Consequences
The Plitvice Lakes incident had important consequences for both Serbs and Croats. The fatalities were the first in the Serb-Croatian conflict and contributed to radicalisation on both sides. Nationalist hard-liners and extremists cited the clash as indicating the need to adopt radical solutions, while moderate politicians arguing for negotiations and non-violent solutions lost influence.
The dead on both sides were treated as martyrs by their respective populations. Both Josip Jović and Rajko Vukadinović, the Croat and Serb policemen killed at Plitvice, were feted by their respective media as martyrs to the cause.
The incident had wider political and military consequences as well: On 1 April 1991, partly in response to the events at Plitvice, the Krajina Serb authorities unilaterally declared the self-styled "Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina" to be independent of Croatia and announced that it would remain part of Yugoslavia. In other Serb communities around Croatia, barricades were erected to block any Croatian attempts to reassert government control. Croatian officials accused Serbia's president Slobodan Milosevic of stage-managing the unrest in Croatia, hoping to intimidate Croatia's resolve to secede from the country unless Yugoslavia is transformed into a loose confederation. They also accused him of attempting to coax the Yugoslav People's Army, to overthrow Croatia's democratically elected Government.
The ICTY addressed the series of incidents in Croatia in 1991, which included Plitvice Lakes Incident:
The Trial Chamber found that the evidence showed that the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, openly supported the preservation of Yugoslavia as a federation of which the SAO Krajina would form a part. However, the evidence established that Slobodan Milošević covertly intended the creation of a Serb state. This state was to be created through the establishment of paramilitary forces and the provocation of incidents in order to create a situation where the JNA could intervene. Initially, the JNA would intervene to separate the parties but subsequently the JNA would intervene to secure the territories envisaged to be part of a future Serb state.
— The ICTY in its verdict against Milan Martić
Read more about this topic: Plitvice Lakes Incident
Famous quotes containing the word consequences:
“Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“There are more consequences to a shipwreck than the underwriters notice.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is not much that even the most socially responsible scientists can do as individuals, or even as a group, about the social consequences of their activities.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)