SUMMARY
Serbian irregulars is an umbrella label used by the UCDP, to refer to a collection of militias that fought in the conflict that followed the disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in the early 1990s. While the UCDP always strives to distinguish between different armed groups in any given conflict, it was not possible to make a distinction between individual militias due to lack of information, while still reflecting the developing violence on the ground.
The Serbian irregulars started to fight in the context of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s self-proclaimed independence from FRY in March 1992. Preceding this, both Slovenia and Croatia had seceded from Yugoslavia; this prompted Serb nationalists to fight for their own political entity. The Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaimed their own state on 7 April 1992. This entity became a close ally of the Serbian irregulars, and the two commonly fought together. Due to this, and the type of reporting available, it was oftentimes impossible to distinguish between them when they carried out joint attacks. At times, the Serbian irregulars also carried out operations together with the Serbian Republic of Krajina, an alliance of Serb regions in Croatia.
Nevertheless, it was clear that the Serbian irregulars fought both the Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Government of Croatia after their secession from Yugoslavia. Despite some uncertainties regarding the number of deaths in the fighting between the Serbian irregulars and the two different governments over a Serbian territory, the UCDP found credible information on the Serbian irregulars actively fighting the Croatian government in 1992, and the Bosnia-Herzegovinian government between 1992 and 1995, with at least 25 deaths in the respective dyads per calendar year.
The militias fighting under the overarching umbrella label of Serbian irregulars consisted mainly of non-local Serbs, originating either from Serbia or from Croatia. At the time, they were generally described as volunteers that joined the fight for a Serbian nation. A number of militias in the Serbian irregular forces functioned as paramilitary branches of political parties in Serbia. The Serbian Radical Party (SRS) created the paramilitary wing, the Serbian Chetnik Movement (SCP) led by Vojislav Seselj, a nationalist Serb politician that had ambitions of a ‘Great Serbia’, which more or less would include all territories of former Yugoslavia. It was reported that the SCP had less than 200 fighters. The Serbian People’s Renewal party (SNO) led by Mirko Jovic, created two militias called Beli Orlovi (White Eagles) and Dusan Silni (Dusan the Powerful) which were organized by Dragoslav Bokan. Similarly, the Serbian Guard (SG), was initially formed by several Serbian nationalist parties, but quickly came to be the armed wing of the Serbian Renewal Movement Party (SPO) led by Vuk Draskovic. The Serbian Guard reportedly had around 1500 fighters and was initially led by Djordje “Giska” Bozovic; nevertheless, SG was in practice under the command of the Yugoslav People’s Army. One of the most infamous Serbian paramilitary groups was the Serb Volunteer Guard (SDG/SVG) also called Arkan’s Tigers, led by Zeljko “Arkan” Raznjatovic. A pro-Serbian group within the League of Communists-Movement for Yugoslavia party (SK-PJ) formed the SDG as a rival to the Serbian Guard. Estimations stated that the SDG had as many as 40 000 members, but that around 1500 to 5000 were actively involved in the fighting. It has proved difficult to establish how many fighters the Serbian irregulars had at their disposal in total. Some estimations early in the conflict stated that the non-local Serb militias might have been as many as between 40 000 and 50 000, however, this remains uncertain.
The Serbian irregulars had close ties with the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and, to a varying extent, took its order from Belgrade. However, the Serbian irregular’s close ally, the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was more directly controlled by Milosevic. The Serbian irregulars received extensive support, both arms and other equipment, from the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), which was loyal to the Serb nationalists.
Several of the militias included under the label of Serbian irregulars were notorious for their involvement in the violence against civilians during the conflict, see Serbian irregulars, Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina – Civilians. A number of the leaders of these militias were later indicted and/or convicted for war crimes in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as well as in the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
The Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (also referred to as Republika Srpska, a name adopted in August 1992) was a state that was proclaimed independent by the Serbs that populated Bosnia-Herzegovina at the time of the disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in the early 1990s. Following the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaimed independence from the FRY in March 1992, in turn prompting nationalist Serbs in the newly born state to proclaim their own political entity; the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and this Serbian political entity subsequently engaged in armed conflict from 1992 to 1995. This actor description however also includes the forces of Serbian irregulars; fighters aligned with the Serbian Republic but not formally a part of its armed forces.
The Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina was proclaimed by Serbian nationalists who feared becoming a minority in Bosnia-Herzegovina after that state seceded from the FRY. The leaders of the Serbs in Bosnia instead sought to either have their own state, or incorporate it into the remaining part of the FRY (which comprised Serbia and Montenegro). The Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina laid claim to large swathes of territory in western, northern and eastern Bosnia as being the ethnic homeland of Bosnia’s Serbs. The struggle for Bosnian Serb independence was led by the ethno-nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS), whose leader at the time of Bosnian independence was Radovan Karadzic. The SDS party had grown from its birth in 1990 to become the largest political party amongst Bosnian Serbs, and enjoyed vast popular support when the conflict broke out in 1992. In the context of leadership, Karadzic and Mladic were accompanied by yet another prominent figure within SDS, Biljana Plavsic. Albeit not elected president of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina until 1996, she was one of the orchestrator behind the anti-Muslim agenda and a devoted Serbian nationalist in the early 1990’s.
The intra-state conflict that resulted from the differing demands of the Bosnian Serbs and the government of Bosnia saw a large-scale use of one-sided violence by Serbian irregulars and the forces of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Subsequently, the conflict in Bosnia brought to the forefront the issue of ‘ethnic cleansing’.
If viewed in combination with the irregular forces that were involved in the conflict against the government of Bosnia, the Bosnian Serb forces were composed of ex-JNA servicemen (Yugoslav National Army, in essence the whole of the 2nd Military District Command), mercenaries and irregular militia forces from both Bosnia and Serbia. Irregular forces were mainly drawn from local volunteers, who were organised and equipped by the JNA. However, some of the most infamous Serbian paramilitary groups of the conflict were nationalist volunteers from Serbia proper, such as “Arkan’s Tigers”. The superior fighting power of the Bosnian Serb forces (in comparison with the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina) was thus a result of JNA support and the fact that the Bosnian Serb arsenal was taken from JNA stocks.
In the two first years of the conflict the Serbian Republic was supported in its war effort by regular forces of the Serbian-dominated JNA, although such forces officially withdrew as early as mid-1992. The FRY officially severed all ties with the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina in mid-1994, but there have been many allegations that JNA forces continued to fight on the Bosnian Serb side throughout the entire conflict. The government of the FRY also provided the Bosnian Serbs with weapons and logistics. The Bosnian Serbs also cooperated during the conflict with the Croatian Serbs, who had created a similar self-proclaimed state in the Krajina territory in Croatia (the Serbian Republic of Krajina).
The initial superiority of the Bosnian Serbs led to the capture of swathes of Bosnian territory; territorial gains that were only somewhat reversed in 1995 by a rebuilt Bosnia-Herzegovinian army. In 1995 the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina signed the Dayton peace agreement, transforming the territory it still held into the Republika Srpska, one of the entities of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its armed forces were led by Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Radovan Karadzic led the SDS party, whilst Ratko Mladic was Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb army. But Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, at least until he severed ties with the Bosnian Serbs a few years into the conflict, is by most analysts regarded as having been the man in control of the general strategy of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the conflict Karadzic and Mladic became wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, but the two have so far eluded capture.
The Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Serbian irregulars attached to this political entity, have been involved in the intra-state, non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
