SUMMARY
The matter of dispute in the non-state conflict between the Republic of Croatia and the Serbian Republic of Krajina concerned the right to the territory populated by the Serbs living in Croatia caused concern among the Serb minority, as they feared that they would be treated as second-class citizens. Therefore, the Croatian Serbs declared autonomy for the Serb territories within Croatia. Fighting broke out as Croatia contested the Serbian claim of this area and continued to regard it as Croatian soil.
Within the Croatian borders were two Serb dominating areas that refused to accept minority status; The Serbian Autonomous Oblast of (SAO) Krajina and the Serbian Autonomous Oblast of (SAO) Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Symria. On 26 February 1992, they fused into one Serbian region called the Serbian Republic of Krajina. Before creating the alliance, both SAO Krajina and SAO Eastern Slavonia were involved in non-state conflicts against the Republic of Croatia (for more information see separate non-state conflicts in the database). When Croatia became independent in April 1992, the violence transformed into a state-based conflict (for more information see the conflict over territory in Croatia in the database).
The acrimony between Croats and Serbs dates back to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918-29 when Croatia was denied independence. During World War II, Croatia sided with the Axis powers and the leader of the right-wing extremist organization Ustashe, Ante Pavlic, ceased power in a military coup. During Ustashe rule, Croatia harbored concentration camps where thousands of Serbs perished.
During the communist era, the head of the state, Josip “Tito” Broz, managed to maintain the cohesiveness of Yugoslavia’s six republics despite rather significant economic differences between them. However, after Tito’s death in 1980, the different ethnic groups expressed their grievances. The increased nationalism was possible due to a democratization process in the 1980s. The nationalist wave made Kosovo Albanians, never enjoying the status as a republic within Yugoslavia, openly demonstrated as Kosovo was one of the poorest regions. The irascible response by Albanians to the situation in Kosovo reawakened a shallowly dormant Serbian nationalism. As Slobodan Milosevic rose to power, he skillfully played the nationalist card in order to accumulate support and pave his way to presidency.
Like in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatian demands for independence increased after Tito’s death. One reason was the rise of a Croat national leadership within the most prominent political party at the time, HDZ (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, Croatian Democratic Party ) led by the man who would become the first president of an independent Croatia, Franjo Tudjman. In the early 1990s, Croatia was a passive spectator of the growing tension between Belgrade and Slovenia. The early passiveness of Croatia originates from successful coercive measures taken by Belgrade against a Croatian nationalistic mass movement in 1971. Due to the reprisals, there was a lack of salient nationalistic manifestations in Croatia before the mushrooming of alternative groups in the late 1980s. However, Tudjman’s HDZ was the dominating force within Croatia and was initially organized as a movement rather than a political party. HDZ’s paramount focus was the nationalistic agenda with the purpose to “fulfill the nation’s 1000 years yearning for independence.”
The non-state conflict between the Republic of Croatia and Serbian Republic of Krajina is first included in UCDP data in 1992. In the beginning of April the same year, clashes resulted in over 25 deaths. On 27 April, 1992, Croatia was recognized as an independent state. Consequently, the fighting that occurred between the Government of Croatia and the Serbian Republic of Krajina after that date is registered as a state-based conflict in UCDP data.
