View source for Persecution of Croats in Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars

{{Short description|Effect of Yugoslav Wars on Croats of Serbia}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| location = [[Hrtkovci]], [[Šid]], [[Nikinci]], [[Ruma]], [[Novi Slankamen|Slankamen]], [[Vojvodina]], [[FR Yugoslavia]]
| date = 1991-1999
| partof = The [[Yugoslav Wars]]
| target = [[Croats]]
| type = [[Deportations]], [[Mass Murder]]
| fatalities = 17
| victims = 20,000-50,000 Croats deported
| perpetrators = [[Serbian Radical Party]]
| convicted = [[Vojislav Šešelj]]
}}
During the [[Yugoslav Wars]], members of the [[Serbian Radical Party]] conducted a campaign of intimidation and [[persecution]] against the [[Croats of Serbia]] through [[hate speech]].<ref name="indictment">{{cite web |title=The Prosecutor against Vojislav Seselj - Third Amended Indictment |url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/seselj/ind/en/seslj3rdind071207e.pdf |publisher=ICTY|date=December 2007 |access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref><ref name="independent" /><ref name="Situation of Human Rights in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia" /><ref name="Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, established pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 780" /> These acts forced a part of the local Croat population to leave the area in 1992. Most of them were resettled in [[Croatia]].<ref name="indictment" /><ref name="independent">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cleansing-row-prompts-crisis-in-vojvodina-1542202.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cleansing-row-prompts-crisis-in-vojvodina-1542202.html |archive-date=2022-05-25 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title='Cleansing' row prompts crisis in Vojvodina |author=Marcus Tanner |work=The Independent |date=August 1992|access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref><ref name="nyt">{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DE153CF935A15754C0A964958260&scp=1&sq=hrtkovci&st=cse |title=Serbs Force An Exodus From Plain |author=Chuck Sudetic |work=New York Times|date=July 26, 1992|access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref><ref name="b92">{{Cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2005&mm=05&dd=04&nav_id=167742 |title=Podsećanje na slučaj Hrtkovci |publisher=B92|date=May 4, 2005| access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref> The affected locations included [[Hrtkovci]], [[Nikinci]], [[Novi Slankamen]], [[Ruma]], [[Šid]], and other places bordering Croatia.<ref name="indictment" /> According to some estimates, around 10,000 Croats left Vojvodina under political pressure in three months of 1992,<ref name="RFERL">{{cite news|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1102307.html|title=Serbia: Witnesses Recall Ethnic Cleansing As Seselj Prepares For Hague Surrender|last=Naegele|first=Jolyon|date=February 21, 2003|publisher=Radio Free Europe|access-date=15 September 2011}}</ref> and a total of 20,000 fled by the end of the year.<ref name="Diplomacy on the Edge" /> Between 20,000<ref name="RFERL" /><ref name="Diplomacy on the Edge">{{cite book| last=Ahrens| first=Geert-Hinrich | title=Diplomacy on the Edge: Containment of Ethnic Conflict and the Minorities Working Group of the Conferences on Yugoslavia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3fLRcHYSVAC&pg=PA258 |page=258 |year=2007| isbn=9780801885570 |publisher=[[Woodrow Wilson Center Press]]}}</ref> and 25,000<ref>{{cite news|title=The Economist |volume= 336 |issue=7926–7929 |page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-vtAAAAMAAJ&q=25,000+croats+left+vojvodina|year=1995|publisher=Economist Newspaper Limited|access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref> to 30,000 according to Human Rights NGOs <ref>{{cite web |title=Two Decades Since Expulsion of Vojvodina Croats |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2012/05/08/two-decades-of-croats-exile/ |website=Balkan Insight |date=8 May 2012}}</ref> to 50,000 <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |title=Anniversary of SRS rally in Vojvodina town |access-date=2011-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510192931/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |archive-date=2010-05-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{in lang|sr}} [http://www.danas.org/content/article/1622985.html?page=2 Sedamnaest godina od proterivanja Hrvata iz Hrtkovaca, Zoran Glavonjić]</ref> Croats fled Vojvodina in the 1990s in total. Another 6,000 left [[Kosovo]] and 5,000 [[Serbia Proper]], including [[Belgrade]].<ref name="CDCS" />
The U.N.-backed [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY) later indicted [[Vojislav Šešelj]] for the specific case of the departure of Croats from [[Hrtkovci]]. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for [[persecution]] on political, racial or religious grounds, [[deportation]] and [[forced transfer]] as a [[crime against humanity]], making it the only conviction of the Tribunal in relation to Yugoslav Wars on the territory of Vojvodina.
==Description==
[[Vojvodina]] is a province of [[Serbia]]. According to the 1991 census, its population was 2,012,517. [[Serbs]] comprised 57.2%, [[Hungarians]] 16.9% of its population, or 1,151,353 and 430,946 members, respectively. [[Croats]] numbered 74,226 members or 3.7% of Vojvodina's population (down from 109,203 from the 1981 census),<ref>{{cite book| title=Ethnic Conflicts and Civil Society: Proposals for a New Era in Eastern Europe |editor=Andreas Klinke |editor2=Ortwin Renn |editor3=Jean-Paul Lehners |publisher=Routledge|year= 2018| isbn= 9781351758758 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xMVKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT144 |page=144}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=The Statesman's Year-Book 1993-94
|editor=B. Hunter|publisher=Springer|year= 2016|isbn=  9780230271227|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=447JDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1621 |page=1621}}</ref> and 105,406 members in Serbia as a whole.<ref>{{cite web| title=Ethnic Minorities in Serbia| work=[[OSCE]] |date=February 2008| url=https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/4/6/30908.pdf| page=12}}</ref>
===Hrtkovci incident===
{{Location map+ | Serbia
| places =
{{Location map~ | Serbia
| label = [[Hrtkovci]]
| position = left
| lat_deg = 44.93
| lon_deg = 19.76 }}
{{Location map~ | Serbia
| label = [[Nikinci]]
| lat_deg = 44.85
| lon_deg = 19.816667 }}
{{Location map~ | Serbia
| label = [[Ruma]]
| lat_deg = 45.00
| lon_deg = 19.83 }}
{{Location map~ | Serbia
| label = [[Novi Slankamen|Slankamen]]
| lat_deg = 45.08
| lon_deg = 20.14 }}
{{Location map~ | Serbia
| label = [[Šid]]
| lat_deg = 45.116667
| lon_deg = 19.233333 }}
| caption = Affected places on the map of Serbia
}}Following the [[Dissolution of Yugoslavia]] and [[Yugoslav Wars]], the Serb-Croat relations deteriorated. In 1991, [[Hrtkovci]] was an ethnically mixed village with [[Croat]]ian plurality (40.2%),<ref name="CDCS"/> located roughly 40 miles west of [[Belgrade]]. [[Vojislav Šešelj]], the leader of the [[Serbian Radical Party]], made numerous public threats to Croats in Hrtkovci in May 1992.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.helsinki.org.rs/serbian/tpseselj_t06.html | language = sr | title = Slučaj Šešelj - Vojislav Šešelj - Izjave | publisher = [[Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia]] | access-date = 2011-09-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.sense-agency.com/icty/warning-that-couldn%E2%80%99t-be-ignored.29.html?cat_id=1&news_id=11575 | title = Warning that couldn't be ignored | publisher = Sense Agency | date = 2010-02-16 | access-date = 2011-09-02}}</ref> On 1 and 7 April 1992, Šešelj called for the expulsion of Croats from Serbia at the [[Serbian Parliament]].<ref name="ICLR"/> Radicals replaced all [[Latin script|Latin signs]] with [[Cyrillic]] ones and even renamed Hrtkovci to "Srbislavci" – 'place of Serbs' – though only for a short amount of time.<ref name="independent"/> Šešelj personally visited Hrtkovci on 6 May 1992 and gave a [[hate speech]] in front of a rally of Serb nationalists by publicly reading out a list of 17 Croat "traitors" who must leave the village.<ref name="independent"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sense-agency.com/icty/drastic-change-s-in-ethnic-composition-of-population.29.html?cat_id=1&news_id=10984|title=Drastic Changes in Ethnic Composition of Population|date=21 October 2008|publisher=Sense Agency|access-date=15 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, established pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 780"/> In the speech, Šešelj said:
{{quote|In this village, too, in Hrtkovci, in this place in Serbian [[Srem]], there is no room for Croats... Including those from here, from Hrtkovci, who locked up their houses and left, reckoning, I suppose, that they would come back one day, but our message to them is: no, you have nowhere to return to. Serbian refugees will move into their houses...I firmly believe that you, Serbs from Hrtkovci and other villages around here, will also know how to preserve your harmony and unity, that you will promptly get rid of the remaining Croats in your village and the surrounding villages.<ref>{{cite web|title=D. Šešelj's crimes in Hrtkovci| url=https://www.icty.org/x/cases/seselj/custom5/en/120205_p2.pdf |pages=149–150| date=5 February 2012| location=The Hague| publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia}}</ref>}}
Following the threats, one part of local Croats rushed to Croatia to see the houses which were offered to them in the planned [[population transfer]]. Incoming Serb refugees labeled Croats as "fascists".<ref name="nyt"/> One Croat was even murdered by the radicals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/31/world/a-farm-village-in-serbia-distills-war-into-hatred.html?scp=2&sq=hrtkovci&st=cse |title=A Farm Village in Serbia Distills War Into Hatred |author=Roger Cohen |work=New York Times|date=August 31, 1992|access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref> Šešelj's party even crafted a slogan for their campaign: "All Croats out of Hrtkovci".<ref name="Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, established pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 780">Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, established pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 780 (1992), Annex III.A — M. Cherif Bassiouni; S/1994/674/Add.2 (Vol. IV), 27 May 1994, [http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/anx/III-A.htm#IV.C.1 Special Forces] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430024215/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/anx/III-A.htm |date=2011-04-30 }}, (paragraph 1091). Accessdate January 20, 2011</ref> In 1991, Hrtkovci had 2,684 residents, including 1,080 Croats (40.2%), 555 Serbs and Montenegrins (20.7%), 515 Hungarians (19.2%), and 445 [[Yugoslavs]] (16.6%).<ref name="CDCS">{{cite web|url=http://cdcs.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Polozaj-manjina-u-VojvodiniM.S..pdf| title=Položaj manjina u Vojvodini|year=1998| publisher=Center for Development of Civil Society|page=13, 14, 15| location=Zrenjanin| access-date=3 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503180312/http://cdcs.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Polozaj-manjina-u-VojvodiniM.S..pdf | archive-date=3 May 2018}}</ref> By the end of 1992, 75% of its residents were Serbs.<ref name="nyt"/>
The number of Croats who left from the village of Hrtkovci was between 722<ref name="icty">{{cite web |title=The charges against Vojislav Seselj  |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2795235.stm |publisher=BBC News|date=2003-02-24 |access-date=30 August 2010}}</ref> and 1,200.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |title=Anniversary of SRS rally in Vojvodina town |access-date=2011-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510192931/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |archive-date=2010-05-10 |url-status=dead |work=B92}}</ref> Their empty homes were settled by Serb refugees from Croatia and [[Bosnia]]. Likewise, some Serbs tried to protect their Croatian neighbors.<ref name="hrtkovci">{{Cite web|url=http://www.vesti-online.com/Vesti/Srbija/50731/Kandic-Seselja-za-Hrtkovce-optuzuju-i-Srbi |title=Kandić: Šešelja za Hrtkovce optužuju i Srbi  |publisher=Vesti online| date=May 6, 2010| access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref> After the events, Yugoslav authorities arrested five radicals who were responsible for harassment of Croats. <ref name="independent"/>
===Rest of Serbia===
In its 1993 report, published during its 49th session, the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights]] wrote that [[Hungarians in vojvodina|Hungarians]] and Croats in Vojvodina were subjected to "verbal and physical threats and other acts of intimidation, including setting houses on fire and destroying cultural and religious monuments", and thus left their homes in large numbers after Vojvodina lost its [[autonomy]]. Another reason for their departure was that many were refusing to be drafted in the Yugoslav army, fearing they might be sent to the battle front.<ref name="Situation of Human Rights in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia">{{cite web|publisher=United Nations Commission on Human Rights |title=Situation of Human Rights in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia| date=10 February 1993| url=https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/226088/files/E_CN.4_1993_50-EN.pdf| page=40—41|access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref> Besides Hrtkovci, the report documented an exodus of Croats from [[Kukujevci]] and [[Novi Slankamen]], as a result of threats and the bombing of their houses. The villages of [[Beška]] and [[Golubinci]] were said to have lost their entire respective Croat population. Other means of intimidation included threatening telephone calls and letters. The report alleged that "the police have acquiesced in some of the incidents which have been attributed
to individuals."<ref name="Situation of Human Rights in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia"/> On 23 February 1993, the Commission adopted a resolution expressing its "grave concern" at the "violations of human rights occurring in [[Sandžak]] and Vojvodina, particularly acts of physical harassment, abductions, the burning of homes, warrantless searches, confiscation of property and other practices intended to change the ethnic structure in favour of the Serbian population."<ref>{{cite web|publisher=United Nations Commission on Human Rights |title=Situation of Human Rights in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia—49th session| date=23 February 1993| url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f2300.html|access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref>
On 29 August 1992, the BBC reported bombings of Croatian homes in the village of [[Nikinci]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Chronology for Croats in Yugoslavia|url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38f41e.html|publisher=Minorities at Risk Project|date=2004|access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref> In Golubinci, twenty cases were recorded where bombs were planted inside Croat houses. A 28-year old Croat woman was killed in her home on 7 February 1994.<ref name="CDCS"/>
The Serbian [[Humanitarian Law Centre]], based in [[Belgrade]], has documented at least 17 instances of killings or disappearances of Croats from [[Vojvodina]] from 1991-1995.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dossier Documents Serbian State Involvement in Driving Out Croats|date=31 January 2019 |url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/state-involvement-in-crimes-against-croats-in-serbia-dossier-01-31-2019}}</ref> In many instances, entire Croat families were abducted and murdered. On the 20 April 1992, the Matijević family, consisting of Ana and Jozo Matijević and their underage son, Franjo, were kidnapped by unknown Serb militiamen from the village of [[Kukujevci]]. From there, they were taken to [[Mohovo]], then occupied by [[Republic of Serbian Krajina|Croatian Serb]] forces, where the family was then murdered and buried in the village cemetery.<ref>{{cite web|title=Complaint Filed About Croat Family's Wartime Murder in Serbia|url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/criminal-complaint-filed-for-murder-of-croat-family-10-17-2018/1431/213}}</ref> In July 1993, another Croat family from [[Kukujevci]], consisting of Nikola and Agica Oksomić and 87-year-old Marija Tomić, Agica's mother, were murdered by two local Serb volunteers fighting for [[Croatian Serb]] forces in [[Croatia]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Complaint Filed About Croat Family's Wartime Murder in Serbia|url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/criminal-complaint-filed-for-murder-of-croat-family-10-17-2018/1431/213}}</ref>
According to different sources, between 20,000<ref name="Diplomacy on the Edge"/> and 25,000<ref>{{cite news|title=The Economist |volume= 336 |issue=7926–7929 |page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-vtAAAAMAAJ&q=25,000+croats+left+vojvodina|year=1995|publisher=Economist Newspaper Limited|access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref> Croats left Vojvodina in the 1990s. Some sources even place the number at up to 50,000. <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |title=Anniversary of SRS rally in Vojvodina town |access-date=2011-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510192931/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |archive-date=2010-05-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref>{{in lang|sr}} [http://www.danas.org/content/article/1622985.html?page=2 Sedamnaest godina od proterivanja Hrvata iz Hrtkovaca, Zoran Glavonjić]</ref> Another 6,000 left [[Kosovo]] and 5,000 [[Serbia Proper]], including [[Belgrade]].<ref name="CDCS"/>
==Legal prosecution==
In 2003, [[Vojislav Šešelj]] was indicted by the U.N. established [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY). On 11 April 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the follow-up [[International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals]] (IRMCT) sentenced him to 10 years in prison under Counts 1, 10, and 11 of the indictment for instigating [[deportation]], [[persecution]] on political, racial or religious ground ([[forcible displacement]]), and other inhumane acts ([[forcible transfer]]) as [[crimes against humanity]] due to his speech in Hrtkovci on 6 May 1992, in which he called for the expulsion of Croats from Vojvodina. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unmict.org/en/news/appeals-chamber-reverses-%C5%A1e%C5%A1elj%E2%80%99s-acquittal-part-and-convicts-him-crimes-against-humanity|title=APPEALS CHAMBER REVERSES ŠEŠELJ'S ACQUITTAL, IN PART, AND CONVICTS HIM OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY| date=11 April 2018| publisher=United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals| access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.trtworld.com/europe/un-court-sentences-ultranationalist-serb-leader-to-10-years-16638|title=UN court sentences ultranationalist Serb leader to 10 years |publisher=[[TRT World]] |access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/serbia-conviction-of-war-criminal-delivers-long-overdue-justice-to-victims/|title=Serbia: Conviction of war criminal delivers long overdue justice to victims|date=11 April 2018 | publisher=Amnesty International| access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref> The verdict was compared with similar hate speech propaganda judgements, such as the ICTY case of [[Radoslav Brđanin]], and the [[International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda]] case of [[Jean-Paul Akayesu]], where it was ruled that instigation is punishable when the speech is followed by subsequent criminal conduct.<ref name="ICLR">{{cite journal| url=https://brill.com/view/journals/icla/20/3/article-p405_405.xml |title=The Prosecutor v. Vojislav Šešelj: A Symptom of the Fragmented International Criminalisation of Hate and Fear Propaganda| pages=405–491 |doi=10.1163/15718123-bja10002 |first1=Mohamed |last1=Elewa Badar |first2=Polona |last2= Florijančič |journal= International Criminal Law Review|year=2020|volume=20| issue=3|doi-access=free }}</ref>  The Appeals Chamber concluded the following:
{{quote|...many non-Serbian civilians left Hrtkovci by way of housing exchanges with Serbian refugees in the context of [[coercion]], [[harassment]], and [[intimidation]]... In addition, given that the acts of violence and intimidation were aimed at non-Serbian civilians, particularly Croatians, the only reasonable inference is that the acts of forcible displacement amounted to [[discrimination]] in fact, were carried out with discriminatory intent on ethnic grounds, and constituted part of a widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population, encompassing also areas in Croatia and [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Prosecutor v. Vojislav Šešelj - Judgement |url=https://cld.irmct.org/assets/filings/Apeal-Judgement-11.04.2018.PDF |page=66| date=11 April 2018| location=The Hague| publisher=International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals}}</ref>}}
==See also==
*[[Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars]]
*[[Stajićevo camp]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/SERBIA945.PDF Human Rights Watch report: Serbia (1994)]
*[http://www.unmict.org/sites/default/files/cases/public-information/cis-seselj-en.pdf Vojislav Šešelj: Case Information Sheet] ICTY
{{Croats of Serbia}}
{{Croatian War of Independence}}
[[Category:Croats of Serbia]]
[[Category:Croats of Vojvodina]]
[[Category:1991 in Serbia]]
[[Category:1992 in Serbia]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1991]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1992]]
[[Category:Ethnic cleansing in the Yugoslav Wars]]
[[Category:Serbian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence]]