The Participants and the main Characteristics of the War in Croatia, 1990-1991

Autor je u radu dao osnovne vojne značajke rata u Hrvatskoj u razdoblju 1991. - 1991. za koji smatra da je riječ o prvoj fazi Domovinskog rata. Dani su podaci o sukobljenim stranama, njihovim strategijama, planovima djelovanja, osnovnim značajkama rata i na kraju o saldu rata. Autor drži da je glavni akter krize u ovom razdoblju bila Jugoslavenska narodna armija koja je opredjeljenjem za Srbiju omogućila izbijanje rata. Rat protiv Republike Hrvatske bio je u prvom redu rat za zemlju, a glavni cilj rata može se opisati trima riječima: etnički očistiti područje.The theme of this article is the participants and the main characteristics of the Croatian battlefields from May 1990 until the end of 1991, that is, to 3 January, 1992. This covers the time period from the democratic elections and the change in government in Croatia, to the signing of the armistice between the Republic of Croatia and the Yugoslav People’s Army in Sarajevo. The war that created the Republic of Croatia was not chosen by Croatia. It was caused by a combination of events which obviously could not be avoided and the beginning of the bloody resolution of the Yugoslav crisis which had lasted years. In the 1980s, the project of communist Yugoslavia was brought to an end. Its future depended on an agreement among the republics, which, as time quickly revealed, could not agree on a peaceful separation. Serbia, Montenegro, and the Yugoslav People’s Army supported the option of “modern federation,” a centralized Yugoslavia based on the principle “one person, one vote.” Slovenia and Croatia offered confederation, that is, a community of sovereign states or separation according to the existing republican boundaries. Agreement could not be reached; war and the demise of Yugoslavia followed. War was initiated by Serbia, and the Yugoslav Army enabled it by siding with Serbia. Controversies about the Homeland War begin with the date on which the war even began. Participants date the beginning of the war from the beginning of hostilities, but these were merely manifestations of processes which were for a long time occurring beyond the public eye. In this regard, the Serbs are the most specific as they have been dating the beginning of the war from 17 August 1990 since 1992. Personally, I hold the war to have begun in the middle of May 1990 after the victory of the HDZ. Prior to the HDZ’s assumption of power, the Yugoslav Army disarmed the territorial defense force and began the transfer of peacetime forces. I consider the activity of the Yugoslav Army to mark the first phase of the war, from May 1990 to the beginning of March 1991. The second phase includes the events that occurred from the incidents at Pakrac to the occupation of Baranja and the village of Kijevo in Dalmatia, from March 1991 to the end of August 1991. The third phase took place from September 1991 to the beginning of January in 1992. The main characteristic of this phase is the open war of the main armed forces of Yugoslavia and the insurgent Serbs against the Republic of Croatia. The war against the Republic of Croatia was in the first instance a war for land and against the Croat people. The aim of the war can be reduced to three words: ethnically cleansed territory