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Todorović and Vilić, well-known experts of the JNA and, later, the Yugoslav Army,
“found” the roots of the SVK defeat in the anticommunism of the SDS, which rejected the
partisan strategy and imposed on the population the “loser chetnik strategy and tactics of
Pop Đujić”. 544 Th is interpretation is valuable merely as an example of a line of thought which
expired with the disappearance of the SFRY.
Krajina disappeared because it was a delusion eventually abandoned even by those who
had contributed to its creation. Th e last days of the RSK showed that its weakest point was its
political and military leadership. On 4 August in the evening, the Supreme Defence Council
dominated by Martić decided to reduce the front in Northern Dalmatia. In the night of 4/5
August this led to the breakdown and withdrawal of the North Dalmatian Corps towards
Bosanska Krajina. As if by a domino eff ect the same fate befell the other SVK corps. Krajina
disappeared much more quickly than expected considering the strength of its armed forces.
Aft er fi ve years Croatia reincorporated more than 18% of the rebel-controlled and occupied
area into its constitutional and legal order. Eastern Slavonia still remained out of Croatian
control. Time soon showed that these areas and Serbian policy did not want a rerun of
Storm on the western borders of SR Yugoslavia. With the good offi ces of the international
community the representatives of the rebel Serbs from Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and
Western Sirmium agreed to peaceful and gradual reintegration, and signed in Erdut the
“Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium”. 545
Photograph by Davor Višnjić, 7 August 1995
544 Boško Todorović, Dušan Vilić, «Gubitnička strategija» (Loser Strategy), Vojska, 24 Aug. 1995, 10-11.
545 “Kronologija rata” (War Chronology), 536.
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