Republic of Serbian Krajina - Creation

Creation

The Serb-populated regions in Croatia were of central concern to the Serbian nationalist movement of the late 1980s, led by Slobodan Milošević. The incidents started in 1988 and turned into full-scale Serbian political rallies in 1989. The Croatian pro-independence victory in 1990 made matters more tense, especially since the country's Serbian minority was supported both politically and militarily by the Yugoslav People's Army, especially Serbian President Milošević. At the time, Serbs comprised about 12.2% of Croatia's population: 581,663 people declared themselves Serbs in the census of 1991.

Serbs became increasingly opposed to the policies of Franjo Tuđman, elected president of Croatia in April 1990, due to his overt desire for the creation of an independent Croatia. On 30 May 1990, the Serb Democratic Party of Jovan Rašković broke all ties to the Croatian parliament. The following June in Knin, the Serbs—led by the Serb Democratic Party—proclaimed the creation of the Association of Municipalities of Northern Dalmatia and Lika. In August 1990, the Serbs began what became known as the Log Revolution, where barricades of logs were placed across roads throughout the South as an expression of their secession from Croatia. This effectively cut Croatia in two, separating the coastal region of Dalmatia from the rest of the country. The Croatian constitution was passed in December 1990 putting Serbs in a minority category along with other ethnic groups such as Italians, Hungarians, and others. Some would later justify their claim to an independent Serb state by arguing that the new constitution contradicted the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution, because in their view, Croatia was still legally governed by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was contradicted by the increased signs of fragmentation within the Yugoslav republics. Croatian leaders officially insisted on the goal of an independent Croatia as a member of Yugoslav confederation of independent states.

Serbs in Croatia had established a Serbian National Council in July 1990 to coordinate opposition to Croatian independence. Their position was that if Croatia could secede from Yugoslavia, then the Serbs could secede from Croatia. Milan Babić, a dentist from the southern town of Knin, was elected president. At his ICTY trial in 2004, he claimed that "during the events, and in particular at the beginning of his political career, he was strongly influenced and misled by Serbian propaganda, which repeatedly referred to the imminent threat of a Croatian genocide perpetrated on the Serbs in Croatia, thus creating an atmosphere of hatred and fear of Croats."

The rebel Croatian Serbs established a number of paramilitary militias under the leadership of Milan Martić, the police chief in Knin.

In August 1990, a referendum was held in the Krajina on the question of Serb "sovereignty and autonomy" in Croatia. The resolution was confined exclusively to Serbs so it passed by a majority of 99.7%. As expected, it was declared illegal and invalid by the Croatian government, who stated that Serbs had no constitutional right to break away from Croatian legal territory.

Babić's administration announced the creation of a Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina (or SAO Krajina) on 21 December 1990. On 16 March 1991 another referendum was held which asked "Are you in favour of the SAO Krajina joining the Republic of Serbia and staying in Yugoslavia with Serbia, Montenegro and others who wish to preserve Yugoslavia?". With 99.8% voting in favour, the referendum was approved and the Krajina assembly declared that "the territory of the SAO Krajina is a constitutive part of the unified state territory of the Republic of Serbia". On 1 April 1991, it declared that it would secede from Croatia. Other Serb-dominated communities in eastern Croatia announced that they would also join SAO Krajina and ceased paying taxes to the Zagreb government, and began implementing its own currency system, army regiments, and postal service.

Croatia held a referendum on independence on 19 May 1991, in which the electorate—minus many Serbs, who chose to boycott it—voted overwhelmingly for independence with the option of confederate union with other Yugoslav states. On 25 June 1991, Croatia and Slovenia both declared their independence from Yugoslavia. As the JNA attempted unsuccessfully to suppress Slovenia's independence in the short Slovenian War, clashes between rebelled Croatian Serbs and Croatian security forces broke out almost immediately, leaving dozens dead on both sides. Serbs calling themselves Chetniks were supported by the remnants of the JNA (whose members were now only from Serbia and Montenegro), which provided them military arms. Many Croatians fled their homes in fear, or were forced out by the rebel Serbs. The European Union and United Nations attempted to broker ceasefires and peace settlements, but all to no avail.

Around August 1991, the leadership of the Serbian Krajina, and that of Serbia, allegedly agreed to embark on a campaign which the ICTY prosecutors described as a "joint criminal enterprise" whose purpose "was the forcible removal of the majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia, an area he planned to become part of a new Serb-dominated state." The leaders are documented to have included Milan Babić, and other rebelled Croatian Serbs' figures such as Milan Martić, the Serbian militia leader Vojislav Šešelj and Yugoslav Army commanders including General Ratko Mladić, who was at the time the commander of JNA forces in Croatia.

According to testimony given by Babić in his subsequent war crimes trial, during the summer of 1991 the Serbian secret police—under Milošević's command—set up "a parallel structure of state security and the police of Krajina and units commanded by the state security of Serbia". Shadowy groups of paramilitaries with names such as the "Vukovi sa Vucjaka" ("Wolves from Vucjak") and the "Beli Orlovi" ("White Eagles"), funded by the Serbian secret police, were also a key component of this structure.

A wider-scale war was launched in August 1991. Over the following months, a large area of territory, amounting to a third of Croatia, was controlled by the rebel Serbs. The Croatian population suffered heavily, fleeing or evicted with numerous killings, leading to ethnic cleansing. The bulk of the fighting occurred between August and December 1991 when approximately 80,000 Croats were expelled (and some were killed). Many more died and or were displaced in fighting in eastern Slavonia (this territory along the Croatian/Serbian border was not part of the Krajina, and it was the JNA that was the principal actor in that part of the conflict). The total number of exiled Croats and other non-Serbs range from 170,000 (ICTY) up to a quarter of a million people (Human Rights Watch). The Gospić massacre was one of the war crimes committed by Croatian military against the Serbian civilians.

In the latter half of 1991, Croatia was beginning to form an army and their main defenders, the local police, were overpowered by the JNA military who supported rebelled Croatian Serbs. The RSK was located entirely inland, but they soon started advancing deeper into Croatian territory. Among other places, they shelled the Croatian coastal town of Zadar killing over 80 people in nearby areas and damaging the Maslenica Bridge that connected northern and southern Croatia, in the Operation Coast-91. They also tried to overtake Šibenik, but the defenders successfully repelled the attack by JNA, in the Battle of Šibenik. The main city theatre was also bombed by JNA forces. The city of Vukovar, however, was completely devastated by JNA attacks. The city of Vukovar that warded off JNA attacks for months eventually fell, ending the Battle of Vukovar. 2,000 defenders of Vukovar and civilians were killed, 800 went missing and 22,000 were forced into exile. The wounded were taken from Vukovar Hospital to Ovcara near Vukovar where they were executed.

On 19 December 1991, the SAO Krajina proclaimed itself the Republic of Serbian Krajina. On 26 February 1992, the SAO Western Slavonia and SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem were added to the RSK, which initially had only encompassed the territories within the SAO Krajina. The Serb Army of Krajina (Српска Војска Крајине / Srpska Vojska Krajine ; abbreviated СВК / SVK) (or the Republic of Serbian Krajina Army) was officially formed on 19 March 1992. The RSK occupied an area of some 17,028 km² at its greatest extent.