From: aaldoubo@copper.denver.colorado.edu (Shaqeeqa)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic
Subject: Re: Yugoslavia: 30 Historical Facts
Date: 22 Nov 92 03:43:30 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado at Denver

This originally appeared in soc.culture.jewish:

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Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava                             *  *  *       
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          YUGOSLAVIA:                            *    *  *  *    *  
      30 HISTORICAL FACTS                        *   *   *   *   *  
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PUBLISHED BY THE SERBIAN UNITY CONGRESS             *  * * *  *       
                                                     -=Peace=-       
    Serbs have been understandably upset with media coverage 
regarding Yugoslavia. Part of the problem has resulted because
reporters are not familar with the history of Yugoslavia's diverse
ethnic groups and rarely speak of any of the country's three
primary languages.
    Even residents of Yugoslavia and their descendants have been
confused by the history because the communist regime repressed so 
much of it.
    The key to understanding the Yugoslav crisis is understanding
Yugoslavia's people and their history. The following are 30 points
worth remembering about Yugoslavia and her people. You can use these
30 points as background information when writing letters to
reporters or government officials you wish to contact.
                                       Miroslav Djordjevich
                                       President
                                       Serbian Unity Congress
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1.  Serbians and Croatians came to the Balkans from Eastern Europe 
in the sixth century A.D. They ultimately formed small duchies -
the Serbs under the nominal suzerainty of the Byzantines; the Croats
under the Franks and Venetians.
 
2.  Croatia never had a full-fledged independent state. Their kings
were Papal vassals who revceived crowns from Popes John X (King
Tomislav 925 AD) and Gregory VII (King Zvonimir, 1076) in return
for absolute Fealty and fixed yearly tribute. Croatia ceased to
exist as a separate political entity after signing the Pacta
Conventa with Hungary in 1102 and Austria in 1527. Until the end of
World War I in 1918, the Croats lived in separate semi-autonomous
and semi-feudal provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
 
3.  Serbs had several fully independent kingdoms between 1159 and
1345 that combined to form a large empire between 1345 and 1389. 
This empire was defeated by the Turks in 1389 at the Battle of
Kosovo. Serbia then became a small semi-independent tributary state
(despotate) until it was abolished entirely by the Turks in 1459.
Serbs overthrew Turkish rule in 1804, reconquered Kosovo during the
Balkan Wars (1912-1913), and built a modern democratic state of free
land-holding peasants.
 
4.  The Serbs living in Krajina came to their present domicile in 
two waves. The first group, now settled in Dalmatia, came from
Kosovo-Metohija in 1347-1355 at the invitation of Dowager Princess
Jelena Subic. The princess built several Orthodox monasteries, 
churches and schools for them. The Serbs in the northern part of 
Krajina (Lika and Slavonija) came between 1460 and 1490, fleeing
from advancing Turks. They were settled on feudal fiefs which at
the time were completely abandoned by their Austrian and Hungarian
lords and Croat serfs. The original land-patents given to the Serbs
by Austrians refer to these lands as "desertum primum et secundum".
These Serbs were given the status of free peasants in return for
military service against the Turks. Their "Military Border" was 
under direct control of Vienna and independent of the Austrian
governors of Croatia.
 
5.  Serbia lost 25 percent of its total population and 56 percent of
its adult male population during the Balkan Wars and World War I.
(To put these figures into perspective, it is helpful to know that
casualties reported from both sides participating in America's
Civil War totaled two percent of the population). Serbia fought
with the Allies in both World War I and World War II.
 
6.  The idea of South Slavic unity (Yugoslavism) originated among
Croats. It began as a literary movement in 1850, when at a meeting
in Vienna three Croat writers, I. Kukuljevic, F. Miklosic and 
I. Mazuranic, invited two Serbian linguistic reformers, 
V. Karadzic and F. Danicic, to sign an "Agreement on Common
Literary Language," whereby their reforms would become the basis
for the Serbo-Croatian literary language. This remained an 
intellectual idea with slight popular support among Serbs and
virtually none among Croats who resisted giving up their
orthography.
 
7.  "Yugoslavism" was transformed into a political idea during World
War I by three Croatian deputied of the Austro-Hungarian Parliament,
A. Trumbic, F. Supilo and J. Smodlaka. They were Dalmatians, and
as such, were alarmed by the Allied London Treaty of 1915 which
assigned parts of Dalmatia to Italy as a prize for joining the war
against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since the same treaty gave
parts of Slovenia to Italy, the Croat deputies invited some 
Slovenian colleagues to approach the Allied Kingdom of Serbia with
the plea to include all of Croatia and Slovenia in its claims as a
war prize under the slogan of a "South Slav State," based on ethnic
and linguistic kinship with Serbs. Thus, Serbis was to use its 
enormous war-prestige to thwart the Italian claims upon the South
Slavic lands which at the time were enemy territory. This is how the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed in 1918.
 
8.  In 1929, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changed its
name to Yugoslavia.
 
9.  Under the attack by the Axis powers in April 1941, Yugoslavia
fell. Yugoslavia was completely encircled by the Nazi war machine
countries of Albania, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria.
 
10. Serbia's Colonel (later General) Draza Mihailovic and his
Chetniks formed the first guerilla resistance to Hitler in all of
Europe, but Serbs paid dearly for resisting the German army of
occupation, as reprisals were set of 100 Serbs shot for every
German killed and 50 Serbs executed for every German wounded.
 
11. On April 10, 1941, the illegal Croat fascist party (Ustashe)
proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia. Its policy, as 
articulated by its minister of education, was to kill one part of
all Serbs living in Croatia, push one part over the border and
convert the last part to Catholicism. The Independent State of
Croatia was a full-fledged Axis co-belligerent, officially at war
with the Allies. (It declared war on the United States on December
14, 1941).
 
12. World War II Croatia had more men under arms proportionately
than any other Axis state. It had 160,000 regulars (Domobrani);
75,000 Fascist militia (Ustashe); and 15,000 police auxillaries
(Oriznici and Redarstvo). In addition to its own units, Croatia
provided more volunteers for the German Army than anyone else in
Axis Europe: five full-strength divisions, three Wehrmacht (39th
and 23rd), plus a "Croat Legion" of 7,000 volunteers serving under
German command at the Russian front, and an anti-aircraft unit of
500 men serving in Austria. These units were officered by Germans
and wore uniforms and insignia, but all had the Croat national
"chessboard" emblem on the sleeve of their jackets, the same
emblem the new Croat Republic is using, the same emblem which Serbs
in Krajina fear.
 
13. The Croatian Ustashe operated numerous extermination camps,
including the one at Jasenovac, which was the third largest death
camp in all of Wartime Europe. According to the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, 77% of all Jews, more than 500,000 Serbs and 20,000 Gypsies
living in Croatia were annihilated by the Ustashe during World War
II. When Herman Neubacher was the high ranking envoy for Southeast
Europe he wrote, "When the leaders of Ustashas boast to have 
slaughtered one million Orthodox Serbs, that in my opinon is
self-glorifying exaggeration. On the basis of reports I had
received, I estimate the number of defenseless Serbs who were
slaughtered at three-quarters of a million."
 
14. During World War II, the newly formed Albanian fascist militia
in western Kosovo brutally expelled 70,000 Serbs and brought in
about an equal number of non Serbian speaking Albanians from
Albania. In northeastern Kosovo, Serbs were left undisturbed until
1944, when the 21st SS "Skanderberg Division" began operating in the
area. Manned by Albanian volunteers from Kosovo, the division 
massacred thousands of Serbs and forced others to flee to German-
occupied Serbia.
 
15. Most historians claim about 15 percent of the Serbian population
was killed during World War II. Some revisionists claim this
figure was closer to seven percent, but there are often the same
revisionists who state Croatia suffered the worst genocide during
World War II without clarifying that the genocide in Croatia was
conducted by Croatians and Muslims against Serbians, Jews and 
Gypsies. Aproximately 200,000 Serbian Orthodox Christians were
forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism during World War II.
 
16. Unlike Germany and Austria, Croatia never apologized for its
war crimes.
 
17. Yugoslavia's interior borders have no basis in history. They
were drawn up secretly by five members of the Central Committee
of the Yugoslav Communist Party in 1943. Serbs were no represented
at this AVNOJ meeting because Serbia was, at that time, under the
control of Mihailovic's guerillas.
 
18. One of the first acts of Josip Broz Tito, who was half Croatian
and half Slovenian, was to pass a law march 6, 1945 prohibiting
Serbs who were expelled from Kosovo from returning to their
homelands. The act violated all land-deeds made during the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia, but not those made under Axis occupation. Tito then
kept the borders to Albania open from 1945 to 1948, allowing
another 115,000 Albanians to move into Kosovo. From the Albanian-
controlled provincial government of Kosovo, the Albanian immigrants
in Kosovo received cash subsidies, welfare and child support
payments equal to twice the average Yugoslav wage - the bulk of
it financed by the Republic of Serbia.
 
19. The decision to allow the "Albanization" of Kosovo was made by
three Politburo members: Tito, Bakaric and Kardelj (all Croatians
and Slovenians). Edvard Kardelj remarked at the time that the
decision must not be publicized because "it would give powerful
arguments to Serbian bourgeoisie and Draza Mihailovic who would
accuse us of breaking up Yugoslavia."
 
20. In a meeting February 23, 1967, Tito and Kardelj called in the
communist leaders of Kosovo and told them "All you need to undo
Rankovic's injustices and have your way in Kosovo is to bring up
your share of (communist) party membership." Following this, Kosovo
Albanians joined the communist party in droves, took over the
provincial assembly, government, courts, police, schools, and public
enterprises and launched a systematic terror over non-Albanians
including Serbs, Muslim Turks and Gypsies. Thousands of the 
oppressed fled to Serbia.
 
21. In 1974, Kosovo was made a full-fledged sovereign state of the
Republic of Serbia by Yugoslavia's communist government in yet 
another effore to dilute Serbia's representation. As a result of
numerous terrorist acts perpetrated against Serbs, and the law that
was in effect from 1945-1990 that forbade Serbs from returning to 
Kosovo, the population in Kosovo and Metohija today is more than
85% Albanian.
 
22. Metohija literally translates to "monastery land given by the
feudal lord." Because Kosovo-Metohija is regarded as the cradle of
Serbian civilization and is the site of numerous monasteries which
have been classified by UNESCO as international treasures, Serbians
have an obvious bond to the area. These same monasteries and their
trove of artistic treasures have been desecrated and destroyed in
an attempt by the Kosovo Albanians to eradicate proof of Serbian
history in the area.
 
23. Tito controlled Yugoslavia from 1944 util this death in 1980.
He carved Yugoslavia into six republics and two autonomous provinces
as a means of diluting the strength of the majority Serbian
population. The republics and provinces rotated the governance of
Yugoslavia, so that little Slovenia, with only eight percent of
Yugoslavia's population, actually controlled the presidency as often
as the 40 percent Serbian Majority.
 
24. Slovenia and Croatia are often called more prosperous states
than Serbia, without any explanation as to how this imbalance 
occured. Tito moved factories and industry to Slovenia and Croatia
at the expense of Yugoslavia's other republics.
 
25. Much of the current fear felt by Serbs living in Krajina, 
Banija, Western Srem and Slavonia, the hotly contested areas within
Croatia's Tito-drawn internal borders, dates to the genocide 
conducted against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies living in those 
territories. This genocide was conducted by the Croatian and Muslim
Ustashe who ruled the Independent State of Croatia during World
War II. This fear has been revived by the following events which
occured over the last two years:
    
    a. When Croatia declared its independence June 25, 1991, its
leaders resurrected the same chessboard insignia for its flag that
had been worn by the Ustasha during World War II. This would be the
same to Serbs, as Jews seeing their neighbors sport German swastika
arm bands.
 
    b. Reports of discriminatory taxation and job dismissals of 
Serbs because they were not ethnically pure Croatians increased 
dramatically in 1991.
 
    c. Non-Croats were asked to sign loyalty oaths to the Croatian
government, no to the state, which had just demanded its 
independence from a nation voluntarily formed 73 years before.
 
    d. Serbians have lived in Krajina, Western Srem, Banija and
Slavonia since their ancestors settled the territories more than
500 years ago. After hearing of Croatia's intention to hold a
referendum to vote on secession from Yugoslavia, Serbs in Krajina
conducted their own referendum on May 14, 1991. They voted for
autonomy from Croatia if Croatia voted to secede from Yugoslavia.
This referendum was not acknowledged as legitimate by the Croatian
government, yet Croatia expected its referendum on secession held
five days later, on May 19th, to be recognized by the Yugoslav
federal government.
 
26. Croatia demands the right to self determination, yet denies
this right to Serbs in Krajina, Banija, Western Srem and Slavonia.
 
27. The Croats and Slovenes who want to secede insist that 
Yugoslavia's external borders can be changed. Yet, they also insist
that Yugoslavia's arbitrarily drawn internal borders that were
never democratically verified or internationally recognized cannot
be changed.
 
28. To fully comprehend the difference between Serbs living in 
Croatia's Krajina, Western Srem and Slavonia, and the ethnic
Albanian minority living in Kosovo, it must be realized that 
Serbs in Krajina, Western Srem and Slavonia are not requesting to
separate from Yugoslavia, but rather requesting that they remain
an integral part of it. Croatia was only an independent nation
prior to 1102 and between the years of 1941-1945, when it was a
Nazi regime. Serbs were invited to live in the Krajina, Western
Srem and Slavonia territories. They were not squatters. They are
only asking that they remain a part of Yugoslavia because they do
not feel safe in an independent state of Croatia, which, by its very
constitution, declares them an ethnic minority and has already
discriminated against them.
 
29. In addition to Kosovo being the cradle fo Serbian civilization,
it is, even as an autonomous province, part of Serbia. Kosovo was
made part of Serbia prior to the formation of Yugoslavia and
even prior to the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes.
 
30. Yugoslavia's current internal borders strand 30 percent of the
Serbian population outside Serbia proper. These Serbs are still 
being deprived of the cultural, ethnic and religious rights that
should exist in any democracy.

--
chetnik@infopls.chi.il.us (Andre Popov)
Infoplus BBS, +1 708 537 0247, v32bis. Home of Infoplus.