The Disintegration of Yugoslavia, pt 306
This, from Blic:
"Argumentation by Croatian representative Andreja Metelko Zgombic before the International Court of Justice in The Hague in which she insisted on constitutional right to secession by the autonomous province of former SFRY was taken in Belgrade as a ‘serious blow’ and as an ‘act of hostility’ that Serbia shall have to respond to, ‘Blic’ was told by well informed circles in Belgrade. In Serbia the argumentation in favor of Kosovo secession was understood as alluding to Vojvodina.
Here is a 1990 ethnic map of Yugoslavia:
It would appear there are (were...) plenty of Croats in the Vojvodina, which is what Zgombic is alluding to, I would think. The most recent census has it at 2.5%.
Note, however, the green patches in Slavonia and Dalmatia where Serbs were a majority, these roughly equating to the Hapsburg military frontier, Serbs having been encouraged to settle there some centuries back. Perhaps Zgombic is in favour of self-determination for Karlovacka, Sisacko-Moslavacka and Zadarska, inter alia, these having a historic Serb majority, per the map above. Even if this were to be the case, let us revisit Operation Storm, wherein Croatia achieved the following: "Approximately 150,000 to 200,000 Serbs fled approaching Croat forces to Serb-held parts of Bosnia and Serbia. The European Union Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt called it on Aug. 7, 1995, "the most efficient ethnic cleansing we've seen in the Balkans". Still, everyone seems to have forgotten about that.....
It might not be a popular to have any sympathies with the national aspirations of the Serbs, but the sooner the ridiculous entity of Bosnia Herzegovina is dismantled and Republika Srpska joined to Serbia proper the better.
"Argumentation by Croatian representative Andreja Metelko Zgombic before the International Court of Justice in The Hague in which she insisted on constitutional right to secession by the autonomous province of former SFRY was taken in Belgrade as a ‘serious blow’ and as an ‘act of hostility’ that Serbia shall have to respond to, ‘Blic’ was told by well informed circles in Belgrade. In Serbia the argumentation in favor of Kosovo secession was understood as alluding to Vojvodina.
Here is a 1990 ethnic map of Yugoslavia:
Note, however, the green patches in Slavonia and Dalmatia where Serbs were a majority, these roughly equating to the Hapsburg military frontier, Serbs having been encouraged to settle there some centuries back. Perhaps Zgombic is in favour of self-determination for Karlovacka, Sisacko-Moslavacka and Zadarska, inter alia, these having a historic Serb majority, per the map above. Even if this were to be the case, let us revisit Operation Storm, wherein Croatia achieved the following: "Approximately 150,000 to 200,000 Serbs fled approaching Croat forces to Serb-held parts of Bosnia and Serbia. The European Union Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt called it on Aug. 7, 1995, "the most efficient ethnic cleansing we've seen in the Balkans". Still, everyone seems to have forgotten about that.....
It might not be a popular to have any sympathies with the national aspirations of the Serbs, but the sooner the ridiculous entity of Bosnia Herzegovina is dismantled and Republika Srpska joined to Serbia proper the better.
Labels: Borders, Croatia, Serbia
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on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 at 10:07 am.
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What's the source of that map? Two things stand out to me as being odd about it:
1) quite how clean the Croat-Slovene border is: I don't know of any boundary disputes there, but I don't believe that one for a minute (what I suspect is going on is people identifying as Slovenes even if their first language is Serbo-Croat)
2) the Gorani (Muslims/Bosniaks) in Gora and the Serbs in Štrpce seem to be missing from southern Kosovo, which is a bit odd (perhaps there's a dependency on an Albanian source somewhere) seeing as the map ia quite precise in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia.
And of course, the best solution to Bosnia would be to tell them all to abandon their silly religions and admit that they're all Yugoslavs. Wait, we tried that already...
James,
The source claimed it was from National Geographic, although it doesn't look like their style to me. I'll see if I can find any others.
There is a mini dispute between C & S over a riparian boundary covering all of a few aacres, but it is holding up Croatian entry to the EU.
Shame they couldn't all get along, as the saying goes.
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