Roots of Creation
The organization, arming, and military training of the Croat community in Bosnia and Herzegovina began in 1991 when the Bosnian Croats realized that they were next on the Serb agenda and that the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s government, led by Alija Izetbegović, and its Muslim population were either incapable of or unwilling to take decisive defensive measures against a probable attack by the Bosnian Serbs and their allies. At the time, the Muslim-dominated government in Sarajevo was declaring that "it is not our war", and HVO veterans later charged that Izetbegović was actually cooperating with the Serbs. Even the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s chief of staff, Sefer Halilović, has expressed disgust with Izetbegović’s coterie of Serbian agents, confidence in the JNA’s good intentions, and refusal to take even the most basic steps to organize his country for defense. Moreover, the apparent emphasis Izetbegović placed on Islam as the foundation of the new Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was taken as a threat to the continued existence and freedom of the Catholic Croat community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Read more about this topic: Croatian Defence Council
Famous quotes containing the words roots of, roots and/or creation:
“There is nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us,—kingdom, college, tree, horse, or iron show,—the roots of all things are in man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Look at this poet William Carlos Williams: he is primitive and native, and his roots are in raw forest and violent places; he is word-sick and place-crazy. He admires strength, but for what? Violence! This is the cult of the frontier mind.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)