Croatia

Croatia formed part of the province of Pannonia during the reign of the Roman Empire. Pannonia was conquered by the Avars, a Mongolian people, in the 6th century AD. During the 7th century, the Slavic Croats conquered the Avars; subsequently the Croats were conquered by the Franks. In 925 Croatia became an independent kingdom, which lasted until the end of the 11th century, when a period of political anarchy led to intervention by Hungary. Except for periods of occupation by the Ottomans and the French, Croatia was an autonomous kingdom under Hungarian rule from 1102 until the Hungarian revolution of 1848. Croatia and Slavonia were then made a separate Austrian crown land. In 1867 the Austrians and Hungarians created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, and Croatia was assigned to Hungary. Shortly after this, Croatia gained autonomy from Hungary and was eventually united with the region of Slavonia. Hungarian manipulation of Croatia, however, ultimately led to mutual hostility that was carried forth into World War I (1914-1918). During World War I, Croatian and Serbian leaders tried to build a common front, hoping to create a kingdom that would unite all the South Slavic peoples. On December 1, 1918, following the overthrow of the monarchy of Austria-Hungary at the close of the war, Croatia became part of the independent Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes under the Serbian monarchy of Aleksandar I. When conflict between Croats and Serbs led to greater national tensions, Aleksandar tightened control over the country, and in 1929 he renamed the kingdom Yugoslavia ("Land of the South Slavs"). Tensions between the two ethnic groups continued, however, and the postwar history of the state was marked by the Croats' struggle for greater political autonomy. Croatian and Macedonian extremists assassinated Aleksandar in 1934, and Fascist movements began to garner support among the Croats and Serbs. In 1939 the approximate present boundaries of the republic were defined, and the area was named Croatia. In 1941, as Yugoslavia became entangled in World War II, a new Croatian state was formed. The new state was created as a result of the invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany and Italy. Although it was actually a puppet state of the Axis powers, the state was known as the Independent State of Croatia; it was under the control of the Fascist Ustaše regime, which encompassed much of Croatia and Bosnia and was headed by nationalists in Croatia. Yugoslavs fought against each other during the remainder of the war; in particular, the forces of Josip Broz Tito, a Croatian Communist, fought against the Italian-backed Ustaše regime and the Serb nationalist Cetniks. At the end of the war, Tito reconciled all the various parts of Yugoslavia and created a Yugoslav federation, with Croatia as one of the constituent republics. By the terms of the peace treaty with Italy in 1947, most of Istria, formerly part of Italy, was included in Croatia. During the 1960s and 1970s Croatia's beautiful Adriatic coastline attracted tourism, which contributed to Yugoslavia's economy. Croats began to agitate for greater autonomy as they saw their tourist revenues being used to stamp out Croatian nationalism; however, such agitation was suppressed by Tito in late 1971. Following Tito's death in 1980, tensions mounted between Croatia and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav government. By the end of the 1980s demands for autonomy had been superseded by demands for independence from Yugoslavia. Croatian dissidents, including Franjo Tudjman, became more prominent among the Croatian populace. Tudjman created the Croatian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1990, after the Communist government began to allow multiple parties to participate in the political process. He began campaigning for the ensuing election, promoting the republic's sovereignty and independence, which touched off protests by Serbs. The CDU prevailed in the spring 1990 elections, winning a majority of the seats in the Assembly, and Tudjman was elected president. Despite an attempt to make concessions for the Croatian Serbs, Tudjman quickly alienated many of them. With direct assistance from Serbia, Serbs living in the regions of Krajina and Slavonia organized themselves and called for a referendum later in the year on whether or not a separate state should be created for Croatian Serbs. Most Serbs living in districts where Serbs constituted a majority voted for autonomy, and as a result, Serbian Autonomous Regions (SARs) were created in several parts of Croatia. Tudjman's government did not recognize the SARs, and when Croatia voted for independence from Yugoslavia in May 1991, the Serbs in the SARs, who constituted about one-third of Croatia's Serb population, stood firmly in opposition. In the summer of 1991 a savage civil war began, broken by frequent, short-lived cease-fires. By the end of the year more than one-fourth of the republic's territory had been taken over by the Serbs, with backing from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). By December both the European Community (EC, now called the European Union) and the United Nations (UN) were involved in mediation efforts in Croatia, and the three SARs had united to declare a Republic of Serbian Krajina. In January 1992 an unconditional cease-fire was signed by the JNA and the Croatian National Guard. The UN sent in 14,000 troops in February to ensure the withdrawal of Serbian forces and the demilitarization of occupied Croatian territory; the UN troops, however, proved ineffectual. Serbian forces remained in control of parts of Croatia, forcing out non-Serbs and starting a second round of armed conflicts despite the UN presence. Internal problems in Croatia led to a clampdown on democratic freedoms. The government suppressed certain newspapers and began arresting some so-called extremists in June 1992. Elections held in August 1992 enacted some of the provisions of the new constitution adopted in 1990. Voters reelected President Tudjman and gave a majority of the seats in the legislature to the CDU. In the spring of 1992 Croatia also began supporting Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who had seized a segment of Bosnian territory and created a breakaway Croatian state, called the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. Some of the nationalist members of this state advocated joining Croatia. By mid-1993 it became clear that the Vance-Owen peace plan, proposed by Lord Owen of the EC and Cyrus Vance of the UN in October 1992, had failed. Negotiations continued, however, and a bilateral accord between Croatia and Serbia was signed in January 1994, pledging the restoration of communication and transportation links between the two republics. Nevertheless, Serbs still occupied 25 to 30 percent of Croatian territory, and President Slobodan Miloševiç of Serbia refused to include a mutual recognition clause in the agreement, which would have solidified Croatia's claim to the Krajina region and the other SARs. In March 1994 the Bosnian government and Bosnian Croats signed a charter for a new federation, linking the remaining territory of Bosnia controlled by the two groups. At the same time, the new federation signed an agreement with Croatia to facilitate economic cooperation. The tense stand-off between the Croats and the Croatian Serbs continued throughout the year. The cease-fire was held in place chiefly by the UN peacekeeping forces occupying the region. The so-called Z-4 peace plan presented by U.S. and Russian ambassadors in November proposed restoring the original boundaries of Croatia to the Croatian government but giving Serbs local autonomy in the Serb-dominated regions. However, both sides rejected this plan. The uneasy peace in Croatia was threatened by Tudjman's efforts in early 1995 to end the UN's mandate in his country and force out the troops, whose presence the Croatians feared was solidifying the Serbs' hold on the Krajina region. Tudjman finally agreed to let a UN force remain in Croatia through November, but he insisted that the name of the force be changed to reflect Croatia's independent status and that the number of troops occupying Croatia be reduced by about one-third. Then, in early May 1995, Croatian forces crossed UN lines and attacked a Serb-held enclave in western Slavonia; the Serbs immediately responded by bombing Zagreb. The Serbs were forced to evacuate the region, giving the Croatian army a victory and considerably reducing the Croatian territory controlled by the Serbs. It was the largest Croatian offensive since 1991 and, coming just days after the end of a four-month cease-fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sparked fears of a renewed region-wide conflict in the former Yugoslavia. However, despite these initial fears, the Serb-controlled Yugoslav army did not intervene in Croatia, and neither did the Bosnian Serb forces. In August 1995 Croatian forces mounted a large-scale offensive across the entire Krajina region and quickly reconquered the area. The Serbs put up little resistance, and tens of thousands of them evacuated Croatia, most of them taking refuge in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Once again the Yugoslav army did not intervene, thereby avoiding a war between Croatia and Serbia. Some observers, including disgruntled local Serbs, speculated that President Tudjman and Serbian president Miloševiç had arranged a secret deal over the Krajina region. In October 1995 Croatia held elections for its Chamber of Representatives. The CDU won 75 of the 127 seats in the chamber, which represented a decline from its previous holdings. A five-party coalition, which included the Croatian Peasants' Party, the Croatian People's Party, and the Croatian Christian Democratic Union, won 16 seats. The largest opposition party, the Croatian Social Liberal Party, gained 12 seats. In December President Tudjman joined Serbian president Slobodon Miloševiç and Bosnian president Alija Izetbegoviç in the signing of the Dayton peace accord, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The previous month, an international plan had been arranged to address continued Serb occupation of the regions of eastern Slavonia and Baranja. By the terms of the plan, these regions were to revert to Croatian control during a 12-month transition period that could be extended for another year at the request of either party. More detailed negotiations were scheduled to take place in order to ensure some measure of local autonomy for Serbs in the regions and to provide for the peaceful return of Croatian refugees who were driven out of the regions by the Serbs in 1991 and forced to settle in other parts of Croatia. In the meantime, a new UN-mandated international force consisting of 5000 troops was placed in that area of Croatia to maintain peace and security. In August 1996 the foreign ministers of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which consists of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, signed a mutual recognition agreement in which they pledged to establish diplomatic relations and restore trade and transportation links between the two countries. The agreement sent a message to Serbs in eastern Slavonia that the FRY would not support their campaign to establish the region as a special international zone rather than allow it to return to Croatian rule. In January 1997 the UN Security Council decided to extend its mandate in eastern Slavonia and Baranja for a further six months, following a request by Serb authorities in the regions to allow for a gradual and peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia and Baranja into Croatia. The United States and its European allies continued to press the Croatian government to live up to the requirements of the November 1995 agreement by allowing exiled ethnic Serbs to return to their homes in Croatia. Members of the international community also criticized the Croatian government for failing to make full provisions to accommodate the 120,000 Serbs living in eastern Slavonia, many of whom had been forced out of other parts of Croatia in 1995. After the regions' scheduled transfer to Croatian rule, many of the Croats forced from the regions at the beginning of the war in 1991 are expected to return and reclaim their homes. In April Croatia held elections to the Chamber of Municipalities. Candidates of the ruling CDU scored a decisive victory, increasing their number of seats in the 65-member chamber from 37 to 41. In June the country held presidential elections. Tudjman won another five-year term as president with more than 61 percent of the vote. His chief opponents, a Croatian Social Democrat and a member of the Croatian Social Liberal Party, won about 21 percent and 18 percent. Monitors from the OSCE criticized the elections and the campaign leading up to them, citing strong favoritism towards Tudjman within the state-run media, vastly unequal campaign resources among candidates, and the denial of voting rights to minority Serbs in Croatia.