Winter '94'' operation near Dinara
Dinara is a long mountain range in the Dinaric Alps, located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has four major mountains or peaks, from north-west to south-east:
* Ilica or Ujilica (1654 m)
* Sinjal or Dinara (1831 m), ...
and Livno
Livno ( sr-cyrl, Ливно, ) is a city and the administrative center of Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the river Bistrica in the southeastern edge of the Livno Field ...
.[ Burg and Shoup (2000), p. 331] These operations were undertaken to detract from the siege of the Bihać region and to approach the RSK capital of Knin from the north, isolating it on three sides.[ Ramet (2006), p. 452]
During this time, unsuccessful negotiations mediated by the UN were under way between the Croatian and RSK governments. The matters under discussion included opening the Serb-occupied part of the Zagreb–Slavonski Brod motorway near Okučani
Okučani is a village and municipal centre in western Slavonia, Croatia. It is located 19 km southeast of Novska and 17 km west of Nova Gradiška. to transit traffic, as well as the putative status of Serbian-majority areas within Croatia. The motorway initially reopened at the end of 1994, but it was soon closed again due to security issues. Repeated failures to resolve the two disputes would serve as triggers for major Croatian offensives in 1995.
At the same time, the Krajina army continued the Siege of Bihać
The siege of Bihać was a three-year-long siege of the northwestern Bosnian town of Bihać by the Army of the Republika Srpska, the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina and Bosniak dissenters led by the Bosniak politician Fikret Abdić d ...
, together with the Army of Republika Srpska
The Army of Republika Srpska ( sr, Војска Републике Српске/Vojska Republike Srpske; ВРС/VRS), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of Republika Srpska (RS), the self-proclaimed Serb ...
from Bosnia. Michael Williams, an official of the UN peacekeeping force, said that when the village of Vedro Polje west of Bihać had fallen to a RSK unit in late November 1994, the siege entered the final stage. He added that heavy tank and artillery fire against the town of Velika Kladuša
Velika Kladuša ( sr-cyrl, Велика Кладуша, ; lit. "Great Kladuša") is a town and municipality located in Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the far n ...
in the north of the Bihać enclave was coming from the RSK. Western military analysts said that among the array of Serbian surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
systems that surrounded the Bihać pocket on Croatian territory, there was a modern SAM-2
The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system, built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the most w ...
system probably brought there from Belgrade. In response to the situation, the Security Council passed Resolution 958, which allowed NATO aircraft deployed as a part of the Operation Deny Flight
Operation Deny Flight was a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operation that began on 12 April 1993 as the enforcement of a United Nations (UN) no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The United Nations and NATO later expanded the mis ...
to operate in Croatia. On November 21, NATO attacked the Udbina
Udbina is a village and a municipality in historical Krbava, in the Lika region of Croatia. It is administratively a part of the Lika-Senj County.
Geography
Udbina is located in the large karst field called Krbava. It is approximately 45 kilomet ...
airfield controlled by the RSK, temporarily disabling runways. Following the Udbina strike, NATO continued to launch strikes in the area, and on November 23, after a NATO reconnaissance plane was illuminated by the radar of a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, NATO planes attacked a SAM site near Dvor
Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...
with AGM-88 HARM
The AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) is a tactical, air-to-surface missile, air-to-surface anti-radiation missile designed to home in on electronic transmissions coming from surface-to-air radar systems. It was originally developed ...
anti-radiation missiles
An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be t ...
.[ Bucknam (2003), pp. 182–83]
In later campaigns, the Croatian army would pursue a variant of blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') is a word used to describe a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with close air su ...
tactics, with the Guard brigades punching through the enemy lines while the other units simply held the lines at other points and completed an encirclement of the enemy units. In a further attempt to bolster its armed forces, Croatia hired Military Professional Resources Inc.
L-3 MPRI, was a global provider of private military contractor services with customers that included U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement agencies, ...
(MPRI) in September 1994 to train some of its officers and NCOs. Begun in January 1995, MPRI's assignment involved fifteen advisors who taught basic officer leadership skills and training management. MPRI activities were reviewed in advance by the US State Department to ensure they did not involve tactical training or violate the UN arms embargo still in place.
1995: End of the war
Tensions were renewed at the beginning of 1995 as Croatia sought to put increasing pressure on the RSK. In a five-page letter on 12 January Franjo Tuđman formally told the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (; , ar, بطرس بطرس غالي ', ; 14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1992 to 1996. An academic ...
that Croatia was ending the agreement permitting the stationing of UNPROFOR in Croatia, effective 31 March. The move was purportedly motivated by actions by Serbia and the Serb-dominated Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to provide assistance to the Serb occupation of Croatia and allegedly integrate the occupied areas into Yugoslav territory. The situation was noted and addressed by the UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
:
International peacemaking efforts continued, and a new peace plan called the Z-4 plan was presented to Croatian and Krajina authorities. There was no initial Croatian response, and the Serbs flatly refused the proposal. As the deadline for UNPROFOR to pull out neared, a new UN peacekeeping mission was proposed with an increased mandate to patrol Croatia's internationally recognized borders. Initially the Serbs opposed the move, and tanks were moved from Serbia into eastern Croatia. A settlement was finally reached, and the new UN peacekeeping mission was approved by United Nations Security Council Resolution 981
United Nations Security Council resolution 981, adopted unanimously on 31 March 1995, after reaffirming all United Nations Security Council resolution, resolutions on the situation in the former Yugoslavia, the council established the United Natio ...
on March 31. The name of the mission was the subject of a last-minute dispute, as Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granić insisted that the word ''Croatia'' be added to the force's name. The name United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia
The United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia, commonly abbreviated UNCRO, was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Croatia. It was established under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter and approved by the UN S ...
(UNCRO) was approved.
Violence erupted again in early May 1995. The RSK lost support from the Serbian government in Belgrade, partly as a result of international pressure. At the same time, the Croatian Operation Flash
Operation Flash ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Operacija Bljesak, Операција Бљесак) was a brief Croatian Army (HV) offensive conducted against the forces of the self-declared proto-state Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) from 1&nda ...
reclaimed all of the previously occupied territory in Western Slavonia. In retaliation, Serb forces attacked Zagreb with rockets, killing 7 and wounding over 200 civilians. The Yugoslav army responded to the offensive with a show of force, moving tanks towards the Croatian border, in an apparent effort to stave off a possible attack on the occupied area in Eastern Slavonia.
During the following months, international efforts mainly concerned the largely unsuccessful United Nations Safe Areas
United Nations Safe Areas (UN Safe Areas) were humanitarian corridors established in 1993 in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War by several resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.
On 16 April 1993, with t ...
set up in Bosnia and Herzegovina and trying to set up a more lasting ceasefire in Croatia. The two issues virtually merged by July 1995 when a number of the safe areas in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina were overrun and one in Bihać
Bihać ( cyrl, Бихаћ) is a city and the administrative centre of Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of river Una in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovin ...
was threatened. In 1994, Croatia had already signaled that it would not allow Bihać to be captured, and a new confidence in the Croatian military's ability to recapture occupied areas brought about a demand from Croatian authorities that no further ceasefires were to be negotiated; the occupied territories would be re-integrated into Croatia. These developments and the Washington Agreement
The Washington Agreement ( Croatian: ''washingtonski sporazum'' and Bosnian: ''vašingtonski sporazum'') was a ceasefire agreement between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, signed in Washington ...
, a ceasefire signed in the Bosnian theater, led to another meeting of presidents of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on 22 July, when the Split Agreement was adopted. In it, Bosnia and Herzegovina invited Croatia to provide military and other assistance, particularly in the Bihać area. Croatia accepted, committing itself to an armed intervention.
From 25 to 30 July, the Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council (HVO) troops attacked Serb-held territory north of Mount Dinara
Dinara is a long mountain range in the Dinaric Alps, located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has four major mountains or peaks, from north-west to south-east:
* Ilica or Ujilica (1654 m)
* Sinjal or Dinara (1831 m), ...
, capturing Bosansko Grahovo
Bosansko Grahovo ( sr-cyr, Босанско Грахово) is a town and municipality located in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in western Bosnia and Herzegovina along ...
and Glamoč
Glamoč ( sr-cyrl, Гламоч) is a town and municipality located in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the foothills of Stareti ...
during Operation Summer '95
Operation Summer '95 ( hr, Operacija Ljeto '95) was a joint military offensive of the Croatian Army (HV) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) that took place north-west of the Livanjsko Polje, and around Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoč in wes ...
. That offensive paved the way for the military recapture of occupied territory around Knin, as it severed the last efficient resupply route between Banja Luka and Knin. On 4 August, Croatia started Operation Storm
}) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a front against the self-declared proto-state Re ...
, with the aim of recapturing almost all of the occupied territory in Croatia, except for a comparatively small strip of land, located along the Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
, at a considerable distance from the bulk of the contested land. The offensive, involving 100,000 Croatian soldiers, was the largest single land battle fought in Europe since World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Operation Storm achieved its goals and was declared completed on 8 August.
The Croatian human rights organization ''Hrvatski helsinški odbor,'' counted 677 Serb civilians killed by Croatian forces after Operation Storm, mostly old people who remained, while other Serb civilians fled. An additional 837 Serb civilians are listed as missing following Operation Storm. Other sources indicate a 181 more victims were killed by Croatian forces and buried in a mass grave in Mrkonjić Grad, following a continuation of the Operation Storm offensive into Bosnia.
Many of the civilian population of the occupied areas fled during the offensive or immediately after its completion, in what was later described in various terms ranging from expulsion to planned evacuation. Krajina Serb sources (Documents of HQ of Civilian Protection of RSK, Supreme Council of Defense published by Kovačević,[ Kovačević and Linta (2003), pp. 93–94] Sekulić, and Vrcelj) confirm that the evacuation of Serbs was organized and planned beforehand. According to Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, "some 200,000 Croatian Serbs, including the entire Croatian Serb Army, fled to the neighbouring Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Bosnian Serb control. In the aftermath of the operations members of the Croatian Army and police murdered, tortured, and forcibly expelled Croatian Serb civilians who had remained in the area as well as members of the withdrawing Croatian Serb armed forces". The ICTY, on the other hand, concluded that only about 20,000 people were deported. The BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
noted 200,000 Serb refugees at one point.
Croatian refugees exiled in 1991 were finally allowed to return to their homes. In 1996 alone, about 85,000 displaced Croats returned to the former Krajina and western Slavonia, according to the estimates of the
.
In the months that followed, there were still some intermittent, mainly artillery, attacks from Serb-held areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Dubrovnik area and elsewhere.
, was faced with the possibility of military confrontation with Croatia. Such a possibility was repeatedly stated by Tuđman after Storm.
The threat was underlined by the movement of troops to the region in mid-October,
as well as a repeat of an earlier threat to intervene militarily—specifically saying that the Croatian Army could intervene if no peace agreement was reached by the end of the month.
on instructions received from Slobodan Milošević and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia officials.
The agreement stated that the remaining occupied area was to be returned to Croatia, with a two-year transitional period.
of 15 January 1996.
for the local Serbian community.
The transitional period was subsequently extended by a year. On 15 January 1998, the UNTAES mandate ended and Croatia regained full control of the area.
As the UNTAES replaced the UNCRO mission, the Prevlaka peninsula, previously under UNCRO control, was put under the control of
(UNMOP). The UNMOP was established by
of 15 January 1996, and terminated on 15 December 2002.
and defected.
in the war, ultimately dying after being shot down in 1995.
and defected.
He later fought on behalf of Croatian forces in the war. The MiG-21bis itself was later shot down on 24 June 1992, killing pilot .
On 15 May 1992, air force pilots and flew their
and defected. Both later fought on behalf of Croatian forces in the war and survived. Ivandić's MiG-21bis was shot down on 14 September 1993, killing pilot .
The standard term applied to the war as directly translated from Croatian is ''Homeland war'' ( hr, Domovinski rat),
while the term ''Croatian War of Independence'' is also used.
Early English sources also called it the ''War in Croatia'', the ''Serbo-Croatian War'',
and the ''Conflict in Yugoslavia''.
Different translations of the Croatian name for the war are also sometimes used, such as ''Patriotic War'', although such use by native speakers of English is rare.
The official term used in Croatian is the most widespread name used in Croatia but other terms are also used. Another is ''Greater-Serbian Aggression'' ( hr, Velikosrpska agresija). The term was widely used by the media during the war, and is still sometimes used by the Croatian media, politicians and others.
war. The government of Serbia often states that it was entirely a "civil war". The prevailing view in Croatia and of most international law experts, including the
, is that the war was an international conflict, between the rump Yugoslavia and Serbia against Croatia, supported by Serbs in Croatia. The Croatian international legal scholar and
, said that the question of aggression was not one for the ICJ to decide as at the time of the verdict, the international crime of aggression had not yet been defined. Neither Croatia nor Yugoslavia ever formally
on each other.
Unlike the Serbian position that the conflict need not be declared as it was a civil war, the Croatian motivation for not declaring war was that Tuđman believed that Croatia could not confront the JNA directly and did everything to avoid an all-out war.
Most sources place the total number of deaths from the war at around 20,000.
According to the head of the Croatian Commission for Missing Persons, Colonel Ivan Grujić, Croatia suffered 12,000 killed or missing, including 6,788 soldiers and 4,508 civilians.
Another source gives a figure of 14,000 killed on the Croatian side, of whom 43.4% were civilians. Official figures from 1996 also list 35,000 wounded.
(citing figures from January 2003 presented by scientific researcher Dražen Živić). Close to 2,400 persons were reported missing during the war. In 2018, the Croatian Memorial-Documentation Center of Homeland War published new figures, indicating 22,211 killed or missing in the war: 15,007 killed or missing on the Croatian side and 7,204 killed or missing on the Serb side. 1,077 of those killed on the territories of the Republic of Serbian Krajina were non-Serbs.
However, on Croatian government-controlled territory, the Center did not break-out the ethnic structure of the total number of 5,657 civilians killed, due to missing data.
As of 2016, the Croatian government listed 1,993 missing persons from the war, of whom 1093 were Croats (428 soldiers and 665 civilians), while the remaining 900 were Serbs (5 soldiers and 895 civilians). As of 2009, there were more than 52,000 persons in Croatia registered as disabled due to their participation in the war. This figure includes not only those disabled physically due to wounds or injuries sustained, but also persons whose health deteriorated due to their involvement in the war, including diagnoses of chronic diseases such as
(PTSD). In 2010, the number of war-related PTSD-diagnosed persons was 32,000.
In total, the war caused 500,000 refugees and displaced persons. Around 196,000