On
January 3rd 1992 and the Sarajevo Ceasefire Plan45 the
war in Croatia ended and the UN forces (UNPROFOR)46 deployment
was agreed upon. At the very beginning of their commitment,
in four UN protected zones (UNPA East, West, North and
South)47 – Serbia and Montenegro, the JNA and local Serbs
started another war of aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina48,
so the UN mandate was extended to the new warring zone49.
Clouded
by the latest wars’ more fierce and more dangerous manner,
an uncertain ceasefire was holding in Croatia. The sovereign
Croatian state was slowly constituting itself, the new
parliamentarian and democratic society was forming, the
economy was transforming itself from a planned to a market
one, the state gained its international attributes50,
and renewed its economic and financial strength. At the
same time Serb artillery from: Serbia proper, from Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the occupied territories
of Croatia, continued to shell Croatian cities while Serb
rebels evicted and/or killed the remaining Croats51 on
the occupied territories. UN deployment had not prevented
Serb forces from continuing to expel the non-Serb population
and the continuous shelling of Croatian cities. It became
clear that UNPROFOR did not have the mandate, intent or
manpower to be of any efficacy; the least of which was
the integration of the occupied territories back into
the Croatian state. Ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs and
efforts to constitute the Serb para-state were in a full
swing on the occupied territories. There was two-fold
development: Croatia insisted on UN mandate implementation52,
the recognition of its full sovereignty and the return
of all national territories under its constitutional and
legal system – while rebel Serbs, fully supported by Belgrade,
tried to transform the occupied territory into a “sovereign
state” which would, after its unification with the Republika
Srpska of Bosnia be annexed to the “mother-state of Serbia”53.
That
artificial “state”, the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina
(RSK) blocked the Croatian state’s critical needs – its
communication with southern Croatia, water, electricity
and oil supplies, the return of the refugees and the reconstruction
of the country. Croatia was forced, her diplomatic efforts
abiding (which at first was misunderstood and repelled
by the international community)54 to undertake small-scale
military operations on the Miljevac Plateau55, Maslenica56
and the Peruča dam57. While the state’s administration,
diplomacy, economy, military and police were formed, and
under economic pressure and an arms embargo, Croatia had
with difficulties approached its goal – full sovereignty
and its national territories’ liberation. Croatia was
faced with Serb terror and without leniency, which during
the Maslenica operation was felt by the UN forces. Serbs
had forcibly entered ammunition depots and took heavy
artillery that had been locked away58. Croatia had to
combine diplomatic and military means and use patient
and wise political and diplomatic steps to regain the
confidence of the international community: the EU, UN,
OESS59 and choose when it would undertake military actions.
In such a way Croatia came closer to its goal. By never
publicly admitting it’s strategy, which Serb rebels ironically
called “a mice bite strategy,”60 Croatia made its strategic,
economic, internal and external position stronger. Undertaking
limited military/police actions in the so-called “Pink
Zones” which the UN itself recognized as unquestionable
parts of Croatia’s territory61, the areas important for
communication and power supply were returned under its
sovereignty. At the same time, Serb artillery and rocket
threats were pushed away from Croat civilian targets,
weakening the strategy of the Serbs62. Security was returned
to larger cities along the coast and to Croatia’s interior
which up until that time was threatened by even smaller
calibre enemy artillery.
The
unification of the two Serbian “states” and “armies” –
the Republika Srpska army and the army of the Serbian
Republic of Krajina and the constant military and logistical
support from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia63 – posed
a great political and military threat.
Control
of Croatia’s borders and stopping rebel Serb troop reinforcements
from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, was imperative for Croatia. The UNPROFOR mandate
sub-divided into three separate mandates: one for Croatia,
one for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one for the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia64 was also vital for Croatia.
The signing of the Erdut Agreement65 and its implementation66,
the vivid activities of international negotiators for
the former Yugoslavia (Vance/Owen/Stoltenberg67), a number
of meetings that followed in Geneva, Vienna, London, New
York, Tuđman’s peace proposal on September 22nd 1993 as
disclosed in the UN68 and the passing of the 871 UN Resolution
in 1993 – all mark Croatia’s vivid political and diplomatic
activities toward both Serb rebels, international mediators
and world powers in the year of 1993. In that year, several
UN Resolutions unequivocally confirmed Croatia’s sovereignty
on its entire territory. In that year as well some limited
but important military victories had been achieved which
showed the growth and the ability of the Croatian armed
forces to (combined with political means) realize Croatian
national interests. The Republic of Croatia has shown
decisiveness to persevere in its sovereign and democratic
defence principles; principles Serb rebels and the FRY
(Serbia and Montenegro) questioned.
