I'm a Croatian Serb!

I am an ethnic Serb born in Croatia, and having ancestry from that country as well makes me a 'Croatian Serb'. I come from Lika, a mountainous region on the Adriatic sea, but you can also find Croatian Serbs in other parts of Croatia like Northern Dalmatia, Kordun, Banija and Slavonija, and there is a large population of Croatian Serbs in the country's capital Zagreb.

The Croatian Serb identity has been forged by history and to a great extent by the politics of various rulers from different eras. Fundamentally, it is based on Orthodox Christian faith and culturally represented by numerous customs and traditions, many of them originating from Orthodoxy, while others vary upon region. My people are primarily descendants of Orthodox pastoral warriors (referred to by various names, including 'Vlachs', 'Rascians' and even 'Illyrians'), brought over and settled into the designated Vojna Krajina by the Catholic Habsburg Monarchy in order to repel further attacks and invasions by the Muslim Ottoman Turks into central Europe. Our earliest recorded sightings in modern-day Croatia can be traced to the Middle ages, while our presence continued to grow since then thanks to multiple waves of Orthodox Slavs arriving from the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Nowadays, Croatian Serbs in Croatia and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia have to face a number of political issues, most of which are contemporary and recent in origin, and include the legacy of wars, which have taken their toll upon them during the 20th century. The legacy of one war, that has left a deep scar on their psyche and even shaped it for generations since, is that of the Second World War. It was brought to Yugoslavia in 1941 with Nazi Germany's invasion of the country, bringing with it fascist régimes like that of Ante Pavelić and his Ustaše, who committed a horrendous genocide upon Serbs and other non-Croats within their puppet-state known as the 'Independent State of Croatia'. Like the Nazis throughout Europe, the Ustaše also ran concentration camps within their puppet state, the most notorious one being the Jasenovac concentration camp, in which the death toll has been variously estimated between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. This apocalyptic war also divided Serbs into two rival camps: the communist, multi-ethnic Partisan movement, under the leadership of Marshall Tito, and the anti-communist, Serb-dominated Chetnik movement, formed out of the remnants of the Yugoslav Royal Army. Both of these camps fought against the Ustaše, but also against each other, often pitting brother against brother, and even father against son. The war ended with the Partizans' complete victory over German and Italian occupiers and over all rival forces in the country. However, fifty years later came the recent war in Croatia, with many of its roots in the previous world war. This war tragically ended with more than half of the Croatian Serb population previously residing in Croatia in refuge, many of whom fled or were expelled from their homes.

Croatian Serbs who have returned to their towns and villages in Croatia following the war — or who have otherwise stayed there throughout the war — have to live daily with the legacy of the recent conflict. Living in the UK as I do, I don't have to confront this legacy that often. However, whenever I visit my homeland in Croatia, I notice it wherever I turn, a reminder of a conflict that I had no part or say in. And whenever I switch satellite channels to watch Croatian TV or visit relevant websites on the net whilst on the other side of Europe, I understand why Serbs and Croats talk, write and think in the conflicting ways they do. All this affects me very deeply as I am also a Serb from Croatia — a Croatian Serb — even though I don't live there for most of the year.

To cut a long story short, this is what happened in the early '90s: during the ethnic tensions that blighted Yugoslavia during the early 90s, the democratically-elected Croatian president Franjo Tuđman (pictured right) declared independence for Croatia from Yugoslavia in 1991 with the support of the majority of ethnic Croats through one national referendum. However, in direct opposition to Croatia's separatism from Yugoslavia, the likewise democratically-elected ethnic Serb leaders from various regions in Croatia also declared their own state in the form of the 'Republika Srpska Krajina' (named after the historical Vojna Krajina mentioned above), with its capital in the North Dalmatian town of Knin, following a number of local referendums with the support of the majority of ethnic Serbs. The intention on the part of the ethnic Serb 'rebels' (as they were labelled by the Croatian media at the time, and still are today) was to either stay within the Yugoslav federation, or along with Serbia form a 'Greater Serbia', for which they received political and military support from Slobodan Milošević's régime in Belgrade. A year earlier, ethnic Serbs showed their opposition to Croatia's aspiration to seceed in protests that have been branded the 'Log revolution', for their use of timber to blockade roads connecting Serb-populated areas to the rest of Croatia. In relation to the outside world, the Republic of Croatia received international recognition, whereas Republika Srpska Krajina received none. Nevertheless, full-scale war erupted in August '91, which brought about the displacement of over 100,000 Croats and other non-Serbs from their homes. This displacement, accompanied by destruction of property, violence and even murders of civilians, is considered an act of 'ethnic cleansing', as its aim was to remove ethnic Croats from the region. However, the Krajina-Serb authorities justified this act, claiming it was necessary for the "protection" and "security" of the ethnic Serb population in that same region. After years of intense fighting in certain areas, and numerous war crimes committed by both sides, the war ended tragically for the Serbs of Krajina in August '95, when the Croatian army conducted 'Operation Oluja', a military operation with the aim of capturing and bringing under Croatian rule the western territories of that short-lived state. It was during that time that a huge exodus of around 200,000 Serbs fled across Bosnia into Serbia towards Belgrade during the sweltering summer of that year, accompanied by intimidation and sporadic killings of Serbs in those long refugee columns, and of Serbs who stayed behind in their homes hoping they would be safe. Prior to 'Oluja' was 'Operation Bljesak' in May '95, which was similarly followed by the displacement of at least 15,000 ethnic Serbs. On both sides, there were numerous fatalities, many more wounded and incapacitated people, many psychologically traumatised people, and many people still unaccounted for, i.e. "missing, presumed dead".

As the land that was under Krajina came under Croatian military control thanks to 'Oluja', thousands of Serb houses located within that short-lived state were willfully destroyed: set on fire, grenaded, vandalised, and often looted and ransacked. Those houses that weren't heavily damaged, as was the case with my own property in Lika, were later handed over by Tuđman's régime to Bosnian Croat families, themselves refugees from the Bosnian war, with the aim of permanently altering the demographic structure of towns previously inhabited by ethnic Serb majorities.

Since the war ended, many Serbs have returned to their towns and villages, either to legally reclaim their homes from these Bosnian Croat settlers or to formally apply for them to be repaired or rebuilt by the local authorities. However, in terms of which age bracket most returnees belong to, they have mainly been elderly people, who have nowhere else to go but wish to spend the remainder of their lives in the places they were born and grew up in. It's rarer for younger generations of Serbs to choose to return to these same places, where they were also born, to reside there permanently, especially since there is very little in the way of job opportunities for them to take advantage of. The war-torn regions of Croatia are both physically devastated and economically ruined places, and much of the inhabitants of such regions, known as 'areas of special state concern', live on financial handouts provided to them by the state.

By returning to their homes now under Croatian sovereignty, ethnic Serbs return to a society that openly disregards their suffering during that war — or at least doesn't treat it as equal to that of Croat suffering. The exodus of my people in 1995 at the same time as 'Oluja', which included many of my own relatives from Lika and elsewhere, is considered to be an act of ethnic cleansing. Nevertheless, the victory that 'Oluja' brought by eliminating the state of Krajina is celebrated as a national day of "thanksgiving" every 5th August, marking the end of what in Croatia is officially called the 'Homeland war'. Furthermore, there are still some Croats who question the nature of this exodus of Serbs from Krajina, claiming it was "self-inflicted" and refusing to consider it as equal to the previous ethnic cleansing inflicted upon Croats a few years earlier. Most importantly, the Croatian state has repeatedly denied any responsibility for this exodus; instead, they blame the ethnic Serb rebel leaders of Krajina for organising "evacuations" of the civilian population under their protection.

Due to the ruthlessly destructive and mutually unforgiving nature of that inter-ethnic war as described above, it's not surprising that there is so much resentment between Croats and Croatian Serbs even 16 years after the conflict ended. However, it is the Croatian Serbs who are receiving the most condemnation, and collectively so. Their significantly-reduced communities are largely ignored, whereas their identity is actively maligned, and everything they hold dear is regularly trashed; their cultural symbols and political views are despised and ridiculed, and even their present-day presence in Croatia causes bitterness in some Croats. So thorough is this break-up and alienation, that anything that links Serbs and Croats together, such as their shared language which was previously officially named 'Serbo-Croat', has been denounced and banished, condemned to oblivion.

Because of this atmosphere of hate, many Serbs — including people who are partly Serb from mixed marriages — feel they have no other option but to keep quiet about their Serb identity and ancestry, even making sure they avoid referring to themselves as "Serbs" in public, lest they attract the wrong kind of attention to themselves. Ironically though, such Serbs resort to such secrecy in a country that is these days considered to be home to a democratic society, in which minority rights are protected by law and everyone has the right to free speech — not to mention that Croatia aspires to join the multi-national European Union!

Following Tuđman's death in 1999, the situation for the Serbian minority in Croatia has improved in a number of ways, particularly in terms of their representation in Croatian public life and media. The most prominent political organisation is the Independent Democratic Serb Party, and its vice-president Milorad Pupovac appears regularly on the news and other TV programmes. Prosvjeta is a cultural society headed by Čedomir Višnjić that hosts a number of Serbian cultural manifestations during the year in different parts of the country, and holds many public forums discussing various issues of concern to Serbs in Croatia. Then there is the Serbian Democratic Forum lead by Veljko Džakula, a non-governmental and non-profit organization founded in 1991, which is dedicated to the promotion of minority rights, the reintegration of returnees and the strengthening of local communities.

Many young Serbs, the generation that witnessed the war as children, regularly return to visit during the summer. But, as explained above, most of them so far have not chosen to return to reside there, due to the lack of job opportunities for them to be able to afford to live there. However, there's also something else that I've personally noticed while visiting my homeland in recent years, that I feel is very important to mention: not only are ethnic Serb communities significantly reduced in number, they are also broken in spirit; not only is the Serb population of a particular region much smaller in comparison to 20 years ago, the sense of community spirit that used to exist among them before the war is at best fundamentally weakened today, or at worst completely lost. Nevertheless, relations between Serb returnees, local Croats and Bosnian Croat settlers are generally good, as each community wishes to maintain a pleasant atmosphere with others in the same locality.

Outside of Croatia, Serbia is home to the largest Croatian Serb population in the region, thanks to war-time circumstances. Upon their arrival in 1995, after travelling for days within those miles-long columns, they were placed in refugee camps across Serbia, which are known there as collective centres. A number of them were also settled in Kosovo, as part of Milošević's plan to increase the ethnic Serb presence in the largely ethnic Albanian province. However, Croatian Serbs are largely concentrated in the north of the country, particularly in Novi Sad, the provincial capital of Vojvodina, and in the country's capital Belgrade. They can be also found in large numbers in many towns and villages throughout Vojvodina, and in towns close to Belgrade like Batajnica and Zemun.

For years, Croatian Serbs in Serbia lived with 'refugee status', and a small number of them still do today. Although this status provided them with certain rights protected by their host country with regard to their circumstances, it has also served as a reminder to them of their war-time loss and their continued exile from their homeland, while other Serbs have shown resentment towards these refugees from Croatia for receiving "special" treatment from the state. The vast majority of them have found permanent accomodation, whereas some are still residing in the very same refugee camps they were originally placed in all those years ago. Nevertheless, those who have chosen to stay in Serbia rather than return to Croatia have integrated into life over there, especially the younger generations who came over as children at the end of the war.

Many Croatian Serbs have left Serbia to find a better life in wealthier Western countries like Germany, Austria and many others in Europe, while many others have gone further afield to the USA and Australia, settling amongst Serbs living there from other parts of the Balkans. And apart from the recent waves of migration, there is a generation of Croatian Serbs from an earlier wave made up of those who fought in the Chetnik army in World War Two against both the fascist Ustaše and the communist Partizans, mentioned earlier in this article. They fled Yugoslavia following the communist victory and settled in Western countries, destined to live a life of political exile among other Chetniks. Nevertheless, they started new lives in their new surroundings, eventually starting families with Serb or non-Serb wives. Their descendants also live there today, well integrated into Western society, but with various degrees of identification with their ancestors' homeland. Therefore, as a result of two war-time periods in the 20th century, the Croatian Serbs today constitute a very significant portion of the wider Serb Diaspora.

As you can see, I belong to a people that, although has endured wars for generations, has been especially traumatised by the past century's bouts of warfare. Twice within the last hundred years, we have seen our communities reduced under devastating circumstances caused by destructive politics. And yet, we are the people who spawned the world famous scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, without whom our modern world would not be as modern as it is! From our people also came other renowned Serbs, like geophysicist and engineer Milutin Milanković, actor and musician Rade Šerbedžija, singer-songwriter Arsen Dedić, Serb Orthodox Patriarch Pavle, and many more famous Serbs with roots in modern-day Croatia. There are many Croatian Serbs around, and I'm one of them!

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Acknowledgements go to Ricky Yates (www.rickyyates.com) for allowing me to use his picture of the house under re-construction (shown above), taken in my hometown of Gračac in 2009 during his trip around war-torn parts of Croatia (which you can read about on his blog).