History of Republika Srpska

This is the history of Republika Srpska, one of the two entities comprising Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Republika Srpska has been inhabited at least since Neolithic times. in the late Bronze Age, the Neolithic population was replaced by more warlike Indo-European tribes known as the Illyres or Illyrians. Celtic migrations in the 4th and 3rd century BCE displaced many Illyrian tribes from their former lands, but some Celtic and Illyrian tribes mixed. Conflict between the Illyrians and Romans started in 229 BCE, but Rome wouldn't complete its annexation of the region until 9 CE. In the Roman period, Latin-speaking settlers from all over the Roman empire settled among the Illyrians and Roman soldiers were encouraged to retire in the region.

Christianity had already arrived in the region by the end of the 1st century, and numerous artifacts and objects from the time testify to this. Following events from the years 337 and 395 when the Empire split, Dalmatia and Pannonia were included in the Western Roman Empire. The region was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 455, and further exchanged hands between the Alans and Huns in the years to follow. By the 6th century, Emperor Justinian had re-conquered the area for the Byzantine Empire. The Slavs, a migratory people from northeastern Europe, were subjugated by the Eurasian Avars in the 6th century, and together they invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, settling in what is now Republika Srpska and the surrounding lands. More South Slavs, mostly Serbs, came in a second wave, and according to some scholars were invited by Emperor Heraclius to drive the Avars from Dalmatia.

Upon their arrival, the Slavs brought with them a tribal social structure, which probably fell apart and gave way to feudalism only with Frankish penetration into the region in the late 9th century. It was also around this time that the south Slavs were Christianized. The region of Republika Srpska had been part of the kingdoms of Serbia and Croatia, whose borders were often fluctuant. However, by the high middle ages the Bosnian nobles began to become increasingly independent, ruling over an area of which gradulaly increased in size. This occurred due to external political circumstances. Croatia had been acquired by the Hungarian Kingdom, and the Serbian state to the southeast was in a period of stagnation. Control over Bosnia subsequently was contested between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine empire. History of the region from then until the early 14th century was marked by the power struggle between the Šubić and Kotromanić families. This conflict came to an end in 1322, when Stjepan II Kotromanić became ban. By the time of his death in 1353, he had succeeded in annexing territories to the north and west, as well as Zahumlje and parts of Dalmatia. He was succeeded by his nephew Tvrtko who, following a prolonged struggle with nobility and inter-family strife, gained full control of the country in 1367. Under Tvrtko, Bosnia grew in both size and power, finally becoming an independent kingdom in 1377. The title of King Tvrtko was "King of Serbs, Bosnia and the Seacoast". Following his death in 1391 however, Bosnia fell into a long period of decline. The Ottoman Empire had already started its conquest of Europe and posed a major threat to the Balkans throughout the first half of the 15th century. Finally, after decades of political and social instability, Bosnia officially fell in 1463. Herzegovina would follow in 1482, with a Hungarian-backed reinstated "Bosnian Kingdom" being the last to succumb in 1527.

Throughout the mid-19th century, Herzegovina was a target of expansion of the young Montenegrin state in the name of the liberation of the Serbian people from Ottoman rule. Herzegovinian Serbs and Croats actively participated in the Montenegrin efforts to liberate them and to that end, they frequently rose in rebellion against the Ottoman rule. These efforts culminated in 1875 and 1876, during the Nevesinjska puška uprising. Montenegro did succeed in liberating and annexing large parts of Herzegovina before the Berlin Congress of 1878, including the Niksic area.

In 1878, territory of present Republika Srpska, was occupied by Austria-Hungary, only nominally remaining under Ottoman rule. This caused great resentment among its populace which resisted the invaders in small flare-ups of rebellious activity that ended in 1882. The Serbian population of Herzegovina and Bosnia had hoped that the province would be divided and annexed to Serbia and Montenegro. The occupation caused a temporary rift in the Serbo-Austrian relations and threatened to grow into an open conflict.

Although successful economically, Austro-Hungarian policy - which focused on advocating the ideal of a pluralist and multi-confessional Bosnian nation (largely favored by the Muslims) - failed to curb the rising tides of nationalism. The concept of Croat and Serb nationhood had already spread to Bosnia and Herzegovina's Catholics and Orthodox communities from neighboring Croatia and Serbia in the mid 19th century, and was too well-entrenched to allow for the wide-spread acceptance of a parallel idea of Bosnian nationhood. By the latter half of the 1910s, nationalism was an integral factor of Bosnian politics, with national political parties corresponding to the three groups dominating elections.

The idea of a unified South Slavic state (typically expected to be spear-headed by independent Serbia) became a popular political ideology in the region at this time, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Austro-Hungarian government's decision to formally annex Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 (i.e. Bosnian Crisis) added to a sense of urgency among these nationalists. The political tensions caused by all this culminated on June 28, 1914, when Serb nationalist youth Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo; an event that proved to be the spark that set off World War I. During the war Austrian authorities commit numerous severe crimes against Serbian civilian population.

Following World War I, territory of present Republika Srpska was incorporated into the South Slav kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (soon renamed Yugoslavia).

Once the kingdom of Yugoslavia was conquered by Nazi forces in World War II, all of Bosnia was ceded to the Nazi-puppet state of Croatia. The Nazi rule over Bosnia led to widespread persecution. The Jewish population was nearly exterminated. Many Serbs in the area took up arms and joined the Chetniks; a Serb nationalist and royalist resistance movement that both conducted guerrilla warfare against the Nazis. Starting in 1941, Yugoslav communists under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito organized their own multi-ethnic resistance group, the partisans, who fought against both Axis and Chetnik forces. Ante Pavelić the Ustaša subjected ethnic Serbs, together with much smaller minorities of Jews and Roma, to a campaign of genocidal persecution. Estimates for the number of Serbs killed in WW2 vary between 500,000 and 1.2 million. Of that number Ustaše, according to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, killed 330,000–390,000 ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. [4] Senior German officers and diplomats in the region cited figures up to twice as high. For instance Hitler's high plenipotentiary in SE Europe, Hermann Neubacher, later wrote: "When leading Ustaše state that one million Orthodox Serbs (including babies, children, women and old men) were slaughtered, this in my opinion is a boasting exaggeration. On the basis of reports I received, I estimated that threequarters of a million defenceless people were slaughtered."

Military success eventually prompted the Allies to support the Partisans, and the end of the war resulted in the establishment of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with the constitution of 1946 officially making Bosnia and Herzegovina one of six constituent republics in the new state. Because of its central geographic position within the Yugoslavian federation, post-war Bosnia was strategically selected as a base for the development of the military defense industry. This contributed to a large concentration of arms and military personnel in Bosnia; a significant factor in the war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. However, Bosnia's existence within Yugoslavia, for the large part, was peaceful and prosperous. Being one of the poorer republics in the early 1950s it quickly recovered economically, taking advantage of its extensive natural resources to stimulate industrial development. The Yugoslavian communist doctrine of "brotherhood and unity" particularly suited Bosnia's diverse and multi-ethnic society that, because of such an imposed system of tolerance, thrived culturally and socially.

Overview

The borders of Republika Srpska are, with a few negotiated modifications, based on the front lines and situation on the ground at the time of the Dayton peace accords. As such, the entity is primarily a result of the Bosnian war without any direct historical precedent. Its territory encompasses a number of Bosnia and Herzegovina's numerous historical geographic regions, but (due to the above-mentioned nature of the inter-entity boundary line) it contains very few of them in entirety. Likewise, various political units existed on Republika Srpska's territory in the past, but very few of them existed entirely within it. Certainly, none of them shared the mono-ethnic nature or nationalistic ideology on which the entity was originally conceived.

As an ethnic group, Serbs have a long history on the territory of Republika Srpska (as they do on the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) but, due to Bosnia's traditionally multiethnic demographics, any attempt to characterize the history of a territory as fundamentally Serb would inevitably neglect a significant Bosniak and/or Croat presence in the said area's culture and history.

For an overview of the trends and events in the region's history prior to the establishment of the Republika Srpska, see: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For a more detailed description of the circumstances that led to Republika Srpska's creation, see: Yugoslav wars. For an analysis of the nationalist ideology commonly affiliated with Republika Srpska, see: Greater Serbia.

Background to the creation of Republika Srpska

During the political crisis that followed the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, a separate Bosnian Serb Assembly was founded on October 24, 1991, as the representative body of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Serbs claimed that this was a necessary step since the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at that time defined that no major changes were to be granted short of a unanimous agreement from all three sides. Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats wanted independence for Bosnia against the Bosnian Serbs’ wishes.

A plebiscite that asked citizens whether they wanted to remain within Yugoslavia was held on November 9 and 10, 1991. The parliamentary government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (with a clear Bosniak and Croat majority) asserted that this plebiscite was illegal, but the Bosnian Serb Assembly acknowledged its results. On November 21, 1991, the Assembly proclaimed that all those municipalities, local communities, and populated places in which over 50% of the people of Serbian nationality had voted, as well as those places where citizens of other nationalities had expressed themselves in favor of remaining in a joint Yugoslav state, would be territory of the federal Yugoslav state.

On January 9, 1992, the Bosnian Serb Assembly adopted a declaration on the Proclamation of the Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Republika srpskog naroda Bosne i Hercegovine"). On February 28, 1992, the constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted and declared that the state's territory included Serb autonomous regions, municipalities, and other Serbian ethnic entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (including regions described as "places in which the Serbian people remained in the minority due to the genocide conducted against them during World War II"), and it was declared to be a part of the federal Yugoslav state. From February 29 to March 2, 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina held a referendum on independence. The majority of Bosnian Serbs boycotted the vote on the grounds that it was unconstitutional because the referendum bypassed the veto power of the representatives of the Serbian people in the Bosnian parliament. On April 6, 1992, the European Community formally recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence on April 7, 1992. On August 12, 1992, the reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina was dropped from the name, and it became simply "Republika Srpska".

War in Bosnia

On May 12, 1992, at a session of the Bosnian Serb Assembly, Radovan Karadžić announced the six "strategic objectives" of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

# Establish state borders separating the Serbian people from the other two ethnic communities.
# Set up a corridor between Semberija and Krajina.
# Establish a corridor in the Drina river valley, that is, eliminate the Drina as a border separating Serbian states.
# Establish a border on the Una and Neretva rivers.
# Divide the city of Sarajevo into Serbian and Bosniak parts and establish effective state authorities in both parts.
# Ensure access to the sea for Republika Srpska.

At the same session, the Bosnian Serb Assembly voted to create the "Vojska Republike Srpske" ("VRS") (Army of the Republika Srpska), and appointed Ratko Mladić, the commander of the Second Military District of the Yugoslav federal army, as commander of the VRS Main Staff. At the end of May 1992, after the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Second Military District was essentially transformed into the Main Staff of the VRS. The new army immediately set out to achieve by military means the six "strategic objectives" of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the goals of which were reaffirmed by an operational directive issued by General Mladić on November 19, 1992).

The VRS expanded and defended the borders of Republika Srpska during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. By 1993 Republika Srpska controlled about 70% of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina with final agreement (Dayton agreement) in 1995 appropriating to Republika Srpska control over 49% of the territory.

War crimes

Since the beginning of the war, the VRS (Army of Republika Srpska) and the political leadership of Republika Srpska have been accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnic cleansing of the non-Serb population, creation and running of detention camps (variably also referred to as concentration and prisoner camps), and the destruction of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian cultural and historical heritage.

The gravest of those offences were the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, where nearly 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were systematically executed by the VRS, and the long military siege of Sarajevo that resulted in 12,000 civilian casualties.

Ethnic cleansing of non-Serb population was particularly common in the territories of Bosanska Krajina region and Drina river valley. In many instances the ethnic cleansing was conducted through well organized and efficient bureaucracy set up by the Republika Srpska authorities such as in the case of Banja Luka. Those and other cases of ethnic cleansing dramatically changed the demographic picture of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Many Republika Srpska officials were also indicted for creation and running of detention camps and in particular Omarska, Manjaca, Keraterm and Trnopolje where thousands of detainees were held. In so called "Omarska" case Dusko Tadic a member of the VRS has been found guilty by the ICTY [http://www.un.org/icty/tadic/trialc2/judgement/tad-tsj970714e.htm] . In Omarska region around 500 deaths have been confirmed associated with these detention facilities.

According to the findings of the State Commission for the Documentation of War Crimes on the Territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 68.67% or 789 congregational mosques were either destroyed or damaged during the Bosnian War by the VRS and other unidentified individuals from the Republika Srpska. [http://post.harvard.edu/alumni/images/from_the_ashes.pdf] Majority of destroyed mosques before the war were classified as Bosnian-Herzegovinian national monuments and some were listed with UNESCO as world heritage monuments while most of them were built in 15th, 16th and 17th century. Many catholic churches on the same territory were also destroyed or damaged especially during 1995.

In addition to sacral monuments many secular monuments were also heavily damaged or destroyed by VRS forces such as the National Library in Sarajevo. The Library was set ablaze by shelling from VRS positions around Sarajevo during the siege in 1992.

While the individuals responsible for destruction of national heritage have not yet been found or indicted it has been widely reported by international human rights agencies that the "Bosnian Serb authorities issued orders or organized or condoned efforts to destroy Muslim and Croatian cultural and religious institutions" [http://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/bosnia2/] . In other cases such as the "Ferhadija" case ("Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Republika Srpska") the direct involvement in destruction of national heritage, even after the war in 1995 and 1996, by Republika Srpska officials has been established. [http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~ujvr/hrch/0000-0999/0029admmer.htm]

In 1993, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague for the purpose of bringing to justice persons allegedly responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991. On July 24, 1995, the Hague Tribunal indicted Radovan Karadžić [http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/kar-ai000428e.htm] and Ratko Mladić [http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/mla-ai021010e.htm] on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity; on November 14, 1995, both men were indicted again on charges specific to the Srebrenica massacre. On August 2, 2001, the Hague Tribunal found General-Major Radislav Krstić, the commander of the VRS Drina Corps at the time responsible for the Srebrenica massacre, guilty of genocide [http://www.un.org/icty/krstic/Appeal/judgement/index.htm] . Many other political leaders of Republika Srpska and VRS officers, have been indicted, tried, and convicted by the Hague Tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. Some of them (including Karadžić and Mladić) remain at large and in hiding.

Recently a list of nearly 25,000 individuals who were involved in Srebrenica massacre alone was released [http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=13046] some of whom still hold the positions in the local government of Republika Srpska. The arrests and trials of all war crime suspects are still ongoing and their trials are planned to be held at the newly established Bosnian Herzegovinian Tribunal for the War Crimes. The trials of all suspected war criminals are expected to last for years to come.

Controversy

Various allegations have been made particularly since 2001 with the regard to the level of ethnic cleansing and killings of Serb civilians in the regions controlled by the Bosniak government and de facto Croat government of Herzeg-Bosnia during the war. These allegations claimed that ethnic Serb civilians were killed, including Serbs living in Sarajevo, by the Bosniak and Croat authorities and that Republika Srpska authorities have acted as a response to those alleged crimes.

Killings were allegedly carried out during the chaotic early months of the Siege of Sarajevo before law and order were properly established, as well as by Musan Topalović, a renegade officer outside of army control who was liquidated by the government in the second half of 1993.

As a result of Operation Storm, nearly 200,000 Serbs fled from Croatia and a large portion of them found refuge in Bosnia (especially in Republika Srpska). Also during and after the war (when Dayton Agreement was signed), some Serbs left Sarajevo and other parts of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity particularly after the territorial provisions were enforced to comply with the Dayton agreement. Also many Serbs left Sarajevo after Momčilo Krajišnik, a former president of RS, invited Serbs to live in Republika Srpska entity.

Numerous detention camps and similar killings also occurred in the parts of Sarajevo firmly held by Serb forces (i.e. Ilidža). Furthermore, various international and state agencies have reported that most Serbs killed in Sarajevo were killed by and from the VRS positions that surrounded Sarajevo and were counted as part of the total 12,000 civilian casualties. Such reports have been backed by forensic analysis and medical records that were kept at the Sarajevo hospitals. No indictments have been filed with ICTY or any other legal agency to consider claims by the Republika Srpska government. On the other hand Stanislav Galić [http://www.un.org/icty/galic/trialc/judgement/index.htm] the commander of the VRS forces responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo has been found guilty by the ICTY.

Reforms

After the war numerous laws were passed by the Republika Srpska authorities under the auspices of the international community acting through the Office of the High Representative (OHR). Many laws dealt with the issues and consequences of the war and served to repair some of the problems created such as annulments of ill-fate contracts that required non-Serbs to "voluntarily" turn over their properties to the Republika Srpska including real-estates and businesses taken during the war.

Many constitutional changes were also made to change the social character of the Republika Srpska from mono-ethnic to a multi-ethnic entity including Bosniaks and Croats as constituent people of Republika Srpska. Even some of the names of the cities that were changed during the war by the authorities of Republika Srpska had to be rolled back. Most of the changes were done as to retract effects of ethnic cleansing and allow refugees to return but also as a response to numerous reports of human rights abuses that were taking place in the entity [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR630132001?open&of=ENG-BIH] .

However, most of the changes had very little effect on a return of refugees which number still today exceeds 1 million. Intimidations of returnees were quite common and occasionally escalated into violent riots as in the case of Ferhadija mosque riots in Banja Luka in 2001. [http://hrw.org/wr2k2/europe5.html] . Consequently, the modern views about Republika Srpska are different among various ethnic groups within the Bosnia and Herzegovina. For Serbs who live in it, the Republika Srpska is the only guarantee for their survival and existence as a people on these territories. On the other hand, for some ethnic Bosniaks, who were ethnically cleansed from Republika Srpska, the creation, existence, name and insignia of this entity remains a matter of controversy.

On December 15, 2003, under heavy influence from OHR, the government of Republika Srpska established the Commission for the Investigation of the events in and around Srebrenica between 10th and 19th July 1995, for the purpose of investigating and establishing the truth regarding the Srebrenica massacre. In its report dated June 11, 2004 (and in an addendum to its report dated October 15, 2004), the Commission reported it had established that between July 10 and 19, 1995, several thousands of Bosniaks (the data for the number of missing persons varying between 7,000 and 8,000) were "liquidated, in a manner that represents severe violation of international humanitarian law and that the perpetrators, among the others, undertook measures to cover up the crime by reallocating the bodies" in mass graves. On October 28, 2004, the government of Republika Srpska formally accepted the Commission's report and acknowledged that serious crimes had been committed.

Most of political reforms were made in the Republika Srpska also as an effort to make Bosnia and Herzegovina, eligible for joining the European Union. These changes were primarily done to the particular clauses of the Dayton agreement and included transfer of many entity based powers to the state level. (see: Republika Srpska Politics)

The revision of Dayton agreement is today accepted by all sides as an “inevitable necessity”. The talks began in November 2005 that began the reform of Dayton agreement so as to make the country more functional and efficient member of the European community.

External links

* [http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=602361 A precarious peace] , The Economist, 22 january 1998