How was the Republic of Croatia in Herceg-Bosna established? Should Croats “pay the price for the war”?

It says: Prof. Dr. Ivica Saraki*for Croatian Media Services

It is well known that the predecessor of the Republic of Croatia in Herceg-Bosna was the Croatian Community in Herceg-Bosna, but what may be less known is that the impetus for the establishment of the Republic of Croatia in Herceg-Bosna was a peace plan indirectly provided by the international community.

It should be recalled immediately that during the war, international mediators made several peace proposals that could have stopped the war conflict between Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims (since 1993, Bosniaks) and tried to solve the complex problems of the (re)organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but all of them, by the way, in other words, were rejected either by the will of the political representatives of the Serbs or by the will of the political representatives of the Muslims (Bosniaks). It should also be recalled that each new peace proposal of the international community, starting from the actual situation on the ground, gave “more and more political and territorial specificity to the three constituent states”, obviously considering the creation of a Muslim-Bosniak or some Bosnian unified (“civil”) state in an extremely transnational and conflicting community.

Owen persuaded Bosnians to reconcile at the expense of Croats

After Serbia rejected the international community’s second peace plan for Bosnia (the Vance-Owen plan) and Cyrus Vance resigned in May 1993, Norwegian diplomat Thorvald Stoltenberg and British diplomat David Owen presented a new peace plan to the public on July 30, an agreement on the merger of the three republics, officially known as the Constitutional Agreement on the Union of the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the Erwin-Stoltenberg peace plan, Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered a federation of three “constituent republics”, whose internal territorial division has not yet been agreed upon. With Serbia militarily controlling 70% of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the peace mediators foresee the “Republic of Serbia” taking 51%, the “Republic of Bosnia” taking 30%, and the “Republic of Croatia” taking 16% of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Sarajevo and Mostar (3%) are planned to receive special status (internationally protected).

The Constitutional Agreement of the Federation of Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina states that “no component republic may secede without the prior consent of all republics”.

After the Serbian “referendum” rejected the Vance-Irving Plan, the international community actually put forward a new proposal to meet Serbia’s demands for the recognition of a Serbian unit that would occupy about half of the spatially connected territory of the ) Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Croatian side was also expected to accept the plan, since it offered the possibility of creating its own state-territorial unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to make the Muslim-Bosnian side accept the peace plan, the initiators themselves encouraged territorial “settlement” of the Muslims (Bosniaks) at the expense of the Croats, as David Irving told their delegation at the beginning of the Geneva negotiations:

“He told us that he knew we could not be satisfied with what the Serbs were getting in terms of territory, but the problem could be solved on the Muslim side at the expense of the Croats. If we agree on what the Serbs should get, then they will turn their backs on the Croats, and we can solve it at their expense”. (M. Filipović).

At a dinner on Lake Geneva, Irving again convinced Alija Izetbegovic and the members of his delegation to accept the plan, promising: “We will give you the territories of the Croats, and they should definitely pay for this war” (I. Komšić).

Izetbegovic’s assent to the agreement on the Union of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was confirmed by a letter dated 3 August from UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the President of the UN Security Council, in which he was informed that “all three state” parties had agreed to a constitutional agreement on the Union of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of a comprehensive peace settlement.

David Owen notes that on August 20, 1993, he reported the new peace plan to the “European Community delegation” and distributed to them the document of the Bosnian agreement, which he points out was agreed in principle by the European Community. The leaders of the three conflicting parties then submitted the proposals to their respective “parliaments” and made a decision within ten days, until August 31, 1993. The United Nations Security Council on August 25 (resolution 859) “strongly called on the three parties to find a fair and definitive political solution on the basis of free will as soon as possible.” At the parliamentary session (held in Jahorina on August 27), the Serbian side accepted the peace plan with 55 votes “in favor” and “14 against”, and as for the second and third parties, Owen writes that “the majority of the Bosnian Parliament, which is Muslim” (held in Sarajevo on August 27-28) voted unanimously only to agree to continue negotiations.

HR HB How is the House of Representatives composed?

In his speech at the conference, Izetbegovic pointed out that the proposed package was only a basis for continuing negotiations, etc., because “it does not ensure the territorial access to the sea of ​​the Republic of Bosnia”. For the Croatian side, Owen wrote that the “Bosnian Croat Parliament” accepted the package with only one “no” vote. Which parliament?

Here we come to the key reasons for the establishment of the Republic of Croatia Herceg-Bosna. Since only the Croatian side did not have “a parliament that could make such decisions”, this political initiative was initiated by the Central Committee of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which met in Livno on August 24 and made a political decision: to declare the establishment of the Republic of Croatia Herceg-Bosna, and at the same time to make a decision on the termination of the terms of office of all Croats in the official institutions of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a decision on the constitution of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Croatia Herceg-Bosna.

In accordance with these political decisions, a working group was formed to prepare documents for the Constitutional Assembly of the House of Representatives of HR HB in Grud, where the Chairman of the Croatian Herceg-Bosna Community convened on August 28. The representatives of the Croatian people in the Municipal Council of the former Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the decision on the formation of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Croatia as the highest representative body and holder of legislative power, which immediately adopted the “Basic Decision on the Establishment and Proclamation of the Republic of Croatia Herceg-Bosna”. Voting results. Thus, the Republic of Croatia Herceg-Bosna was established and accepted the proposed peace plan.

What will the Republic of Bosnia get?

In a letter dated 1 September, the Secretary-General of the United Nations informed the President of the Security Council that Izetbegovic, while continuing negotiations on 31 August, stated that he was authorized to sign the peace package, “but he demanded more” territories of Muslim republics (which actually meant that the war was for territory and not for “civilized countries”); the Serbian side accepted the plan “but without any changes”; “Mr. Boban informed that his parliament also authorized him to sign the package without any changes if the other two parties signed it”. Alija Izetbegovic accepted the proposal for the alliance in principle and received parliamentary authorization to sign the package and continue negotiations. He hoped to legitimize his country’s “ethnic division” policy by convening a meeting of Muslim-Bosniak intellectuals a month later, on 27 September, under the name of the “Bosnian Congress”.

In his speech to the parliament, Izetbegovic explained the essence of the proposed peace plan and provided some basic information about the union of three republics and the planned creation of the Republic of Bosnia in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“30% of the existing area of ​​Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inhabitants: 2,050,000, i.e. 47% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 75.5% are Muslims, 12.5% ​​are Serbs and 12% are Croats”). He also addressed the issue of the Republic of Bosnia’s access to the Sava River and the sea. The following is a verbatim quote from his report:

“It cannot be said that the solution offered is completely satisfactory. The part of the city of Brčko west of the railway (including the railway) and the port on the Sava River, i.e. the majority, belongs to us. As for the connection with the sea, three parallel solutions are foreseen, namely: a plot of land on the Kleč Peninsula with the Stolac-Neuum passage (“Blue Road” – the first stage of the road under UNPROFOR supervision). A free zone for the port of Ploče (at least 99 years), and the construction of its own port on the Neretva River near Višić (three or four kilometers upstream from Metković, with free passage on the Neretva River to Croatia).”

The proposed peace plan was accepted by the Bosniak Parliament by a majority vote, on the condition that the conquered territories be returned to the Muslims (Bosniaks), but the Serbian side disagreed, so it can be said that the Muslim-Bosniak side actually rejected the proposal. In other words, the Republic of Bosnia, unlike the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia (Herzeg Bosnia), was not born. Having learned of the rejection of the peace plan by the Muslim-Bosniak side, the House of Representatives of the Croatian Human Rights Committee (which met in Neum on October 1) concluded on the obligations of the Croatian negotiators in the event that “both sides do not accept the current peace plan before October 15”.

Among other things, they were ordered to “reject any discussion of the right of any person to protect Mostar, the capital of the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna” and “reject any discussion of access to the sea areas of the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna in the sense of territorial concessions.”

Owen: Muslims choose to continue the war

Negotiations would drag on for some time, but no agreement on the territorial division would be reached, and Erwin-Stoltenberg’s plan for the merger of the three republics ultimately failed. In his Balkan Odyssey, Erwin stated that “the Muslims had obviously chosen to continue the war”, which was not surprising considering that he, on behalf of the international community, encouraged them to “solve the territorial issue at the expense of the Croats”.

On August 21-22, two days after the deadline for the tripartite “parliament” to issue a statement on the peace proposal began, the military leadership of the Bosnian Army met in Zenica and agreed to continue the war for part of the territorial settlement plan for the Croats. After giving specific “tasks” to attack strategic points under the control of the HVO, it was finally clearly ordered that “all these tasks must be completed within 10 days”, which coincided with the deadline announced in the “parliament” peace plan.

In the same consultations with the military leadership of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was decided to plan and implement a large-scale military operation “which would cover the area from Bugojno to Mostar and achieve very definite results”. Certain results “are” a few days later, the examples of Grabovica, Uzdor and central Bosnia became clear.

The revival of HR HB

The plan to create a union of three republics in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not materialize, but in the context of the intensification of the Muslim-Croatian armed conflict in a brutal war, the Republic of Croatia in Herceg-Bosna began to be born with its own governing bodies, and now it is clear to everyone that this is not a war against the “Bosnian civilians”, but a war for territory.

As large-scale crimes and ethnic cleansing on both sides continued to increase, the activities of international mediators, also from the United States, were resumed and intensified, trying to bring the conflicting parties back to political and diplomatic negotiations to end the conflict. As a result of the war between Croats and Muslims (Bosniaks), representatives of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna also met.

The result of these activities was the final end of the conflict and the conclusion of the preliminary agreement on the establishment of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Washington Agreement) on March 18, 1994. The Republic of Croatia, together with the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Herceg-Bosna was also a co-signatory of the Agreement.

*The author of the text is Prof. Dr. Ivica Saraczy, Director of the Croatian Homeland War Documentation Centre in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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