servian chauvinism, the disaster of Balkan Peninsula.

[Laberia]

SUMMARY

Following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, the "Nacertanije" national program of Greater Serbian dominance began to take effect in the colonization of the Serbian population onto the captured territories of Kosovo, parts of Sandzak and the so-called Yugoslav Macedonia. This process of colonization of the Serbian populace onto the other side of the Drina River intensified after World War I, when the Kingdom of Serbians, Croatians and Slovenes was created in 1918. The Agrarian reform of 1918 was among the first legal actions of the new state, for the purpose of colonization and the alteration of the demographic and proprietary structure of the population. It was most drastically enforced in Bosnia and Herzegovina upon the Bosnian Muslim land owners, from whom 1,286,227 hectares of agricultural and forest land were taken and later divided amongst 249,518 Serbian families. This was similarly executed upon Muslim land owners in the remaining parts of the Kingdom of Serbians, Croatians and Slovenes as well as those who resided in Macedonia, Kosovo and Metohija, Sandzak and Montenegro. 3/4 of the land belonged to members of the Islamic faith and this was confiscated during the agrarian reform of 1918 and 1919. The difficult economic situation this placed them in, forced them to move to Turkey. Our presented discussion illustrates that the agrarian reform affected larger estates in Croatia (Dalmatia and Slavonia) Vojvodina and Slovenia, where 406,981 hectares of land amounting to less than a 1/4 of the total land was seized and distributed to 316,762 Serbian families. In total, the agrarian reform resulted in 1,924,307 hectares of land being taken away and divided amongst 614,603 families, primarily Serbian. According to the methodology employed in our analysis, nearly 2,450,000 family members became owners of agricultural and forest land. In so doing, the first colonization of Serbian populace was completed, by which the demographic and proprietary structure of land in the first Yugoslavia was altered.

[Laberia]

MASSIVE AND SYSTEMATICAL LIQUIDATION OF CROATIANS IN MONARCHIST YUGOSLAVIA (1918.-1939.)


Miroslav Krleza, a Croatian writer of European format, wrote about Croatian history and politics from 1914 in a book called Ten Bloody Years. We will call the era of the State of Serbians, Croatians and Slovenes up to 1929 and the Monarchy in Yugoslavia. As it was renamed in 1929 until 1939 the period of twenty truly bloody years in which the lives of non-Serbian people had no value; the spilled blood of Croatians, Albanians, Macedonians, Bosniaks, and the opposition Montenegrins could not even receive employment promotions.

The establishment of a new state in 1918 was made possible by Croatian politician, Ante Pavelic (the dentist) with his speach in Belgrade in 1941. He was overthrown by another younger Ante Pavelic (the advocate), the President of the Independent State of Croatia. The state was being created in 1918 and 1919 through blood and violence and in the same way disappeared in 1941.

Everything began with the massacres on December 5, 1918, four days after the proclamation of the unified Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1.12.1918) on Jelacic Square in Zagreb - the December victims. The Croatian soldiers from the former Austro-Hungarian army came here and cheered the Croatian Republic. They were awaited by the military and the police who opened fire with machine guns from the windows surrounding the houses, immediately, killing 13 people, nine were soldiers and 17 additional innocent citizens and soldiers were wounded.45 This was the official report but many old citizens of Zagreb claimed that about a hundred people were wounded and killed. In this way the new government, illustrated the means it would use to maintain its power. It had remained faithful to this for almost twenty years of its existence. The Serbian army that entered into Croatia acted as if it were on enemy territo With every protest, resistance, and demonstration, they reacted with force.

In 1920, a rebellion broke out against the Serbian tradition of branding of livestock.46 Around Cazma, Bjelovar, Kriz, Dugo Selo, Zelina, and Kutina, ten Croatian peasants were killed and more than ten beaten and arrested. In Kriz alone, beside Ivanic-Grad in the so called Krz Republic ten peasants were killed or wounded. Similar events occurred in Petrijevci (Slavonia) and elsewhere.

Banishment and murders of Croatian members of Radic's Croatian Peasant Party were a usual occurrence. The imprisonment of highly respected politicians (Radic, Macek, Suflay, Predavec and others) were common. Persecution of Croatians was organized by ORJUNA (Organization of Yugoslavian nationalists) which was aided and protected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs led by Svetozar Pribicevic.

In the entire Yugoslavia, especially in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, Chetnik organizations were at work. Without any sanctions, the Chetniks killed people, beat them, threatened them, and burned their houses.

Terror, threats, and pressure in Lika were usual actions during the elections. In Stajnica in 1925, five Croatian peasants were killed; many murderers were never uncovered. Nevertheless, the greatest murder of a well-respected Croatian occurred at the Parliament of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in Belgrade in June, 1928. These were the so called June victims which illustrated that the Greater-Serbian regime flinched at nothing.

Punisa Racic, a Serbian representative and Chetnik leader who practiced shooting at live targets in Southern Serbia, killed Stjepan's nephew Pavao Radic and Djuro Basaracek and wounded Stjepan Radic, Ivan Pernar and Ivan Grandja, all representatives of the Croatian Peasant Party. Shortly afterwards, the wounded Stjepan Radic died in Zagreb and his burial was transformed into a nation-wide demonstration against Greater Serbian politics in Croatia and Yugoslavia. This action, which was condemned by the entire world, was a turning-point in the history of the first Yugoslavia. From that day, Croatians wished to exit the state and grew increasingly to organize themselves and to establish an opposition to the crude forces of Belgrade. The consequences of these crimes was the announcement of the King's dictatorship in 1929, the prohibition of all political parties, especially non-Serbian, and the renaming of the state to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In 1931, a great trial was led against Croatian nationalists (Stipe Javor, Matija Soldin, Marko Hranilovic and others).

The same year, a notable Croatian historian, Dr. Milan Sufflay was killed and numerous other Croatian youths were liquidated or succumbed to tortures in jails.

During 1932, Serbian Chetniks, gendarmes, and police killed forty people in Croatia from Zagorje to Dalmatia. For example, in Benkovac, Nin, Polaca, Lisani, and in Brusani in Lika, a so called Licki Rebellion broke out and was not successful. The punishment against the Croatians was drastic fifty Croatian houses on Velebit were burned).

In 1933, Ivo Pilar, pseudonym Sudland, who wrote a book in German about the southslav question and revealed all Greater Serbian intentions until 1917, was killed under strange circumstances.

That same year, scores of Croatian peasants from Srijem to Lika were killed. Those individuals who liquidated them received no punishment or investigation. For example Milivoj Cumic killed two Croatians near Nin and in return received Eminence in the Order of St. Sava. A Serbian gendarme killed a postman in the centre of Zagreb simply because he was apparently singing Croatian songs.

Hundreds of Croatians were imprisoned, tortured, and beaten, using the excuse that they were Ustashas. For Greater-Serbians, every Croatian is an Ustasa, and every song which talks about Croatia including the Croatian National Anthem is an Ustasha song.

In 1934, more Croatians are killed, several legal proceedings are led against Croatians, and hundreds of people are imprisoned. There was an increasing number of protests, explosions, displays of the Croatian flag, and attacks on gendarmes.

In October 1934, as an act of revenge, the creator of dictatorship, Serbian King Alexandar, Karadjordjevic, was killed in Marseilles. The people considered this justice because Stjepan Radic and his notable party associates were killed with the King's knowledge.

Considering that Croatians were under brigandage in many places and in February of 1925, the so called Sibinja victims "fell" besides Slavonski Brod and immediately afterwards, the Ruscic victims at the same place, 13 peasant Croatians were killed.55 Murders were occurring like an assembly line in all areas of Croatia. Peasants decided to extend opposition by gathering people in a so-called national defence.

Relative to this, after the murder of the well-known Croatian, Karlo Brkljacic in Lika (April 1936), exasperation became predominant. When one Chetnik gang left Zagreb for a mission in Kerestinec (April 16), they were awaited by peasants who killed six chetniks in a battle around the castle. And then three more in a house which had the inscription "Chetnik association Samobor". This was one of the few responses to numerous violent acts and massive killings of Croatians.

That same year in 1936, the Croatian martyr Stipe Javor died in prison in Mitrovica because of a hunger strike in protest of the Serbian torture's in prison.

Death found Svetozar Pribicevc in Prag, one of the greatest criminals to the Croatian nation, who until he was rejected by the King in 1927, systematically destroyed everything that was Croatian for almost thirty years. Only in the past ten years changed his position and wrote a book "The Dictatorship of King Aleksandar", and a letter to the Serbs in which he condemns the monarchy, the King, and Serbians for violence against Croatians.

Finally, among the great crimes against the Croatians were the so-called Senj victims of May 9,1937. Singers from the Croatian singing society of "Trebevic" from Sarajevo and Croatian citizens from Gospic were guests in Senj. They were awaited by 25 gendarmes, who as if crazy, began to shoot at the Gospic truck only because a Croatian flag was waving from it. They were shooting with illegal bullets (dumdum) and killed six men and one girl (no one was older than 24). The funeral in Gospic became a Croatian-wide mourning but there was no investigation nor punishment. The majority of Croatian Serbians approved these crimes. At the same time of the June Victims, numerous new-born children were named Punisa in Belgrade, Serbia, after Punisa Racic - the killer of Stjepan Radic.

During 1938 and 1939, political conditions in Yugoslavia and the world changed. The Croatian Peasant Party grew stronger and even the Serbian side realized that with violence nothing could be achieved except hate, so they began to yield. Due to this, the number of Croatian victims were less. In a short time, negotiations for the renewal of Croatian political autonomy began and the union of Croatian historical territories which meant transforming the Sava and Primorje Dominions and some other territories in central and northern Bosnian around Dubrovnik into the Dominion of Croatia. This was the renewal of Croatian statehood and the assembly of Croatian historical territories which the authority of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia intentionally shattered in 1918. Again, Zagreb became a national centre for all Croatians and the Croatian Peasant Party became the national party for the entire Croatian nation.

However, in Europe the Second World War began which in 1941 caught hold of Yugoslavia and rendered impossible Croatian aspirations for a national state. The proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia, after the overthrow of the Greater Serbian, Yugoslavian army in April 1941, was awaited by the Serbians in Croatia and Bosnia literally "with knives." In Herzegovina, Dalmatian Zagora, Lika, and elsewhere real revolts and the Chetniks executed liquidations a great number of Croatians before the new Croatian state gained control. Greater Serbians with Chetniks as their leaders displayed that they were against any kind of Croatia no matter what internal order it had. After all, it was similar to 1990 and 1991 when they began to rebel and become very aggressive, well before the consolidation of the Croatian state.

Terror and liquidation did not begin in 1941 and was not first started by the Croatians in the Second World War. Rather, it was the Serbians and forty years earlier. Croatians acted, in all of this, a defensive role which is shown by the fact that the Chetniks began an organized extermination of Croatians and other non-Serbian nations in 1903. They founded the Black Hand and Chetnikism while the Ustasha Organization did not begin until 1929 after the murder of Stjepan Radic and other Croatians at the Belgrade National Assembly.

Croatians were victims on their own land from 1903 to 1941. They were victims of grandomania and mythologized Serbian consciousness of creating a Greater-Serbia on Croatian, Bosnian-Herzegovian, Montenegrin, and Hungarian territory. Serbians were in fact the "Trojan horse" in these lands through the conquering politics that manipulated them. Because of this, as in the war from 1941 to 1945, in the homeland war of 1991 to 1995, they had to pay a high price.

[Laberia]

GREATER-SERBIAN ACTIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF CROATIA AND SLAVONIA (1903.-1918.)


In the framework of Austria-Hungary, Croatian lands were divided in two parts according to the Austrian-Hungarian agreements of 1867 and 1868. It said Croatia and Slavonia were an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Hungary and that Dalmatia, Istria, and Boka Kotorska were a part of the Austrian Empire. The greatest Croatian port Rijeka was directly in Hungary as was Croatian Medjimurje and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1987 was shared between Austrian-Hungary. Serbians as minorities lived in Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia. Most of them resided in the former Croatian Military Border and also in the hinterland of Dalmatia especially around Knin which was never a composing part of Croatian Military Border.

According to the population census of 1880, which was completed according to language and religious affiliation, and not according to nationality, one can nevertheless indirectly conclude that the civil or Ban's Croatia had a population of 1,194,415 inhabitants and Croatian Military Border had 698,084. From this, 1,214,607 were Croatian, 497,764 Orthodox Serbians, 83,139 Germans, 41,417 Hungarians, and 13,488 Jews. In percentages, 71.11% Croatians and 26.30% Serbians.27 Although Serbian politicians claimed that the territory of the former Croatian Military Border was "Serbian land", there was less than 47% Orthodox Serbians living there in 1881 during its unification with Croatia. That number was consistently falling in spite of the planned settlements of Serbians from Serbia and Bosnia after 1918. The number of Serbians in 1991 was only 12.2%.

At the Croatian Parliament in 1861, Serbians requested equality for their language, a separate script- Cyrillic, and separate religious schools through cultural autonomy. They were granted all of this 1887. However, at the end of the century, when the process of transforming the Orthodox Vlachs into nationally conscious Serbians, more and more demands for political autonomy and the separation of territory for the emigrated Serbians were emphasized.

At the beginning of the 20th century, more work was done to destroy the existing states of Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Montenegro, and Croatia in order to create a Greater Serbia. The leader all these organized actions was the Kingdom of Serbia, particularly following 1903 when the Karadjordjevic dynasty came to the throne and intentionally provoked conflicts with neighboring states. The Serbian Independent Party, which received financial and other aid from the Serbian state and the Serbian Orthodox church, was working in Croatia. Serbians supported the pro-Hungarian regime of Ban Hedervary in Croatia. They opposed requests of greater autonomy for Croatia and Slavonia in Hungary, and similarily opposed the union of Dalmatia and Istria with Croatia. In civil Croatia, Serbians supported the pro-Hungarians and in Dalmatia or they collaborated with the Italians who were fighting for Dalmatia autonomy. Of twenty Serbian representatives in the Croatian Parliament, about 18 had support the government of Ban Hedervary which worked towards making any Croatian autonomy impossible.

In 1903, political circumstances were also changing in Croatia. Croatians led the second anti-Hungarian movement (the first was in 1883). They burned the Hungarian flag again and organized demonstrations and diversions in the manner that illustrated that the Croatian problem was not solved in Austria-Hungary 32. Ban Khuen Hedervary who protected and assisted the Serbians was forced to withdraw. In this movement, Croatians from civil Croatia was assisted by Croatians in Dalmatia and Istria. The leadership in national politics was taken over by Croats of Dalmatia, in particular Frano Supilo and Ante Trumbic. They turned the existing Croatian politics in a new direction, the so called "new course". This meant co-operating with the Serbian and Hungarian oppositions. The result of the "new course" politics was the Croatian-Serbian coalition which won the elections of 1906 in Croatia and took over the leadership. The strongest person in the coalition was the Croatian Serbian Svetozar Pribicevic who was engaged in strengthening and organising the Serbs in Croatia and in persuading the Croats to consent to an alliance and union with Serbia.

Pribicevic and his three brothers were in a direct service to create a Greater Serbia as well as the mentioned Prefect Budisavljevic and a great majority of Serbian representatives in the Croatian Parliament. The Serbian Independent Party was working on this as well as the Serbian club in the Parliament, numerous Serbian clubs in Croatia, various societies, the separate Serbian Bank, etc. The politics of the Croatian-Serbian Coalition especially in 1906 directly aided the spreading of the Greater-Serbian idea when it took over the leadership and Pribicevic increasingly pushed Supilo back.

After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary in 1908, the Greater-Serbian politics was beginning to be led even more intensely. Serbians had expected to acquire Bosnia and Herzegovina and then eastern parts of Croatia, the territories of the former Croatian Military Border. The loss of Bosnia provoked the annexation crisis which threatened war. Russia was barely able to stop Serbia from beginning a war with Austria-Hungary.

In Croatia and Dalmatia, the political heat was felt. A supreme-treason process in 1903 was led against 53 Serbians from Croatia due to direct Greater-Serbian politics. At the supreme court trial in Zagreb, statistics were gathered that proved the massive Greater-Serbian action. These documents displayed that from 1906, when the Croatian-Serbian coalition came to power, Croatians were persecuted, mistreated, wounded and even killed in their own Croatian state by aggressive Serbians who were expelling them from their own homes similar to the attacks of 1991.

Similarly, Croatian properties were destroyed along with their livestock. Catholic churches were desecrated and the Croatian flag was rejected. Serbians threatened Croatians in western Slavonia, in Banija, to Kordun and Lika, that they would be forced to cross the Kupa and Sava rivers to the West because the regions they were in now were part of Greater-Serbia. This was happening in the same territory where Serbians perfomed genocide and culturocide upon Croatians and everything Croatian in 1991 and 1992. They always proclaimed that Bosnia, Herzegovina, and former Croatian Military Border would become Greater Serbia or it would all be transformed into a great grave which in fact took place but not until 1991.

The principle ideologist at the time was Svetozar Pribicevic who at his political gatherings, spoke to Serbian peasants in Croatia about the same topics that Slobodan Milosevic announced in Kosovo Polje - peacefully or forcefully, Greater Serbia would be formed. From 1906 to 1909, Croatians were forced to endure fear in all villages which they resided together with Serbians. Their houses were burned and crops destroyed. There were numerous cases of beatings along with wounding both Croatians and Serbians who did not accept the aggressive Greater-Serbian politics.

There were a number of Croatian political leaders who were murdered. The criminals were never found. According to a statement by a Serbian witness at the mentioned trial in Zagreb, several Croatian peasants were killed in Jasenovac. Nearby the outlet of the river Una into Sava near Jasenovac, there was a concentration camp from 1941. Croatians were killed thirty years before then. For example, Croatian Stanko Dragic was killed only because he complained to Serbian Lazo Bacic about the hanging of a Serbian flag representing the Kingdom of Serbia which was officially forbidden in Croatia.

In Jasenovac and surrounding areas, five Croatian peasants were killed and their murderers were not found, although it was known that an organized Serbian gang who terrorized and killed Croatians were responsible. When any Serbian was accused of a crime, ten Serbians would be found to go to the District office and testify to the innocence of the accused. It is necessary to emphasize that usually the most influential agitators in the persecution of Croatians were Orthodox priests (Serbian). For example, Parish rector Joco Jovanovic publicly preached hatred towards Croatians even in Church. He claimed that all Croatians, Slavonians should be banished because the entire territory must be Serbian territory, that is, Greater Serbia. There was no end to anti-Croatian slogans by those emigrated Serbians to Croatia. It was stated that Croatians, that is, Slavonians, must be driven away over the Kupa or Sutla, that Bartholomew's night should be prepared for them, that is, they should be slaughtered. It was discovered that a Greater-Serbian agitators were arriving from Serbia. For example in Okucani, when one of them was departing he would be escorted to the station, and asked by a domestic Serbian: "Sir, when are we going to slaughter these Slavonians?"

In 1907 at the time of the elections, Orthodox Serbians threatened that they would destroy the Croatian town Spanovica by Pakrac. They did not do so then. However, this was accomplished by their grandchildren -partisans- during World War II. The town was completely destroyed and was not renewed until after the war and all Croatians were chased away. In the town, until 1995, stood a Serbian name, Novo Selo, which after the operation "Bljesak" secured its old name, Spanovica. This was not the only such case. The same occurred in numerous Croatian towns surrounded by Serbians including Boricevac in Lika, Zrno in Banovina, and Donja Moticina by Nasice.

Many anti-Croatian announcements were being made in Pakrac and surrounding areas in 1908. One Serbian peasant announced in a bar: "Hello brother Serbian, drink wine, it is free, Serbia and our King Peter Karadjordjevic is paying for it (this was true!) This is Serbian land - not Croatian...Hit the Croatian wherever you can!" Similar statements could be heard from western Slavonia to southern Lika, all the same words, slogans and patterns.

It is not surprising that Serbian Chetniks destroyed almost all Catholic Churches they came across in 1991 through 1995. They desecrated sacral objects and graves because their ancestors had done the same in the beginning of the century. This is supported by a testimony from a witness I. Mrnjavcic at a trial in Korenica in Lika from 1909.:

"In Korenica, the life of a Catholic is so endangered, that they cannot even live there. Everything that is Catholic is detested. On Catholic holiday's, Orthodox people always work. On greater Catholic celebrations, when there are great masses, rocks are thrown, only to disrupt the Catholics. The teacher, Uzic (Serbian) washes her clothes and puts it out to dry provokingly when there is any type of Catholic holiday (...) The Catholic cemeterery is desecrated and vandalized in a shameful manner. Wooden crosses are broken, stolen, burned and metal crosses are also broken. On my deceased wife's marble grave, there is a statue of the Mother of God, which they broke into small pieces (...); barbarically destroying everything. The Orthodox people allow their cows to graze on the Catholic cemetery. I even saw the Orthodox priest's cow graze on our grave. They put a pot on the big cross which is in the centre of the Catholic cemeterey and throw rocks into it. In November 1905, they dirtied and filled the cemetery with Cath. church human and animal excrements..."

From these statements, it can be seen that Serbians had beaten, mistreated, and killed Croatians in the Dominion of Croatia under Austria-Hungary when Croatia had its own government, parliament, and Ban. This was enacted without any punishment because of the support given by the Hungarian side, by the protection local Serbians received from Serbian politicians from the Croatian-Serbian Coalition, by encouragements from the Orthodox Church, and finally moral and material aid from the Kingdom.

[Laberia]

SERBIANISM IN THE DANUBE REGION AND ETHNIC CHANGES IN BARANJA (1918.-1995.)


The Serbian penetration of the central European territory over the Danube must be discussed as the issue here is the exaggerated desire of the Byzantine-Orthodox groups from Belgrade to place themselves on the soil of the native western and central European community.

We are not talking about the Orthodox group which took refuge in Podunavlje areas in 1690, under the leadership of the religious head, patriarch Arsenije Crnojevic (Carnojevic) with the permission of the Viennese court. Descendants of the settlers remained inhabitants of Backa, Baranja, Srijem, and parts of Banat were referred to as "native Srblji".

When considering the social , economic and cultural Serbian tyranny since 1918, in Backa, Baranja and Srijem, and Podunavlje, it is necessary to differentiate the older population from the population which was abruptly "thrown in" after the First World War. The native inhabitants referred to these new settlers as "newcomers", "carpet baggers," and "volunteers" because they were arriving from various regions as rewarded Serbian volunteers. The newcomers acted like privileged individuals in the Podunavlje territory to whom other people were to be obedient. Nonetheless, it is necessary to follow these general observations in the developments of Podunavlje from 1918 and onwards.

Until the Turkish advance at the commencement of the 16th century, Croatians and Hungarians resided in Baranja. Nevertheless, with the Turkish advances during the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a growing number of refugees from Serbia and Bosnia, Catholics and the Orthodox (Croatians, Serbians, Vlachs, Montenegrins and others) entering Baranja. During the Turkish Wars, many castles, churches and villages that had been built in the Middle Ages were destroyed and the migrations mixed the population of diverse national groups.

Orthodox settlers, especially Serbians, remained in the villages. Two landed estates in the 18th century gave Baranja its characteristics: the Belje Estate, first owned by Prince Eugen of Savoy and afterwards by the Archducal House of Habsburg and the Darda Estate, first owned by General Veterani and afterwards by Esterhazi, Palfi and Schaumburg Lippe, western European aristocrats. Through cultural, economic, and social developments in the 18th century, Baranja rapidly attained western European standards. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches were constructed. Many citizens took to work and found prosperity on the fertile land. Religious life was organized by Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant parishes, civil life by the Baranja county, while estate owners managed commercial affairs and, until 1848, administrative-judicial affairs of the first stage.

Baranja was situated in Hungary, although the borders between Croatia and Hungary were not as strictly specified as they were following 1918, namely, properties, church territories, ethnic mixture and cultural ties were so strong that free communication always existed in the Croatian-Hungarian community. Throughout history until 1918, it has been stated that the inter-ethnic relations in Baranja were good. It was understood that the people were to be respectful and loyal subjects on the land they resided upon respecting her laws and working towards the welfare of the state and one's own home. It is known from documents, old maps, and censuses that the border with Serbia until 1918 were the Danube and Sava Rivers. Thus, Vojvodina and Baranja had always situated in the composition of Croatian-Hungarian state.

In the schematism (official list of people belonging to the church administration) of the Pecs Diocese for 1855, printed in Pecs in Latin, there exists data and authentic sources for the population of Baranja. The Pecs Diocese included the deaneries of Branjin Vrh and Darda in Croatian Baranja. When the Greek separate ceremony is listed in the schematism as religious affiliation, it is then in general understood that these are people of Serbian nationality, although some other nationalities which were represented by religious affiliation to the Orthodox faith (Vlachs, Romanians, Macedonians, Bosnians, Greeks, and such) should also be taken into consideration.

According to Revai Lexicon (Volume II, p. 587) 1900, in the district of Branjin Vrh (southern Baranja, Croatian Baranja) there were 47, 470 inhabitants. They include:

Hungarians 17,325 (35.0%),
Croatians 11,198 (23.6%),
Germans 12,324 (26.0%),
Serbians 5,873 (12.4%),
Others 750 ( 1.5%)

Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, in her former southeastern territories, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was established. On December 1, 1918, however, Serbian diplomacy and politics, with the aid of the army, realised the unification of all territories into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenes, later to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. This is when Serbia began to actualize the idea of one great state on territory where Serbs (people of the Orthodox faith) lived or settled on. Thus, the territory of Vojvodina and Baranja came under the authority of a separate Serbian administration. Croatia protested against the administrative annexation of Baranja and Vojvodina since Baranja had never belonged to Serbia, neither constitutionally, culturally nor ethnically, but had always gravitated towards Croatia and Hungary. This was the work of the Serbian occupation of Baranja, since prior to 1919, only some 12% of the population of Baranja were Serbian who were the fourth largest national group following the Hungarians, Germans and Croatians. Nevertheless, after 1918, the Belgrade regime began to settle Baranja with Serbian volunteers from the Salonika Front and placed its people on the rich Belje Estate. Once the richest estate, it soon became poor, since theft and the loss of funds to Belgrade contributed to turning Baranja into a Serbian colony.

According to official statistics in 1921, there was a population of 49, 694 in Croatian Baranja of which:

Croatians 9,965 (20.0%),
Hungarians 16,639 (33.5%),
Germans 15,955 (32.1%),
Serbians 6,782 (13.6%),
Other 363 (0.7%)

By religious affiliation:

Catholics 35,343 (71.22%),
Evangelicals and Calvinists 6,856 (13.8%),
Orthodox 6,782 (13.6%),
Jewish 363 ( 0.7%)

Major ethnic changes occur in Baranja towards the end of 1944 when Germans were forced to flee ahead of the advancing anti-fascist army. This was a real exodus of the German population who had lived in Baranja for centuries. Subsequently, Serbs from passive areas, who knew less about farming than about politics and protecting the new socialist (Greater Serbian) state, moved into the wealthy houses.

After 1945, the ethnic make-up of Baranja shows how it was populated by a majority of Croatian and not Serbian inhabitants. Thus, according to data from the Federal Institution for Statistics in Belgrade in 1961, the situation in Baranja was the following from the total of 56.087 inhabitants.

Given that life in Baranja after 1945, was being suffocated by the unproductive, communist system, with no private enterprise and progressive economic management, it is understandable that the new democratic wave and demands for progress moved towards the path of freedom, the multi-party system and the free market in Croatia in 1990. A group of privileged Serbians, however, aided by the former Yugoslavian National Army, and inspired by the idea of a Greater Serbia, with the use of weapons, cast off the legal Croatian authority in Baranja and occupied it. A great number of non-Serbian inhabitants were forced to leave due to Serbian terrorism and tyranny, thus ethnic cleansing of all the non-Serbian populace, primarily Croatians and Hungarians was accomplished.

Through violent ethnic cleansing in 1991 and 1992, the Serbs altered the ethnic composition of Baranja and for the first time "jumped" to first place. The ethnic make -up is seen by comparing the official population census of March 31, 1991 and the one carried out on the occupied territory of Baranja during the period of January 27 through March 5, 1992, after the ethnic cleansing of the entire non-Serbian population. If we compare the Hungarian census from the schematism of the Pecs Diocese from 1855 as well, we may observe how the ethnic picture in Baranja changed as a result of Serbian politics and tyranny to the benefit of the Serbs and to the disadvantage of the Croatians, Hungarians and Germans. The Serbian occupiers within only a year (from 1991- 1992) completely altered the ethnic picture of the population in Baranja by the forceful method of ethnic cleansing. The facts show that there was no question of any type of oppression of the Serbs; it was rather the forceful actualization of the idea of a Greater Serbia; the capture of Croatian territory and the violent alteration of the ethnic make-up of the population.

The reason is the same: the advance of Serbia and Serbians onto Croatian state territory with the goal of creating a Greater Serbia.

There are three fundamental differences in the population of Baranja during the period up to 1918, from 1918 to 1991 and from 1992 onwards. Up to 1918, Croatians made up 1/5 (20%) of the population, Serbians 1/8 (12.5%), Hungarians 1/3 (33.3%), (which is understandable, because Baranja was in the Croatian-Hungarian union), Germans over 1/4 (27%) and others 7.2%. From 1918 to 1991, Croatians made up 2/5 (43%) of the population, Serbians 1/4 (25%), Hungarians 1/5 (22%), and others 1/10 (10%). After the Serbian aggression and the occupation of Baranja in 1991, and the expulsion of the non-Serbian populace, according to the Serbian census of 1991, only 1/5 (20%) of the remaining population was Croatian while the Serbian populace "grew" to 3/5 (60%), with Hungarians making up less than 1/6 (16%) and others 4%.

The enormous ethnic changes stated above are the result of Serbian ethnic cleansing following the Serbian occupation of Croatian Baranja.

[Laberia]

STATUS OF CROATIANS IN BOKA KOTORSKA FROM 1918. UNTIL TODAY


From the beginning of the Serbian aggression against Croatia in 1991 until today, the status of Croatians in Boka Kotorska has been characterized by various kinds of pressure. The most respected Croatian families in Tivat have received threatening letters in which the following, among other things, are written: "If you do not leave on time, the night will swallow your children and family. Hurry to the summons of Mr. Tudjman to Croatia, because there are more Serbian centuries-old homes there than there are of you." (The letter was published by independent Montenegrin media.) For this reason, Croatians of Boka have been moving to Croatia, while from Tivat alone, there have been over 300 Croatians (7 medical specialists among them) who have moved to Croatia. In effect, what has happened is a continuation, if not a completion, of the ethnic cleansing of Boka Kotorska since the existence of Yugoslavia.

The census of 1910 (the last census carried out during the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and the census of 1991 (the last census in Yugoslavia) reveal that ethnic cleansing is truly in effect. The total population almost doubled from 33,400 in 1910 to 61,440 in 1991, while at the same time the number of Croatians has decreased three times (from 13,500 in 1910 to 4,910 in 1991. However, only one part of the population emigrated. The other half was subjected to constant pressure to change nationality (to Yugoslavian). Only Croatians in Montenegro had reasons to declare themselves as such in the census of 1991. According to data of the Catholic Church of Boka, today there are approximately 12,000 Catholics. Thus, we have a paradoxical situation with more Catholic-Yugoslavians in Boka than Croatians.

The demographic picture of Boka Kotorska, however, has changed dramatically since 1991, not only because of the exodus of Croatians, but also because of the great influx of Serbians, namely, the Yugoslav Navy has made Boka its naval base and Serbians from eastern Herzegovina and Croatia have settled there - SERBIANIZATION is in full effect in Boka. It is not surprising that of the 1,000 refugees who departed from Croatia after the liberating 'Storm' operation, 200 settled in Tivat. For this purpose, an initiative for a "census of empty houses" was set in motion by the Podgorica "Pobjeda" at the beginning of August so as to "take care of the people of "Krajina" in Montenegro". Thanks to the Montenegrin independent media, as well as the attitude of the municipal organizations of the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Union, the attempt at the so-called "humane confiscation" of empty Croatian houses was somewhat thwarted but not completely stopped.

When we say Boka Kotorska, we understand this to be the Boka Kotorska Bay. The coastal belt of Boka Kotorska-Budva-Spic was, however, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire administratively included into one district with its center in Kotor. The censuses carried out convey religious rather than ethnic affiliation. While it is clear that the Catholics are essentially Croatian people, it is difficult to distinguish the Montenegrin and Serbian people among the Orthodox inhabitants. It is not difficult to note certain regularities in the displacement of the population in 1910. The Orthodox majority in the entire district was the result of colonization in higher mountainous regions, as for example, the Boka Kotorska hinterland and the region of Pastrovici, in which the people of the Orthodox faith are practically the only inhabitants. They also make up the majority on the Lustica Peninsula and in the agricultural Grbalj parish. In larger towns, the Orthodox population in 1910 and earlier was only noted in Risan. The remaining town settlements : Kotor, Perast, Tivat, Dobrota, Prcanj, Herceg-Novi and Budva had a Catholic, that is, Croatian majority. Distinct Catholic regions were the Vrmac Peninsula in Boka Kotorska and the southern part of Spic from Sutomor to the border towards Montenegro.

We may justifiably calculate that the situation was similar at the time of the creation of the first Yugoslavia and from that moment, the influence of Greater Serbian politics was of crucial significance to the demographic changes in Boka. The annexation of Boka to Montenegro did not follow until 1945 when federal units of the new Yugoslavia were established (during the war the terms used were: Montenegro and Boka Kotorska, that is, Montenegrins and the people of Boka). The census of 1948 was characterized by great pressure on the population to declare themselves Montenegrin.

Boka Kotorska was the first of all Croatian lands to be inflicted by Greater-Serbian politics. Objective and subjective reasons exist. Objective reasons lie in the fact that Boka Kotorska is the most southern of all Croatian lands. Subjective reasons lie in two great Serbian complexes.

1. The sea is a generally known Serbian complex. From the time of the Nemanjic Dynasty until today, whenever they were in a position to do so, Serbians have executed genocide upon the people who were obstacles to their access to the sea.

2. The Croatian cultural heritage is a Serbian complex which was best manifested in the war when they systematically destroyed all cultural monuments of the Croatian people. The symbol of this both here and in the world is Dubrovnik. The culturocide, however, which is being carried out against the Croatian people holds one more component which may be seen in the attempt to usurp the cultural heritage of the Croats of Boka Kotorska, namely, it is the Boka Kotorska coastal settlements which were primarily inhabited by Croatians and which were the hub of maritime affairs. For centuries, this promoted strong development of the territory and the inhabitants were the bearers of a culture which attained an enviable level. This culture was particularly important to the Croatian people. Let us emphasize that the oldest Croatian Cathedral dating back to 1166, is St. Tripun's Cathedral in Kotor or Our Lady of Skrpelja, the magnificent church, the shrine to the Holy Virgin erected on an artificial island across from Perast which was built by the inhabitants of that town. The church houses the life's work of the greatest Croatian baroque painter who was born in Perast - Tripo Kokolja. Of six Croatian Saints and canons, three are from Boka (St. Leopold Bogdan Mandic, sainted Ozana of Kotor and sainted Gracija of Mula). The only Croatian Pope, Siksto V, is also from Boka. Testimony to the greatness of the Croatian people's heritage may found in official Montenegrin sources, which state that 40% of the republic's immovable heritage and 66% of the republic's movable heritage is located in Boka Kotorska. Clearly, one may conclude that today over 50% of Montenegro's cultural wealth belongs to the Croatian people. More precisely, the Croatian people of Boka are heirs to this wealth.

Nacional stucture in Montenegro (1991) After his visit to the Catholic parishes in Boka and Montenegro, Monsignor Ratko Peric, the Bishop of the Mostar-Duvno and Trebinje-Mrkanj dioceses, said: "It takes more courage to be Croatian there than it does to be Catholic". In effect, his comment is indirectly talking about the goal of Greater Serbian politics in respect to the Serbian usurpation of the Croatian cultural heritage of Boka. Serbians need non-Croatian Catholics to ensure the painless seizure of the heritage which is primarily situated in Catholic churches.

Eventually, with the completion of ethnic cleansing in Boka and the disappearance of Croatian Catholics, the Kotor Diocese would no longer be a part of the Church for Croatians. Yugoslav Catholics would rapidly become, first, Montenegrin Catholics and then Serbian Catholics. In other words, Montenegro would first swallow Boka and then Serbia would swallow Montenegro. Moreover, while Montenegrins are, for Croatians, those who are taking away their land and their cultural heritage (something which is truly being witnessed by our people), the reality is that Montenegrins are also victims of Greater Serbian politics. Namely, they are doing the dirty work for Serbians in the same way they were drawn into the attack on Dubrovnik with the same scenario. They are not aware that they are working against themselves because by unjustly claiming the so-called Nemanjici Bay, they are giving an added motive to their own Serbianization.

By taking over Boka, Greater-Serbian politics is working in three basic directions:

1. the elimination of national consciousness of Croatians in Boka;

2. memoricide upon the Croatian people as a whole, that is, erasing Boka and the Croatian people in Boka from the minds of Croatians in Croatia. 3. territorial separation of Boka from Croatia. The elimination of national consciousness was first carried out by the so-called "Bokism" and then by " Yugoslavianism". In the previous century, Serbians spoke to Croatians in Boka about "togetherness:" We are all "Bokans" and nothing else", they would say. Then they proceeded to divide them into Serbians and Catholics! Thus, Croatians were denied their Croatianism, whereas Serbianism was not touched because their faith is Serbian! At that time they were successful, especially in the creation of the first and second Yugoslavias when some Croatians found salvation by declaring themselves to be "Bokan" (and later Yugoslav) rather than Serb or Montenegrin! But in both circumstances, the Serbians achieved what they had wanted: for the Croatians to cease to exist because, severed from their people, they are condemned to become that which the Serbs want them to become, condemned to give the Serbs the great cultural heritage of the Croatian people of Boka as dowry.

There are many examples that display how successfully memoricide was carried out upon the Croatian people as a whole with respect to Boka, the Croatian people and the great Croatian cultural heritage in Boka. The effect of this memoricide can still be felt in Croatia although I believe that many more people today know about Boka and its meaning to the Croatian people than they did several years ago.

From the very beginning, the territorial separation of Boka from Croatia has been a major goal. This can be seen in the Vidovdan Constitution of 1921 in which the division of states into administrative regions was proposed. The division would be carried out by a parliamentary decision at the government's suggestion. If this is not accomplished, a shortened legal procedure is predicted and should this not succeed the King would pass a statute in which the district of Boka Kotorska would fall under the Zeta administrative region. One can see how such crucial decisions were determined in advance and it is immediately clear that neither the first nor the second circumstance occurred, rather the third, which ensured the separation of Boka Kotorska from her mother country.

In all future changes, including the Banovina (Ban's dominion) of Croatia, Boka remained outside Croatian borders. When the HSS (Croatian Peasant Party) gained the most votes in seven Boka municipalities at the elections of 1939, Croatians in Boka expected that the Boka Kotorska Bay would enter the Banovina. Since the Cvetkovic-Macek Agreement did not define the borders, representatives of Boka Croats went to the HSS headquarters in Zagreb asking for the border to be on Trojica, behind Kotor. A correction of the border, however, was never accomplished due to the war and the arrangement of the first Yugoslavia.

Boka did not enter into the Independent State of Croatia in 1941. It was after the fall of Italy in 1943 when Boka formally entered into this structure, but it was, however, the German army which entered Boka rather than Croatian armed forces. In Boka, people believe that the reason for this was that Don Ivo Stijepcevic, a well-known Croatian historian, requested this. It is ironic that Don Ivo was imprisoned after the war by those whom he had aided by this act. On the other hand, the "Boka " syndrome was in effect turning those Croatians in Boka into partisans.

During the war, the term Montenegro and Boka Kotorska was used, whereas at the second meeting of "ZAVNOCG i Boka" (Territorial Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation for Montenegro and Boka), which took place on June 14, 1944, the name was changed to "CASNO" (Montenegrin Anti-Fascist Assembly for National Liberation). By the end of the year the term "and Boka" was erased from the title of the republic as well, although many organizations kept to the original name even several years after the war. This was clearly a simple consequence of the fact that Boka had been wrenched from its mother country. This enabled great pressure to be placed upon the Croatians of Boka. In this way, many well-respected Croatians in Boka were killed, among them priests: Don Ivo Brajnovic, Don Gracija Sablic and Don Djuro Perusina.

There were 17 Croatian culture clubs in Boka in the first Yugoslavia and the Croatians joined their mother country in joy (the thousandth anniversary of King Tomislav was celebrated magnificently in Boka and a stone plaque was placed on the Cathedral in Kotor commemorating the event) and in sorrow (a Boka navy unit took part in Stjepan Radic's funeral). In the second Yugoslavia, however, all of this was destroyed in the two years following the war.

In 1948, Croatians were faced with great pressure to declare themselves Montenegrin. Those among them who were in the Communist Party received party orders to do so. Not even three years had passed since the erasing of the term "and Boka". In those three years, many well-respected Croatians were imprisoned, with or without trial, and loss of employment was a standard occurrence. This was usually accompanied by the label "clericalist".

Pressure continued during the entire existence of the second Yugoslavia resulting in the demographic changes we have mentioned. The confiscation of Croatian houses, threatening letters and a case of arson in Donja Lastva by Tivat (the owner of the house in question was a Croatian Dejan Brkan), have made the situation in Tivat very explosive.

It is clear why the Montenegrin opposition did this and why they are supporting Croatians in Boka: by fighting for the Croatians, they are fighting for themselves and for the independence of Montenegro and its European orientation. To the Croatians of Boka, its Serbianization means losing their homeland, but to the Montenegrins it is a battle TO BE OR NOT TO BE . They are fighting for the survival of their nation. Unfortunately, the Montenegrin opposition is not powerful enough to significantly alter the situation. This is why the question of what the Croatian nation can do is extremely important.

Clearly, it is Croatia's duty, according to its Constitution, to report on the current situation in Tivat and the entire Boka region to all relevant factors to the world. However, that is not enough. In its political program, Croatia must begin with the fact that Boka Kotorska is one of Croatia's most important interests. That this is truly so we may conclude from the following three facts:

1. The overwhelming Croatian cultural heritage in Boka. In fact, by destroying our heritage, the Serbs have raised the level of awareness of Croats with respect to the significance of their cultural heritage.

2. Boka is the Bay of Croatian Saints. Is it necessary, particularly now after the visit of the Holy Father to Zagreb, to emphasize what Catholicism and the Bay of Croatian Saints means to the Croatian people and the Croatian nation.

3. According to the Croatian Constitution, Croatia is obliged to take care of all Croatians outside Croatia, therefore the Croatians of Boka Kotorska. Thus, because Boka Kotorska is one of Croatia's significant interests, Croatia cannot accept that it be a part of a state such as today's SR Yugoslavia - a state in which Croatians and other peoples are subjected to culturocide and genocide.

Naturally, the Croatian army will not cross Croatian borders (unless Croatia is attacked), regardless of the fact that demographic movements in Knin and Boka have been very similar in this century and that with the completion of ethnic cleansing in Boka, they would be entirely the same. All these reasons show how it is of vital interest to Croatia that Montenegro become an independent state, as are the other republics of the former Yugoslavia. We are hopeful that Croatia will succeed in convincing its allies of this fact and that they will become more active in aiding the Montenegrin opposition in its battle for freedom and the independence of Montenegro. Montenegro, separated from Serbia, would surely turn towards Europe, and in this way Boka Kotorska, this Bay of Croatian Saints, would, together with Montenegro, be where it belongs - in Europe. European Montenegro is a guarantee for everything Croatian in Boka Kotorska and it is the Croatian part of Montenegro which is exactly the ticket to affiliation to the Western world.

Today's situation, i.e. Serbian Montenegro, represents the feeding of the Greater Serbian appetite and ensures the continuation of Greater Serbian politics, which alone is a constant threat to vital Croatian interests.

[Laberia]

SERBIAN GENOCIDAL CRIMES AGAINST CROATIANS DURING WORLD WAR II (1941-1945)


The Chetniks not only intended to perform genocide, they carried out several forms of genocidal crimes against Croatians during World War II from 1941 - 1945. Until recently, however, this topic was considered taboo and was not allowed to be written about in the former SFRJ (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). It was either kept a secret or incidentally mentioned without any concrete facts or numerical indexes. Contrary to this, the sufferings of the Serbians and the crimes and genocide committed against them in Bosnia by the Ustasa Regime in 1941, were basically the only topics written and spoken about during this time. This served a political purpose with incorrect and malicious claims against the alleged genocidal Croatian people. Until now, a more orderly and complete investigation of this problem has been absent. In 1989, with the democratic changes implemented, the genocide against the Croatians began being written about along with the correct statistics concerning human casualties in the former Yugoslavian territory from 1941-1945.3 A scientifically based study is required in order to entirely investigate the problem. With this opportunity, I hope to present some of the most significant elements of Chetnik plans and activities during World War II which, according to all characteristics represent the crime of genocide against Croatians.

Since its establishment, the Chetnik organization has almost exclusively served as an instrument of nationalistic and expansionist Serbian politics. This was also the case in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1941). Through force and terror, the Chetnik organization, together with the army and the police represented a means of getting even with their political rivals and preserving the centralist, Greater Serbian political system headed by the King. For this reason, by the beginning of the war in 1941, some 300 Chetnik and similar organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and about 200 in Croatia were established which were recognized for their terror and barbarity along with the murders of a great number of Croatians. Through these organizations, the Greater Serbian political goal attempted to be realized. They battled against and suffocated every Croatian aspiration for recognition of their own national values and at the same time, Serbian national values were often emphasized and there were attempts to spread Serbian national consciousness among some Croatians. After the unification in 1918, with the abolition of the parliament and government, the Croatian guardsmen and police, along with the division of territory into six banovinas (Ban's dominions) (guaranteeing Serbians power within these provinces), Croatia lost its historical identity and statehood which it had preserved for centuries. Bosnia and Herzegovina was also divided into four banovinas through administrative means but in such a manner that the Serbs were guaranteed predominance in three of the banovinas. All of this resulted in corresponding counter-actions from the Croatian side. One way was the establishment of the illegal Ustasa movement (1929) whose goal was to create an autonomous and independent Croatian state outside Yugoslavia..

There were also the elections of 1938 which demonstrated the unstoppable strengthening of the Croatian national movement led by the Croatian Peasant Party. The party demanded a solution with respect to Croatia in the framework of Yugoslavia which the Greater Serbian monarchist regime needed to take into consideration due to the intensification of international conditions in Europe where war was drawing close and to save the nation from collapse. Consequently, an agreement on August 26, 1939 allowed the establishment of a separate Croatian Banovina within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with its own government, parliament, legislative, administrative and judicial autonomy, which could not be taken away or decreased without the permission of the Banovina itself. Thirteen districts from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the district of Sid in Vojvodina in which the Croatian population was the majority, were annexed to the Banovina but without the Croatian historical territories of eastern Srijem, Boka Kotorska, Budva and Spic. The Banovina had an area of 65,456 km, with a population of 4,025,601 (according to the 1931 census): 70.1% were Croatians, 19.1% were Serbians and 10.8% were listed as "others".

There were many who were against the agreement: on the Croatian side these were the supporters of the Ustasa movement who claimed that the agreement did not solve the Croatian problem, nor did it create a Croatian independent state; on the Muslim side, the majority of the Muslim political leadership wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a separate autonomous political territorial unit within its historical borders. Serbian counter measures followed, so that all Serbian parties, except the SDS, all nationalist and Greater Serbian organizations and associations, as well as the army and the Orthodox Church, opposed the establishment of the Croatian Banovina because they perceived it to be dangerous for Serbianism and the existence of the state. They often reacted as chauvinists (who hated Croatians and everything that was Croatian) and as advocates of their Greater Serbianism. The movement "Srbi na okup" was developed with the express purpose of joining the other six banovinas (Vrbaska, Drinska, Dunavska, Moravska, Vardarska and Zetska) into one administrative entity under the title "Serbian lands".

All the parts of the Croatian Banovina in which Serbians were the majority, as well as those which Serbians considered of geostrategic and political importance, for resistance preparations (Knin, for example), were to be annexed to the "Serbian lands", all of which intensified international relations. The program to create a "Greater Serbia" at the expense of Croatian historical territories (and others) was to remain a constant orientation of the Greater Serbian and Chetnik political expansionist circle since that time, during the Second World War, up to today and was to remain the principle motive for their genocidal actions against Croatians and other non-Serbians. For this reason we cannot ignore this pre-war period and the events during the war on the former Yugoslavian territory.

[Laberia]

THE BASIS OF THE PROGRAM OF THE CHETNIK MOVEMENT SERVED AS THE BASIS OF THE CRIMES AGAINST CROATIANS WITH CHETNIK UNITS SERVING AS EXECUTORS OF THE CRIMES

The bloody events of the war on the territory of the shattered Kingdom of Yugoslavia during 1941 - 1945 were to a great extent the result and consequence of pre-war conditions and political relations in the new situation on the terrain. The events were expressed in conflicting concepts for the renewal of Yugoslavia on the one hand and the efforts of non-Serbian people, especially Croatians, on the other hand, to preserve the already existing state or endeavor to establish independent national states outside Yugoslavia. This was mainly displayed on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Chetniks emphasized that the twelve-day war, their military defeat, as well as the occupation and breaking of Yugoslavia by the Axis had lost the Serbians their "state and freedom" (since they considered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to be merely an extended version of Greater Serbia and often acted as if it was). They blamed all other non-Serbian nations primarily the Croatians. They were particularly displeased with the formation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) which included Bosnia and Herzegovina, eastern Srijem, but not Dalmatia from Zadar to Split, the eastern part of Konavle and Boka Kotorska, then almost all of the Adriatic islands, except Hvar, Brac and Pag and a considerable part of the coast of the Bay of Kvarner and Gorski Kotar which were all annexed by the Italians (zone I.). Medjimurje and Baranja were annexed by the Hungarians. The NDH encompassed an area of 102,725 km2, included a population of 6,640,000 and was administratively divided into 22 large counties with 141 districts, 19 district offices, 31 towns, 1, 005 municipalities, and the city of Zagreb as a separate administrative headquarters. Serbians made up 30% of the entire population. The NDH was divided by a demarcation line to the south of Samobor, Glina, Dvor, Jajce, Fojnica and Visegrad. To the north of this line was German and to the south Italian-occupied territory. The occupied Italian territory in the NDH was divided into zones II and III. Civilian, police and military state authorities were established on NDH territory. The only political organizations allowed to operate in the NDH were Ustasa organizations and separate Ustasa units were formed as well.

The existence and activities of the NDH government were dependent on the concrete situation on a given territory, especially Partisan activities, the activities of Chetnik forces on some territories following the rebellion in 1941, as well as the interests and will of the occupier. The so called "Muslim question" in Bosnia and Herzegovina (i.e. NDH) did not pose a problem to the Ustasa leadership with Ante Pavelic at its head as it adopted Dr. Ante Starcevic's theory of "Muslims as the purest part of the Croatian people", in which "religious differences do not and should not matter".

Serbian nationalists and expansionists of which the Chetniks, as a military and political organization, were the most well-known and prominent, could never resign themselves to the creation of any kind of Croatian state (NDH included). The reason is fairly simple, namely, they believed that almost 90% of NDH territory (in its maximum program) represented the territory of the so-called "Serbian lands" (including the entire territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina and most of the territory belonging to today's Republic of Croatia), regardless of the fact that these territories had never been a part of the Serbian state, and that Croatians and Muslims represented a majority in them. For this reason they believed that the territories of the NDH could only enter into the so-called "Homogeneous or Greater Serbia", as referred to in documents.

The principle prerequisite for this was the destruction of the NDH and cleansing of the Croatian and non-Serbian population from these territories in order to annex them to Greater Serbia. This is one of the reasons why immediately following the proclamation of the NDH, we come upon the first massive killings of Croatian citizens by Chetniks and also the burning of a great number of houses and entire villages in some regions of the NDH. In this way, Chetnik units, which were part of the regular army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and were designated for "special actions", and individual Chetnik commanders, during the Derventa retreat, killed 17 Croatian civilians, five women among them on April 11-13, 1941; killed three Croatian women, a young girl among them on April 11 in Siveric; on April 9, 28-29, killed three Croatian civilians and wounded one near Bjelovar; from April 13-15, killed 25 Croatians and burned 40 houses near Capljina; on April 15, killed 5 Croatian civilians, one woman among them near Mostar, and burned down the Croatian villages of Cim and Ilici.

Such murders occurred in other places indicating what was to soon follow.6 After the first shock, as a consequence of the occupation and break down of Yugoslavia, as well as the creation of the NDH, Chetniks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, often in co-operation with the communists, began to organize a Serbian armed rebellion against the Croatian State, in this case, the Ustasa NDH, calling on past Serbian traditions. At the same time, they worked on establishing ties with other Chetnik and nationalistic forces on the territory of former Yugoslavia (primarily with those in Serbia). Similarly, they worked towards creating a basis for the movement program in which the genocidal intentions against Croatians were clearly emphasized. With respect to this, on June 30, 1941, Stevan Moljevic, one of the main Chetnik ideologists and national leaders, formed the project, "Homogeneous Serbia", in which the Chetnik program regarding borders, the social system and foreign policy of Greater Serbia in the re-established Yugoslavia were outlined months before the establishment of the Jasenovac camp.

The project proposes that "... today the first and fundamental responsibility is imposed upon Serbians: to create and organize a homogeneous Serbia which will encompass the entire ethnic territory in which Serbians live...." This meant annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina and a greater part of Croatia to Serbia through "migration and transfer of inhabitants" and cleansing. All this was expressed cartographically in a special propaganda leaflet together with a corresponding text.

At the same time, a group of Serbian nationalists who had escaped from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia into the annexed part of Dalmatia and linked itself with the Italian government, sent the Italian government in Rome a petition asking for the Italian army to occupy and annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun, and Banija, and to overthrow the NDH government in those territories.

The Italian government used this for its expansionist pretensions and pressures on NDH in negotiations upon the outbreak of the rebellion, as well as for negotiations, cooperation and organization of Chetniks on its annexed and occupied territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. In July and the beginning of August 1941, a general Serbian rebellion occurred in almost all of the Croatian territory where the population was predominantly Serbian. The chief initiators and leaders of the rebellion were leaders of the Communist Party, and this the CK KP (Central Committee of the Communist Party) in Croatia and the Regional Committee of the KPJ (Communist Party of Yugoslavia) for Bosnia and Herzegovina as parts of the CK KPJ, even though there were places where the rebellion occurred spontaneously, and some places where Chetniks themselves headed the rebellion.

At that time and in those regions, it was the Serbian population which almost exclusively participated in the rebellion. There were only some individuals and smaller groups of other nationalities, primarily members of KPJ and SKOJ (League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia), who were involved in the rebellion. The crimes of the Ustasa Regime against the Serbian people were stressed as the main reasons for the rebellion with the goal of overthrowing the NDH and the re-establishment of Yugoslavia. While the communists endeavored to give the rebellion an anti-fascist and national liberational character, including all peoples and national minorities on Yugoslavian territories and to establish their communist power during the war, the Chetniks gave the rebellion a principally nationalist and expansionist character, including almost exclusively Serbians and endeavoring to uphold the old pre-war Greater Serbian system of government with the King at its head.

This soon resulted in a division into two movements, one headed by the communists in NOP (National Liberation Movement) and the other by the Chetniks. This soon led to armed battles which lasted until the end of the war. From the beginning until the end of the war, members of the Chetnik movement intentionally equated the entire Croatian people with the Ustasa Regime by accusing them of the Ustasa crimes against Serbians in the NDH with an attempt to justify their own crimes using these formal reasons. In fact, throughout the war, the Chetnik movement had distinct genocidal, anti-Croatian characteristics.

In Chetnik documents, it is suggested that the reasons they began the rebellion in the NDH were only formal while the real reasons lie in the aspiration for the establishment of an ethnically cleansed Greater Serbia at the expense of historical and national territories of Croats, Muslims and others. This was to be the basic motive for Chetnik terror and genocidal crimes against Croatians. The Chetnik movement was comprised of armed and political organizations which appeared on NDH territory shortly after the capitulation of Yugoslavia and the proclamation of the NDH and was active until the end of the war. By the end of 1941, the entire Chetnik movement was under the command of Draza Mihailovic.

It is necessary to stress that the USA and Great Britain accepted the exiled government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as a legitimate government in June 1941. In July, the other great force of the anti-fascist coalition, the USSR did the same. Since the Atlantic Charter of August 14, 1941 stipulated the war aims of the anti-fascist coalition, including the re-establishment of all occupied states after the war, including Yugoslavia, its re-establishment was assured. It was precisely at that time, on Yugoslavian territory, especially on the NDH territory, that the civil war began between the Communist and the Chetnik movements to decide what the re-established Yugoslavia would be like. Throughout the entire war, the Chetnik movement was assisted by the government in exile and King Peter II situated in London.

At the same time, the Chetnik movement received support and assistance from Western allies, especially Great Britain until 1944, and afterwards the USA. In the program of the Chetnik movement during and after the war, which was delivered by its leader, Draza Mihailovic, to the Yugoslavian King's government on September 1941 and accepted, Moljevic's plan was supplemented and the following was stated:

"... prepare yourself so that in the days of the collapse, the following actions may be executed....
b) define the "defakto" Serbian lands and allow only Serbian populace to remain in them.
v) especially plan the rapid and radical cleansing of cities and fill them with fresh Serbian elements.
g) develop a plan for cleansing or displacing the peasant population with the goal of a homogeneous Serbian national community.
d) consider the Muslim question in the Serbian unit as an especially difficult problem and possibly solve it in this phase...."

In the "Instructions" of December 20, 1941, regarding the organization, goals and employment of the Chetnik units, Draza Mihailovic, who was promoted to General and soon became the minister for the army in the emigrant government, removed all doubts. According to him, the goal of the battle of the Chetnik movement under the leadership of King Peter was:

"... To create a Great Yugoslavia and in it a Greater Serbia, ethnically cleansed, within the borders of pre-war Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem, Banat and Backa..."

"... To cleanse the state territory of all national minorities and national elements..."

"... To immediately create mutual borders between Serbia and Montenegro, as well as between Serbia and Slovenia, cleansing Sandzak of Muslim inhabitants, and Bosnia and Herzegovina of Muslim and Catholic inhabitants..."

"...All Catholics who sinned against our people in our tragic days, as well as all intellectuals and those well off, will be destroyed without mercy. We will spare the peasant people as well as the low working class and make real Serbians of them. We will convert them into Orthodox by hook or by crook. There, those are the goals of our great battle and when the crucial moment arrives, they will be achieved. We have already achieved them in some parts of our homeland...."

This document directly shows the sources of Chetnik genocidal crimes against Croatians and Muslims which originated from the creation of the Serbian national state and its expansionist politics. Draza went further than Moljevic regarding territory, asking for more than 90% of NDH territory for Greater Serbia in which more than 2,500,000 Catholics and over 800,000 Muslims lived, making up 70% of the entire population on that territory, while Serbians comprised almost 30% of the population. From Draza's "Instructions", all Croatians, Muslims, and other non-Serbians would have to disappear from this territory, either during the war or immediately after it. Croatians were given only about 10% of their territory at that time from Karlovac across Zagreb to Varazdin and approximately 1/5 of the NDH population.

Accusations and allegations against Croatians for all the evil and sufferings caused to the Serbians during the war existed for the purpose of constantly motivating Chetniks to execute punishments, that is, crimes of genocide against them. This is clearly stated in Draza's "Instructions". With respect to this, and with the same goal, is the exaggeration of Serbian victims caused by the Ustasa or, according to the Chetniks, by the "Croatians" i.e. the entire Croatian and Muslim peoples, starting with the number of 382,000 at the end of 1941, coming to over 518,000 at the end of February 1942, then 600,000 in October 1942, with 800,000 at the end of 1943 and finally, at the end of the war, arriving at the number of one million Serbians killed on NDH territory.

This is absurd to any objective researcher and is shown in the work of the Serb, Dr. B Kocovic. Draza's threats of revenge against Croats as a prerequisite for life and rights in a future state had the same aim. Also, in other program documents of individual Chetnik leaders and units similar arguments and goals are expressed. The "Elaborat" of the Dinara Chetnik division of March 1942, which was established precisely at that time and encompassed northern Dalmatia, Lika, and the southwestern part of Bosanska Krajina, also presented its aims and arguments. The principle goal was the creation of a "Serbian national state" where "Serbians lived and which Serbians aspire to...", that is, a "Greater Serbia" which would include Bosnia and Herzegovina, a part of Dalmatia, Lika, and other territories with a pure national system and "King Peter at the head" in which "exclusively the Orthodox populace would live" The rest was to disappear so that on March 25, 1943, the Dinara division gave an order to its units to "cleanse the Croatians" from their territory. At the same time, "the establishment of a national corridor along the Dinara Mountain to link Herzegovina with northern Dalmatia and Lika", was assigned as one of the primary tasks of this division and the Chetnik movement, which they attempted to achieve, particularly in 1942 and 1943, through the cleansing of the local Croatian and Muslim population. Vukasin Marcetic, the commander of the Chetnik unit "Manjaca", stated the following at a conference of the Chetnik units on June 7, 1942: "I believe that Bosnia and Serbia are one nation and I hope that everything that is not Serbian will be cleansed from Bosnia."

Milan Santic, a Chetnik leader, was even more direct. In his speech, in Trebinje at the end of July 1942, he stated that the goal of the Chetnik movement was to "establish a Greater Serbia" as stipulated by Draza and then said: "Serbian lands must be cleansed of Catholics and Muslims. Only Serbians will live in those lands. The cleansing will be thoroughly executed. We will drive out and destroy them all, without exception and without compassion. This will be the starting point of our liberation". He further stresses that all of this "must be executed quickly and in one revolutionary momentum" and because of this Chetniks will "never formally recognize" the NDH. All of these documents illustrate that Chetnik crimes of genocide against Croatians were deliberate and planned.

The Chetnik military units were founded on NDH territory (south of the Sava River extending to the Adriatic Sea) with direct support from Italian occupying forces. On the basis of contracts, these forces provided Chetnik military units not only with weapons, ammunition, provisions, and salaries but were also often initiators and protectors of a great number of mass Chetnik crimes against Croatians. According to Chetnik documents on their military formations during the war years from 1941 to 1945, there were 14 corps, 76 brigades and 2 regiments on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina while on Croatian territory, there were 4 corps, 1 division, 32 brigades and 2 regiments. Apart from the military formations there existed numerous authorities on the territories under Chetnik control. The exact number of Chetniks has not yet been established, but according to some indexes, some 100,000 individuals in the army and in the field passed through their ranks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia of whom 98% were Serbian. At this point, it is necessary to stress the assistance the Chetnik leadership directed to these regions from Serbia and Montenegro.

All Chetnik units committed crimes, special units, however, existed to whom this was the main task. These ranged from Chetnik three-man groups to troops and brigades. Program documents, undoubtedly, suggest that Chetnik genocidal crimes were directed against the Croatian people as a whole on the territory of their imaginary "Greater Serbia." Nevertheless, it must be stated that Chetnik terror and crimes were also directed towards the participants of the anti-fascist movement or NOP, as it was called, and against their families, regardless of nationality, although the Chetniks endeavored occasionally to spare the lives of individual captured partisans and members of NOP who happened to be Serbian.

Crimes were also directed against the Serbians who displayed various forms of loyalty towards the NDH leadership. There were two main methods of Chetnik genocidal crimes against Croatians. The first was the direct, physical destruction of people. The second method was indirect, using various threats, physical and psychological violence, the rape of women and young girls, and robbery. Physical destruction took the form of massacres, hangings, decapitation, burning, throwing victims into pits and killing them with various objects. Victims were in most cases tortured before being killed.

Indirect methods included Chetnik threats of massacring Croatians in pamphlets, songs, or speeches; various forms of physical violence ranging from stoning, beating, mutilation to rape of Croatian women and girls so as to nationally degrade them. There were two especially significant forms of indirect Chetnik crimes. These were robbery and forced conversion of Catholics into the Serbian Orthodox faith. Robbery and plundering were carried out on an enormous scale and were often the main motives for setting Chetniks into action. They were practiced mostly during military operations but were also carried out whenever possible. This caused hunger and death in territories through which the Chetniks passed and the massive exodus of the population which was in fact the main Chetnik goal. The forced conversion to the Serbian Orthodox faith aimed at further degrading the victims and destroying that deepest of ties to the Croatian nationality.

[Laberia]

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CHETNIK CRIMES OF GENOCIDE AGAINST CROATIANS FROM 1941 TO 1945

The actualization of genocidal crimes against Croatians, according to the proposed plan by the Chetnik leaders and commanders, began immediately after the plans were drawn up and lasted to the end of the war. Their scope depended primarily on their military capabilities, their deployment and the strength of their opponents. From the documents we notice three periods which, according to the number of victims of genocide, were the most massive. The first was the commencement of the rebellion, from the end of July 1941 to February 1942. The second was from August to October 1942 and the third was from January to March 1943. These were the strongest military periods for the Chetnik movement. It was also the time when the movement had the most intensive support of Chetniks from Serbia and Montenegro and the support of the Italian occupiers.

We will mention several distinguishing examples from these periods.

1.) The first period (the end of July 1941 - February 1942.)

This period consists of two parts: the first, from the eruption of the rebellion until the autumn of 1941, when Chetniks and guerrillas participated in the rebellion together; and the second, which began at the same time as the division of the Chetnik and national liberation movement, namely, the division of the military into Chetniks and Partisans and crimes of Chetnik units may be observed. In the first part, after the eruption of the revolt, in actions carried out jointly by the Chetniks and communists, the first massive crimes against Croatians and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia were carried out. In this way, on July 27, 1941 and several days afterwards, in Bosansko Grahovo and the surrounding area, 62 Croatians, among whom were five women, nine children, and parish rector Ante Gospodnetic were killed by the rebels while their houses and five villages were burned after being looted. On July 2, in Krenjus and its surrounds, as well as in Vrtoci, several hundred Croatians, the majority being older individuals, women and children and the parish rector Kresimir Baric were massacred. They looted and burned houses and the Roman Catholic Church. Then followed the arrival of 2,500 Croatians from Boricevac and the surrounding area into Bihac. Boricevac itself was looted and completely burned and never rebuilt after the war. As a result, 19 Roman Catholic parishes on the right side of the Una River and ten on the left shore ceased to exist since there was no congregation left. Subsequently, on September 5, 1941, in Kulen Vakuf, 3,000 Muslims and a hundred Croatians were slaughtered and the area was looted and burnt. Also, 44 Muslims and 12 Croatians were killed in Varcar Vakuf and the surrounding areas. In Glamoc and its surrounds, 45 Muslims and two Croatians were killed. In Sanski Most the rebels "killed Muslims and Croatian peasants and even their families"

It was the same in other areas. In this way, the "liberated territories" were soon liberated from Croatians who were forced to leave so as not be slaughtered and killed. Their houses and villages were looted and burned. Soon, a river of 50,000 refugees began to flow into Bihac, Jajce, Knin, Sanski Most, Prijedor, Livno, and other towns. The share the Chetniks and their supporters took in executing these crimes was dominant. In eastern Herzegovina, massacres of civilians were carried by out rebels with assistance from Montenegro. According to the documents of NDH authorities, the number is considerably greater. Some Croatians were killed, while from the entire eastern Herzegovina region, colonies of refugees, flowed into neighbouring towns, predominantly Capce the beginning of the revolt, that the first massacres of Muslims were recorded and this in Medjedja and Koraj in October and November 1941. Several hundred people were slaughtered.

After being looted, many houses and villages were burned. It was in eastern Bosnia, where Chetnik units, established and assisted by Chetniks in Serbia, and active sints spreading, Italian and German occupying forces intervened. The Italians occupied Zones I and II and the Germans brought in new forces. The Italians enabled the organization and supplies for the Chetnik units and their close links from Serbia to Slovenia, who in turn organized, planned, and commenced the genocidal crimes against Croatians and Muslims. In this way, Chetniks around Knin and at the three border point started the terror against the Croatian population. On October 7 and 8, 1941, they slaughtered seven Croatians in Donji Ervenik. On July 3, 1941, they ordered "that all Catholics in the village of Stikova be converted to the Orthodox faith." In an attack 16 days later, 11 local Croatians and 1 gendarme were killed. On December 11, in the village of Velika Plana, by Lovinac, six Croatians were massacred and before that, on September 29, 1941, 44 Croatians of Brotinja by D. Lapac were captured and then slaughtered. The majority were women and children. This resulted in a new wave of Croatian refugees. The arrival of Partisans in this territory temporarily hindered further Chetnik crimes, but made possible the transition of many Chetniks into Partisans, without punishment for the crimes committed.

2.) The second period (August - October 1941).

In this period, the majority of Chetnik crimes were again carried out in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Chetniks captured Foca on August 19,1942 in which 8,000 Muslims, both native inhabitants and some refugees, lived. Approximately 5,000 Muslims succeeded in escaping towards Sarajevo. Some smaller groups of Muslims went into hiding while the others were captured and killed. One of the survivors stated:"... As soon as the Chetniks occupied Foca, they captured and killed all the Muslim men, as well as a great number of women and children, whilst almost all the girls and young women were raped. Altogether, 11 men in hiding survived. Shops and houses were completely looted and some of them were burned". The same source also claimed that there had been "about 2,000 innocent victims." On September 5, 1942, P. Bacovic reported to D. Mihailovic that in Foca: "...1,200 Ustasa in uniforms and approximately 1,000 Muslims who had compromised themselves have been killed, while we had four dead and five wounded.... We had an enormous booty. Our goal was to secure links with Serbia and this we achieved."

From August 29 until September 4, 1942, during the Italian military operation "Albia" against the Partisans on Biokovo, a group of 1,000 Chetniks from eastern Herzegovia carried out massive looting, arson, and crimes against the local Croatian civilian population. It was on the territory of the Cetina parish alone (in Rascani, Zupa biokovska, Kozica, and Dragljani) that 160 Croatians were slaughtered, shot, or burned. Among them were three priests, Ivan Condic, Josip Braenovic who was decapitated, and Ladislav Ivankovic. On September 5, 1942, Bacovic reported on the "punitive expedition" to D. Mihailovic, stating that the Chetniks had killed over "1,000 Ustasa", and that they themselves had "not one dead or wounded". He went on to state that en route from Ljubuski to Vrgorac, they had "skinned three Catholic priests alive", killed "all the men 15 years of age and older" and that "17 villages had been completely destroyed", after which, with songs and the Serbian flag, they "came to the shores of our Adriatic" to the south of Makarska "and positioned our flag". From May until September 1942, on the basis of an agreement with the Italians, the Chetniks took over power in eastern Herzegovina with the exception of the towns. Subsequently, they killed several hundred Croatians and a massive exodus of the Croatian population from the left shores of the Neretva River followed. During this period, the exodus was primarily from the Stolac region, in which "from approximately 28,000 Catholics and Muslims" (with the exception of a few families in Stolac itself) not a single Croatian or Muslim remained according to Chetnik documents. During the Italian military operation against Partisans on the territory of Prozor in October 1942, the Chetniks first killed around 200 Croatians and Muslims in the Mostar area and then in the Prozor area, they killed, slaughtered, and threw into pits or water 1,716 people (340 Muslims and the rest Croatian civilians). Upon their return, they killed twenty Croatians, in the Konjic district, looted their homes and villages, and burned many of them as well. Bacovic sent the following telegram to D. Mihailovic on October 23, 1942: "In the Prozor operations, over 2,000 Croats and Muslims slaughtered. Soldiers returned."

Meanwhile, in northern and central Dalmatia, Chetniks carried out more genocidal crimes against Croatians under directions from the Italians and under their auspices. In this way, at the beginning of October 1942, on the territory of the Cetina parish, Chetniks, under the command of commander M. Rokvic, killed 200 Croatians, looted and burned down houses in the villages of Gata, Naglice, Cisla, Ostrvica, Zvecanji, Dugopolje, Kolenice, Srijani and Dolac Gornji.

The Italians reported: "Most of the people killed were the elderly, women and children, who had no ties with the Partisans". Every one was slaughtered when captured. During the killings, the Chetniks would sing: " Petar from London writes us, Oh Croatians, you are no more". On October 21, 1942, in Bitelic, near Sinj, Djujic's Chetniks, under directions from the Italians, killed 29 Croats and 6 more in Otisic and then burned down 220 Croatian houses. According to the report of the Italian General Berardi from Knin, "every Catholic was tortured and slaughtered and afterwards most of the corpses were mutilated in the most horrible manner", but he did not react. Djujic sent a telegram to D. Mihailovic reporting: "My people killed all those we came upon" On October 3, 1942, Chetniks from Medak killed five Croatians from Ribnik. All documents illustrate that the victims in these massacres were civilians which may be seen by the number of Chetnik casualties. The consequence was a new wave of Croatian refugees from these territories towards the sea and deeper into NDH territories.

3.) The third period (January - March 1943)

Chetnik genocidal crimes against Croatians and Muslims in this period correspond with German and Italian operations against NOP forces which began on January 20, 1943, throughout the NDH territory (headquarters in Bihac). Chetniks from the NDH territory, Montenegro and Serbia participated in these operations. They used this for the pre-planned cleansing of the Croatian and Muslim population. According to German verified data from the territory within their zone, in six east Bosnian and four central Bosnian districts, 8,400 Croatians and 24,400 Muslims were killed, making a total of 32,800 people. The small remaining groups of Muslims were forced by the Chetniks to convert from the Islamic to the Serbian Orthodox faith as was the case in the villages of Potpece and Vikoc near Foca.26 At the same time, at the end of January 1943, the Chetniks in Dalmatia, taking advantage of the absence of stronger Partisan forces, engaged in an action, killing over 100 Croatians in the villages of Kijevo, Kosori, Maovice, Vrlika, Ruzic, Otavice, Gradac and Kricke, and raping women and girls, all under the slogan, "burn and slaughter everything Catholic".

At that time, they impaled 68 year-old Niko Blazevic and roasted until he died. In Otavice, they threw 86 year-old Ilija Mestrovic, the uncle of the famous Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, into his burning house. Already on February 1, 1943, D. Mihailovic was informed: "In Kijevo and Vrlica, Bacovic shot 55 Ustasa and in Maovice and Otavice, Djujic killed 48 Ustasa".

Afterwards, on February 3 and 4, 1943, Herzegovinian Chetniks, in the Imotski region, slaughtered and killed 32 Croatians, looted and destroyed their property, set their houses on fire and raped the young girls and women. In these actions, the only victims were Croatian civilians, who were all considered Ustasa by the Chetniks. Not one victim was Serbian and not one Serbian village was destroyed. Again, the consequence was the departure of 3,000 Croatians from Sinj alone. Outside of these periods and until the end of the war, the Chetniks continued to loot, violate and kill Croatians and Muslims, whenever they had the opportunity. We will only mention a few of these crimes. In February 1944, Dalmatian Chetniks, in the villages of Dubrava, Danilo, Radonici and Goris killed 30 Croats. On April 4, they killed 10 in the Promin village of Necmen, 27 in the Skradin region on September 12, 1944, and 32 in December 1944 in Bribir, Grizani, and Tribalje near Crikvenica, burning 70 houses and the Bribir Church. In May 1944, Chetniks in Gorazde slaughtered about 50 Muslims, burning 2 mosques. In northeastern Bosnia, on October 8, 1944, the Trebavska Chetniks killed 25 Croatians in the villages of Tramosnica, Turic, Liporasce and Srednja Slatina. On January 3, 1945, Chetniks "captured, raped, and shot 27 women and children" (Croatians) in the villages of Kladari and Carevac, and ten days later massacred Croatians in the village Pecnik. On December 21, 1944, the Chetniks of Rogatic killed 23 Muslims in the village of Vinograd. Up to June 1944, on the territory of the Rogatic district alone, 3,677 homes were burned and 4,635 were Muslims killed (among whom were a small number of Croatians) by the Chetniks.30 At the end of the war, the Chetniks were militarily defeated but many of them were given the opportunity during the war, most often after being imprisoned, to "voluntarily" join the Partisans. More than 80% took advantage of this opportunity and, almost as a rule, gained legal amnesty from their crimes. Only a few were convicted for their crimes. In this way, they were given the opportunity to plan the revenge which they had constantly stressed during the war, most frequently in the song: "Oh Croatians, are we ever going to slaughter you, when Pero returns from London", even though their King did not return. This was especially revealed during the final operations after the surrender at Bleiburg, with murders and firing squads during "Death Marches", in camps and in places of execution for members of the Croatian defense forces and NDH authorities, as well as civilians throughout the territory of the former Yugoslavia, namely Croatians and Muslims. The number of Chetnik victims of genocide among Croatians and Muslims during the war from 1941 to 1945 has not yet been confirmed. The newest demographic research suggests that the possible exact number of casualties on NDH territory is 200,000 Croats and 100,000 Muslims. These numbers refer to those killed. According to V. Zerjavic, of this number, 32,000 Croatians (20,000 in Croatia and 12,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 33,000 Muslims were victims of the Chetniks.31 To many, Zerjavic's number appears too small, especially due to larger estimates in some sources and literature. I believe that this is possible, until future research, which is now being conducted, establishes concrete numerical data for these Chetnik genocidal crimes.

[Laberia]

CONCLUSION

Chetnik crimes of genocide against Croatians during the Second World War (1941-1945) were not incidental, rather they were planned and an integral component of the military and political goals of the Chetnik movement. Their origins are in the comprehension of Greater Serbian nationalists and expansionists, of which the Chetnik movement was the most extreme, most organized and most operative part during the war. According to this comprehension, national and historical territories outside of Serbia are also Serbian because Serbians live there, regardless of their number. Areas in which there are no Serbians may also be considered Serbian if geostrategic or other reasons exist. In this respect, they considered Bosnia and Herzegovina and the greater part of today's Republic of Croatia to be Serbian and endeavored to "cleanse" them, through crimes of genocide, of Croatians who formed the majority of the population and then annex them to the ethnically pure "Greater Serbia". It is precisely this constant effort of the Chetnik movement to establish this "Greater Serbia," on the mentioned territories, which is the real reason for the Chetnik terror and genocidal crimes and not religious and national differences, nor terror or counter-terror, as some would have us believe. The Chetniks displayed their genocidal comprehension at all opportunities in numerous documents, maps, speeches, statements and actions before, during and unfortunately even after the Second World War. During this war, they attempted to achieve their genocidal plans with the support of and under the protection of first the Italian occupiers and then the German occupiers, as well as the support of the exiled government of Yugoslavia, Great Britain, and the United States. This is why, along with the Chetniks, the above mentioned participants carry their share of the responsibility for these crimes. In this respect, as we have partially shown, Muslims and Croatians in many territories in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Serbia, Montenegro to Slovenia were "cleansed".

Wherever Chetnik units arrived, horrific crimes were committed, depending only on the relation of forces and the circumstances in a given territory and throughout NDH, Europe, and the world. 52 Catholic priests, and several nuns of whom the most well-known are the so called Drina martyrs, five nuns who were taken by the Chetniks just before Christmas 1941 from the Pale convent to Gorazde where they were tortured, slaughtered, and thrown into the Drina River. The Chetnik movement did not fulfill its genocidal intentions because it did not possess enough military units. Yet the main reason was the self-organized defense and armed opposition of the Croatian and Muslim people, which protected them from even more tragic Chetnik crimes in many places and brought about their military defeat.

Following the war in 1945, all Chetnik criminals were given the opportunity to answer for their crimes of genocide against the Croatians and their historical, sacred and cultural monuments in court. Many were even given the chance to continue with these crimes under a different symbol (the communist red star?) For this reason, it is not coincidental that such genocidal crimes of greater Serbian nationalists and Chetniks occurred in even more appalling forms, with respect to the number of those killed, the number of refugees, and the destruction, against the Croatians in the greater Serbian aggression upon the Republic of Croatia in 1991, and then, against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina until today.

Historical experience shows that the military defeat of the Chetniks renders possible the return of the majority of the surviving Croatian population to their homes, but that is not sufficient. It is necessary to punish all the criminals, because until this is done, there will be no peace on these territories, and the threat of danger, new conflicts and new Chetnik crimes will always exist, which is something all international factors must be conscious of, if they truly want peace and if they do not wish to bear their share of the responsibility for Chetnik genocidal crimes.


Source: An International Symposium "Southeastern Europe 1918-1995"

Source: The Vidovdan Hydra (http://www.freewebs.com/index44/serbianexpansionism.htm)

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[Lavrentis]

Serbs are called 'Turks' by their neighbors, not only because they look Turkish, but also because Serbian expansionism reminds people of Turkish expansionism.

This is what I understand from the people who border Serbia