Guía de preparación de un portafolio docente:

60. The present case mainly concerns events which took place between 1991 and 1995 in the territory of the Republic of Croatia as it had existed within the SFRY. The Court will focus now on the background to those events.

61. First, it should be noted that, according to the official census conducted by the Institute for Statistics of the republic of Croatia at the end of March 1991, the majority of the inhabitants of Croatia (some 78 per cent) were of Croat origin. A number of ethnic and national minorities were also represented; in particular, some 12 per cent of the population was of Serb origin. A significant part of that Serb minority lived close to the republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. While the population in these frontier areas was a mixed one consisting of Croats and Serbs there was a majority of Serbs in certain localities. Towns and villages with Serb majorities existed in close proximity to towns and villages with Croat majorities.

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62. In political terms, tensions between, on the one hand, the Government of the republic of Croatia and, on the other, the Serbs living in Croatia and opposed to its independence, increased at the start of the 1990s. On 1 July 1990, elected representatives of the Serb Democratic Party in Croatia (SDS) formed the “Union of Municipalities of the Northern Dalmatia and Lika”. On 25 July 1990, the Constitution of the republic of Croatia was amended; in particular, a new flag and coat of arms were adopted which, according to Serbia, was perceived by the Serb minority as a sign of hostility towards them. On the same day, a Serb assembly and a “Serb National Council” (the executive organ of the assembly) were established at Srb, north of Knin; they proclaimed themselves to be the political representatives of the Serb population of Croatia and declared the sovereignty and autonomy of the Serbs in Croatia. The “Council” then announced that a referendum would be held on the autonomy of the Croatian Serbs. In August 1990, the Croatian Government attempted to oppose this referendum; the Serb minority responded by erecting roadblocks. The referendum took place between 19 August and 2 September 1990; a substantial majority voted in favour of autonomy.

63. On 21 December 1990, Serbs in the municipalities of northern Dalmatia and Lika proclaimed the “Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina” (“SAO Krajina”). Two other “Serb autonomous regions” were established later: the “SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem” (“SAO SBWS”) in February 1991, and the “SAO Western Slavonia” in August of that year.

64. On 22 December 1990, the Croatian Parliament adopted a new Constitution. According to Serbia, the Croatian Serbs considered that the adoption of this new Constitution deprived them of certain basic rights and removed their status as a constituent nation of Croatia.

65. On 4 January 1991, the SAO Krajina established its own internal affairs secretariat and police and State security services.

66. In spring 1991, clashes broke out between the Croatian armed forces and those of the SAO Krajina and other armed groups. The Yugoslav National Army (“JNA”) intervened officially to separate the protagonists, but, according to Croatia, in support of the Krajina Serbs.

67. In a referendum organized on 12 May 1991 by the SAO Krajina, a majority of Serbs voted in favour of attaching the region to Serbia and staying in the SFRY. One week later, on 19 May 1991, Croatian voters, asked to pronounce by referendum on Croatia’s independence from the SFRY, overwhelmingly approved it.

68. As explained above (see paragraph 55), Croatia declared its independence from the SFRY on 25 June 1991, and that declaration took effect on 8 October 1991.

69. By the summer of 1991, an armed conflict had broken out in Croatia, in the course of which the violations of the Genocide Convention alleged by Croatia in this case are claimed to have been committed (see paragraphs 200-442 below). At least from September 1991, the JNA which, according to Croatia, was by then controlled by the Government of the republic of Serbia intervened in the fighting against the Croatian Government forces. By late 1991, the JNA and Serb forces (see paragraph 204 below) controlled around one-third of Croatian territory within its boundaries in the SFRY (in the regions of Eastern Slavonia, Western Slavonia, Banovina/Banija, Kordun, Lika and Dalmatia). These regions, as well as several towns and villages referred to in the present Judgment, are illustrated on the following sketch-map.

70. On 19 December 1991, the Serbs of the SAO Krajina (which then comprised territories in Banovina/Banija, Kordun, Lika and Dalmatia) proclaimed the establishment of the “Republika Srpska Krajina” (“RSK”). Two months later, the SAO Western Slavonia and the SAO SBWS joined the RSK.

71. Negotiations in late 1991 and early 1992, backed by the international community and involving, inter alia, representatives of Croatia, Serbia and the SFRY, resulted in the Vance plan (after Cyrus Vance, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yugoslavia) and the deployment of the United Nations Protection Force (“UNPROFOR”). The Vance plan provided for a ceasefire, demilitarization of those parts of Croatia under the control of the Serb minority and SFRY forces, the return of refugees and the creation of conditions favourable to a permanent political settlement of the conflict. UNPROFOR which was deployed in spring 1992 in three areas protected by the United Nations (the UNPAs of Eastern Slavonia, Western Slavonia and Krajina) was divided into four operational sectors: East (Eastern Slavonia), West (Western Slavonia), North and South (these two latter sectors covered the Krajina UNPA).

72. The objectives of the Vance plan and of UNPROFOR were never fully achieved: between 1992 and the spring of 1995, the RSK was not demilitarized, certain military operations were conducted by both parties to the conflict, and attempts to achieve a peaceful settlement failed.

73. In the spring and summer of 1995, Croatia succeeded in re-establishing control over the greater part of the RSK following a series of military operations. Thus it recovered Western Slavonia in May through Operation “Flash”, and the Krajina in August through Operation “Storm”, during which the facts described in the counter-claim allegedly occurred (see paragraphs 443-522 below). Following the conclusion of the Erdut Agreement on 12 November 1995, Eastern Slavonia was gradually reintegrated into Croatia between 1996 and 1998.

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Joševica Lipovača Saborsko Poljanak ZAGREB Gračac Bruška Obrovac Škabrnja Benkovac Knin Voćin Dalj Vukovar Bogdanovci Berak Bapska Sremska Mitrovica Lovas Tovarnik Kusonje Hrvatska Dubica Dubrovnik Đulovac 0 50 100 150 km K O R D U N B A N O V I N A / B A N * + A L I K A E A S T E R N S L A V O N I A W E S T E R N S L A V O N I A D A L M A T I A C R O A T I A B O S N I A A N D H E R Z E G O V I N A H U N G A R Y S L O V E N I A I T A L Y A U S T R I A M O N T E N E G R O S E R B I A

Universal Transverse Mercator projection, zone 33N WGS84 Datum

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