Croatian War of Independence
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Croatian War of Independence (Croatian: Domovinski rat (Homeland war)), was a war in Croatia from 1991 to 1995, between the Croatian government and Croatian Serbs, backed up by Serbia-controlled Yugoslav People's Army. The Croatian side aimed to establish the internationally recognized sovereignity for the Republic of Croatia, previously a socialist republic in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, while Serbs wanted to establish new boundaries in parts of Croatia with a Serb majority, effectively seeking secession for them from the rest of Croatia. The war was striking for its brutality in a relatively developed society in Europe, and in modern times.
Prelude - Dissent Throughout Yugoslavia
The war in Croatia came about as a result of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and the rise of nationalisms. Crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communism in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War, as symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Yugoslavia, the national Communist party, officially called Alliance or League of Communists, was losing its ideological potency.
Already in 1987, Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milošević had become president of Serbia, the largest and most populous of the six Yugoslav republics. Thereafter in the late 1980s, severe repression of the Albanian majority in Serbia's Kosovo province sparked fears that Serbia was trying to impose its rule over the rest of the Federation. The more prosperous republics of Slovenia and Croatia resented subsidising, as they saw it, the rest of the Yugoslav Federation. The two republics wanted to increasingly move towards decentralisation and democracy. In contast, Serbia, headed by Milošević, still adhered to centralism and one party rule through the Yugoslav Communist Party.
At the same time, nationalist and separatist ideologies were on the rise in the late 1980s througout Yugoslavia and indeed beyond. This was particularly noticeable in Serbia and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to a lesser extent in Slovenia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Slobodan Milošević's rise to power in Serbia, and his rhetoric in favour of the unity of all Serbs, was met with nationalist movements in other republics. This was especially seen at first in Croatia and Slovenia. These Republics began to seek greater autonomy within the Federation, including confederative status and even full independence. Nationalism also even grew within the still ruling League of Communists.
1989 The Ascent of Serbia
In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after adoption of amendments to the Serbian constitution. This allowed the Serbian republic's government to re-assert effective power over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Until this point, their decision making was independent. Each also had a vote on the Yugoslav federal level [citation needed]. Serbia, under president Slobodan Milošević, thus gained control over three out of eight votes in the Yugoslav presidency. With additional votes from Montenegro and, occasionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia was thus able to heavily influence decisions of the federal government. This situation led to objections in other republics and calls for reform of the Yugoslav Federation.
1990 Electoral and Constitutional Moves
The weakening of the communist regime allowed nationalism to spread its political presence, even within the LCY. In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up on the lines of the individual Republics. At the 14th Extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, on 20 January 1990, the delegations of the republics could not agree on the main issues in the Yugoslav federation. The Croatian delegation demanded a looser federation, while the Serbian delegation, headed by Milošević, opposed this. As a result, the Slovenian and Croatian delegates left the Congress. This is considered the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia.
The first free elections were then scheduled a few month later in Croatia and Slovenia. During the year prior to elections, 1989, a number of political parties had been founded, among them the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ - Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica), led by Croatian nationalist Franjo Tuđman.
The elections in Croatia were held in April/May, the first round on April 22th and the second round on May 6th.
The HDZ based its campaign on an aspiration to independence and on a general anti-Yugoslav rhetoric, allowing them to top the poll in the elections, followed by Ivica Račan's reformed communists. This led to the Croatian Democratic Union forming a new Croatian Government. The HDZ's popularity came from fuelling the sentiment of Croats that only the HDZ could protect Croatia from the aspirations of Serbian elements led by Slobodan Milošević towards a Greater Serbia.
One important factor that led to Croatia preserving its pre-war borders was the financial support given by the Croatian diaspora. Many future HDZ politicians, including Tuđman, made several trips abroad in the late 1980s and early 1990s in order to garner support from emigrants for the Croatian nationalist cause. However, these early contacts with the Croatian diaspora had already been seen by some Serbian unitarists as separatist. This sentiment was further fuelled by some HDZ members' controversial statements.
On May 30, 1990, the new Croatian Parliament held its first session, and President Tuđman announced his plan for a new Constitution (ratified at year-end - see below) and a multitude of political, economic and social changes, notably to what extent minority rights (mainly for Serbs and muslims), would be guaranteed. Local nationalist Serb politicians opposed the new Constitution, as they felt that the local Serb population would be threatened. Their prime concern was that a new constitution would changed the status of Serbs in Croatia to a 'national minority' rather than a 'constituent nation'. This indeed happened once the Constitution was passed by year-end.
In August 1990, an unrecognised referendum was held in the Krajina region (bordering western Bosnia and Hercegovina, with a large Serb population at the time) on the question of Serb "sovereignty and autonomy" in Croatia. This was to counter the changes of constitution. The Croatian government was now in the hands of the HDZ and wanted to block the referendum. Just before the it took place, it sent police to some Serb dominated police stations to remove weapons. Among other incidents, local Serbs blocked the roads to the tourist destinations in Dalmatia. This incident is known as the "Log revolution". The Croatian government sent paramilitary police elements to intervene in helicopters. The Serb government then sent fighter jets from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to intercept the helicopters carrying the Croat paramilitaries, and forced them to land.
The Krajina Serbs within Croatia did not initially seek independence for their area in 1989 and early 1990. Some say tensions had not sufficiently built up by then, others say it was because the Serb government, led by Milošević, had told them to wait (as part of a supposed grand plan for a "Greater Srebia"). Then on 30 September, 1990, the Krajina Serbian National Council declared "the autonomy of the Serbian people on ethnic and historic territories on which they live and which are within the current boundaries of the Republic of Croatia as a federal unit of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia".
Following Tuđman's election and the perception of a threat from a new constitution, Croatian Serb nationalists in the Krajina region progressively took armed action against Croatian government officials. Many were forcibly expelled or excluded from a wide area of the Krajina. This process did not happen overnight but took a considerable amount of time – well over a year – to complete. Croatian government property throughout the region was increasingly controlled by local Krajina Serb municipalities or the newly established "Serbian National Council". This would later become the government of the breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina. It was led by Milan Babić, who later be indicted for war crimes.
On December 22nd, 1990, the Parliament of Croatia ratified the new constitution, changing the status of Serbs in Croatia to a 'national minority' from a 'constituent nation'. The percentage of those declaring themselves as Serbs, according to the 1991 census, was 12% (78% of the population declared themselves as Croat). This can be read as taking away some of the rights from the Serbs granted by the previous Socialist constitution, thereby created fuelling nationalism among the indigenous Serbs of Croatia. Or the new new constitution can be read as granting Serbs in Croatia the same status as for other minorities.
Concretely many Serbs began to lose their government jobs in Croatia, particularly after the ratification of the new constitution. This thereby further escalated tensions.
Furthermore, Slovenia was also well into its own process towards independence. On 23 December 1990 - one day after the new Croat Constitution was passed - Slovenia held a referendum on independence. This passed with 88% of the vote.
Immediately after the Slovenian referendum and the new Croat constitution, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) announced that a new defence doctrine would apply across the country. The Tito-era doctrine of "General People's Defence", in which each republic maintained a territorial defence force (teritorialna obramba or TO), would henceforth be replaced by a centrally-directed system of defence. The republics would lose their role in defence matters and their TOs would be disarmed and subordinated to JNA headquarters in Belgrade.
1991 Preparations, followed by war
Ethnic hatred grew and various incidents fueled the propaganda machines, thereby causing even more hatred. The conflict soon escalated into armed incidents in the rebel-led areas. The Plitvice Lakes incident in late March 1991 was one of the more notable acts at the time.
In April 1991, the Krajina Serbs within Croatia began to make serious moves to secede from Croatia. It is a matter of debate to what extent this move was locally motivated and to what degree Milošević-led Serb government gave them a green light. This is often seen as the beginning of the so-called Croatian War of Independence. It thereby started in the areas that had a substantial Serb population.
The Krajina was declared - which the Croatian government saw as a rebellion.
The Croatian Ministry of the Interior consequently started arming an increasing amount of "special police" forces, and this led into the building of a real army. On April 9th, 1991, Croatian President Tuđman ordered the special police forces to be renamed Zbor Narodne Garde ("People's Guard"), marking the creation of a separate military of Croatia.
Meanwhile the federal army, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the local Territorial Defense remained led by the Serb-controlled Federal government. On occasion, the JNA sided with the local Croat Serb forces, intervening against the Croatian paramilitary police units.
On 19th of May, 1991, Croatian authorities held a referendum on secession from Yugoslavia. Serbian local authorities in Krajina called for a boycott. So the referendum was passed with 94.17% in favour. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on June 25th, 1991, but the European Commission urged them to place a three-month moratorium on the decision. Croatia thereby agreed to freeze its independence declaration for three months, helping to calm tensions a little.
One month after the declaration of independence, Serbian forces held about one third of the country, mostly those with a predominantly ethnic Serbian population. They had obvious superiority in weaponry and equipment. The military strategy of the Serbian forces mostly consisted of extensive shelling, including that of civilian targets. As the war progressed, the cities of Dubrovnik, Šibenik, Zadar, Karlovac, Sisak, Slavonski Brod, Osijek, Vinkovci and Vukovar all came under attack by the Serbian forces.
The international community imposed a weapons embargo. This led Croatian elements to start smuggling weapons over its borders. A large amounts of weapons came over the Hungarian border due to a secret agreement with the Hungarian government.
In June / July, the short armed conflict in Slovenia came to a speedy and farily peaceful conclusion, partly because of the ethnic homogeneity of the Slovene population.
In August 1991, the border city of Vukovar came under siege — the Battle of Vukovar. Serbian troops eventually completely surrounded the city. The Croat defenders, the 204th Vukovar Brigade, entrenched themselves within Vukovar and held their ground. A certain number of ethnic Croatian civilians had taken shelter inside the city. Other elements of the civilian population fled the areas of armed conflict en masse: generally speaking, Croats moved away from the Bosnian and Serbian border, while the Serbs moved towards it.
Some estimates include 220,000 Croats and 300,000 Serbs were internally displaced during the duration of the war in Croatia. However at the peak of fighting in late 1991, around 550,000 people temporarily became refugees on the Croatian side. The 1991 census data and the 1993 RSK data for the territory of Krajina differ by some 102,000 Serbs and 135,000 Croats. In many places, large amounts of civilians were forced out by the military. This was labelled as ethnic cleansing, a term that can range from eviction to murder.
President Tuđman made a speech on October 5, 1991 that called upon the whole population to mobilize and defend against what he deemed "Greater-Serbian imperialism" pursued by the JNA and Serbian paramilitary formations. On October 7th, an explosion occurred within the government headquarters in Zagreb while Tuđman, Mesić and Marković were present. The government claimed that it was caused by a JNA air raid. The JNA denied this and in turn claimed that the explosion was set up by the Croatian government itself. It is claimed by some that the few embassies/consulates in Zagreb at the time had withdrawn some of their staff for that day - suggesting that there was prior information about a pending air attack or bomb. The next day, the Croatian Parliament cut off all remaining ties with Yugoslavia. October 8 is now called Independence day in Croatia.
In the meantime, the war was reaching its peak. According to the commanding officers of Vukovar's 204th brigade, they destroyed or damaged 350-400 armoured vehicles, destroyed 50 airplanes, killed 14,000 enemy soldiers and wounded another 30,000. The figures from Serbian sources are of course somewhat smaller. If the Croatian numbers are indeed correct, the Croatian forces would have inflicted over 50% of the total casualties and weaponry destruction to the JNA in the whole war during the one hundred days of the battle for Vukovar.
In October 1991 the federal army moved against Dubrovnik and bombed the presidential palace in Zagreb, sparking EU sanctions against Serbia.
In November Vukovar (in Slavonia) fell to the Serbs after a three-month siege. Vukovar was almost completely destroyed and overwhelmed by Serbian forces. The sustained focus on a siege facilitated the attraction of heavy international media attention. So ironically this seige, despite its brutality, thereby contributed to the beginning of a resolution of the war towards year-end (see below).
The Vukovar Croats finally surrendered on November 18th, 1991. Allegedly this was done in an attempt to prevent further devastation of Dubrovnik and other cities. In the aftermath of the occupation, there is documentation of atrocities committed by the Serbian forces at the time. The military commanders (Mile Mrkšić, Miroslav Radić, Veselin Šljivančanin) and the city's mayor Slavko Dokmanović were later brought to trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
On December 19, 1991, during the heaviest fighting of the war, the Serbian Autonomous Regions in Krajina and western Slavonia officially declared themselves as the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
In six months, 10,000 people had died, hundreds of thousands had fled, and tens of thousands of homes had been destroyed.
In late 1991, all Croatian democratic parties gathered together to form a government of national unity and to confront the Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitaries.
Ceasefires were frequently signed, intermediated by foreign diplomats, but also frequently broken. This was part of the tactics on both sides. The Croatians lost much territory, but profited by being able to expand the Croatian Army - from the seven brigades it had at the time of the first cease-fire - to the 64 brigades it had at the time the last one was signed.
1992 A ceasefire finally holds
The final UN-sponsored ceasefire, the twentieth one, came in January 1992. Already in December 1991, after this series of unsuccessful cease-fires, the United Nations deployed a protection force in Serbian-held Croatia. The United Nations Protection Force was deployed to supervise and maintain the agreement. The JNA, the federal army progressively to withdraw from Croatia - even Krajina - although Serb paramilitary groups clearly retained the upper hand in the newly occupied territories.
The warring parties mostly moved to entrenched positions as The Yugoslav People's Army soon retreated from Croatia into Bosnia and Herzegovina where war was just about to start.
Croatia became a member of the United Nations on May 22, 1992. This was conditional on Croatia having amended its constitution to protect minority groups and human rights.
Armed conflict in Croatia continued intermittently at a small scale. There were several smaller operations undertaken by the Croatian forces, most of them in order to relieve the Croatian cities (Šibenik, Zadar and Gospic) from Serb shelling attacks. A partial list includes:
- Operation Otkos 10, October 31 - November 4, 1991 - 300 km² in areas from mountain Bilogora to mountain Papuk (areas to the west of Slavonia)
- at the Miljevci plateau (between Krka and Drniš), June 21-22 1992
- in the Dubrovnik hinterland:
- at the Križ hill near Bibinje and Zadar
1993 Further Croatian military advances
Intermittent armed conflict in Croatia continued in 1993 (at a smaller scale than in 1991). There were more operations by Croatian forces, to recover territory and relieve Croatian cities (e.g. Zadar and Gospic) from Serb shelling attacks.
In early 1993, there were three notable operations:
- at the hydroelectric dam Peruča, January 27-28, 1993
- Operation Maslenica, area around Maslenica, near Zadar, January 22 - February 10, 1993
- Operation Medak pocket, area near Gospić, September 9 - September 17, 1993
While most of these above operations were a relative success for the Croatian government, the Krajina responded in early 1993 by declaring itself a republic, the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
The unsuccessful Operation Medak pocket in 1993 damaged the international reputation of Croatia. This led the Croatian army to undertaking no offensive action during the subsequent 12 months. The ICTY later investigated Croatian officers Janko Bobetko, Rahim Ademi, Mirko Norac and others for the alleged crimes committed during this operation.
There were many UN resolutions that required Croatia to retreat to previous positions and that Croatia must restrain from military operations. Some Croat elements felt aggrieved, as no such resolutions had prevented the Serbian forces from attacking Croatia in the earlier stages of the war (when the disturbances were considered national, not international). In October 1993, the United Nations Security Council affirmed for the first time that the United Nations Protected Areas were an integral part of the Republic of Croatia.
The UNPROFOR troops mostly preserved peace and order during the 1992-1995 period. However they served to maintain the borders set up by the war. They thereby failed to provide refugees with much chance of returning to their previous homes. Estimates of the effectiveness of the Krajina governments in removing its Croat population go as high as 98% of Croats that had been living in Krajina.
During 1992 and 1993, an estimated 225,000 Croats, including refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and others from Serbia settled in Croatia. A notable number of Bosnian Muslims also fled to Croatia (which was the largest initial destination for Bosnian Muslim refugees). Croatian volunteers and some conscripted soldiers participated in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some of President Tuđman's closest associates, notably Gojko Šušak and Ivić Pašalić, were from Croat-dominated Herzegovina, and aimed to help the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, financially and otherwise.
In 1993, the Croats and Bosniaks (of muslim origin) then turned against each other, just as each was fighting with the Bosnian Serbs. Franjo Tuđman participated in the peace talks between the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosniaks, which resulted in the Washington Agreement of 1994. This led to the dismantling of the statelet of Herzeg-Bosnia and reduced the number of warring parties in Bosnia to two.
1994 Erosion of support for Krajina
In March 1994, the Krajina authorities signed a cease-fire.
In late 1994, the Croatian Army intervened several times in Bosnia: November 1-3 in the operation "Cincar" near Kupres, and November 29 - December 24 in the operation "Winter 94" near Dinara and Livno. These operations were undertaken in order to detract from the siege of the Bihać region.
1995 End of one war, beginning of others
In early May 1995, violence again exploded. Krajina lost the support of Belgrade, partly in response to international pressure. At the same time, the Croatian army took back a large patch of territory in western Slavonia during Operation Flash.
In August 1995, Croatia started Operation Storm and quickly overran most of RS Krajina, except for a small strip near the Serbian border. In just four days, approximately 150-200,000 Serbs fled, mostly to Serbia and Bosnia according to ICTY. The Croatian sources put the figure to be somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 while the Serbian go up to 250,000. BBC stated 200,000 Serb refugees at the time ([1] and [2]) This operation and its aftermath was also subsequently scrutinized by the ICTY. Ante Gotovina and other Croatian officers were later indicted for war crimes.
The Croatian army proceeded to fight Serbs in Bosnia alongside the Bosniaks, but further advances were prevented by U.S. diplomatic intervention. Had the Croat army occupied the second largest Bosnian town of Banja Luka, near the Croat border, the refugee crisis would have become intolerable. This would have led to tens of thousands of people would likely have tried to flee further east through the narrow Posavina corridor towards eastern Bosnia and Serbia. Overall, the 2001 census showed 380,032 fewer Serbs in Croatia compared to the census of 1991. Some say however that this figure is underestimated.
A few months later, the war ended with the negotiation of the Dayton Agreement (in Dayton, Ohio). This was later signed in Paris in December 1995.
1989-1995 The World Stood Apart
While on the one hand, crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communism in Eastern Europe and the rise of nationalism, on the other, the world stood by as developments unfolded. Yet the Western press was full of warnings of impending tragedy in the Balkans right from the start, in the early 1990s. As the war unfolded in Croatia, there were many warnings that this was a dry run for much worse ethnic conflict in Bosnia and Kosovo.
The war developed at a time when the attention of the USA and the world was on Iraq, and the first Iraqi War in 1990/1991, along with a sharp rise in oil prices and a slowdown in the growth of the world economy. Thereafter, it was if the rising influence of nationalist and separatist ideologies found their counterpart in Western and Russian policies of laissez-faire and laisser faire. This was not unique to the Balkans - the European nations refused to intervene for example in Rwanda, despite culminating in blatant ethnic cleansing on an even worse scale in 1994.
Official recognition of the new states of Slovenia and Croatia and of the status of the SFR Yugoslavia became a controversial issue at the time for foreign governments.
By mid-December 1991, other newly formed states such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine, recognized Croatia's and Slovenia's independence. Meanwhile Croatia and Slovenia recognized each other (the Vatican also recognised Catholic Croatia - with recognition even coming from Iceland.
Then, between December 19 and December 23, several other European countries, including Germany, Sweden and Italy announced their recognition of Croatia's (and Slovenia's) independence. The European Union as a whole recognized the independence of the two breakaway republics on January 15th, 1992.
Nearby western European countries were mostly responsive to the demands of the Croatians, notably Germany. The eastern countries, e.g. Russia and Greece, were old Serbian allies. They opposed recognition of Croatia. In turn, the more conservative forces in the west, headed by the United Kingdom (with John Major as Prime Minister) and in turn the United States (led by Gerorge Bush as President until end-1991, then Bill Clinton), were reluctant as well. Successive US Secretaries of State Lawrence Eagleburger and Warren Christopher strongly criticised the moves of Germany and others, arguing that this would escalate the war.
The role of the international community in the war would become a matter of much controversy. The general UN policy of imposing a weapons trade embargo for all former Yugoslav republics was not neutral. It placed the seceding republics in an inferior position, as they had no control over the Yugoslav weaponry, which were by and large controlled by the Serb forces.
Particular attention has been focused on the John Major-led government of the UK for insisting on policies of strict non-intervention.
- Helmut Kohl's government of Germany might have been ready to take more affirmative action if it had not been occupied with its own borders, and if it had not such resistance elsewhere in the European Union.
- French diplomatic policy was led by the ageing Francois Mitterand, too blase to take interest in the Balkans (and notably - like Belgium - ignoring even worse ethnic cleansing in Rwanda).
- Russia sided with Serbia, but was not seen as actively encouraging Serbian efforts towards expansion. If anything, Boris Yeltsin's government might have been a moderating influence. However the large changes occurring in Russia at the time were one reason that put the Western nations on their guard, afraid of taking any military that might have provoked a wider conflict. That fear was no longer so present in 1999, but in the early 1990s, it was not so easy to decipher how Russia might react.
See also
Nomenclatorial note
The 1991 - 1995 war in Croatia is variously called:
- War of Independence – a generic term
- Homeland War – a direct translation of Croatian Domovinski rat
- Patriotic War – a stylistically different translation, reminiscent of the fact that the 1991-95 conflict was as defining for Croatia as 1812 and 1941-45 wars were for Russia and USSR
References
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External links
- Dr. R. Craig Nation. "War in the Balkans 1991-2002." Strategic Studies Institute, 2002, ISBN 1-58487-134-2
- "The Patriotic War" article on Croatian Radiotelevision
- Article on globalsecurity.org
- Article on hercegbosna.org
- Article on onwar.com
- Croatia Between Aggression and Peace
- Resources about the war on hic.hr
- CroForce - A Story About the Patriotic War in Croatia
- A Story About the War in Croatia
Media
- Harrison's Flowers, Directed by Elie Chouraqui (2000). When a Newsweek photojournalist disappears in war-torn Croatia, Yugoslavia, his wife travels to find him.
- Truth, director unknown. Titled "The Truth of Yugoslavia" on eMule. A Serbian-produced documentary with a brief and partial hitory of the war, while examining atrocities committed against Serbs.