36 YEARS SINCE SERBS IN CROATIA DECLARED AUTONOMY

BIJELJINA, SEPTEMBER 30 /SRNA/ - The Serb National Council in Srb declared autonomy for Serbs in Croatia on October 1, 1990, on the basis of a referendum in which 567,127 out of 567,317 voters supported autonomy.

Following the HDZ's rise to power and announcements that Croatia would secede from Yugoslavia and that Serbs would lose their status as a constituent people in Croatia, Serbs began organizing themselves amid fears of a repetition of the genocide they had suffered during World War II, according to the account. The Republic of Srpska Krajina was subsequently established, covering largely the territory of the former Military Frontier, including the areas of the Croatian Military Frontier, Slavonian Military Frontier and Danube Military Frontier. The Republic of Srpska Krajina, which existed from 1991 to 1995, had its own institutions of government and armed forces. The article states that the final blow to the Serb autonomous republic was dealt by Croatian forces and some NATO member states, which, in the presence of international peacekeeping forces, attacked and expelled Serbs from Slavonia and then, in August 1995, more than 200,000 Serbs from most of the Republic of Srpska Krajina. Since then, many Serbs from the territory of the former Republic of Srpska Krajina, as well as former officials of the republic, have lived in exile.