storm - Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog ...

FOREWORD TO THE APPENDICES
In addition to Dr. Davor Marijan’s scholarly study, the book Storm is enriched by
Appendices, documents selected and edited by Mate Rupić, Senior Archivist at the
Croatian Memorial-Documentation Centre of the Homeland War. Th ese documents
refer to major political and military events which infl uenced the decision to mount
Operation Storm (the process of annexation to Serbia and of unifi cation of the so-called
Republic of Serbian Krajina and Republika Srpska, i.e., of the Serbs from Croatia and
Bosnia&Herzegovina into a single state, and the Bihać crisis), and to its aft ermath (the
exodus of the Serbs from the occupied area). Th ese developments, and the respective
selected and chronologically ordered documents, show why the issue of the occupied
territory of the Republic of Croatia could not be solved by diplomatic and peaceful
means, why Storm could no longer be delayed, and why the claims that the Croatian
leadership had banished the Serbs from the so-called Krajina are historically unfounded.
Th e documents in the Appendices to this book span the time from 1991 to 1995 in
order to draw attention to the fact that mounting Storm was not a sudden whim of the
Croatian leadership but rather the consequence of a long process of futile negotiations
with the leadership of the rebel Serbs on the peaceful reintegration of occupied Croatian
territory and of ineffi cient moves by the international community, and to emphasize that
the operation in question cannot be considered only in terms of the events in July and
August 1995. In the English translation of the documents in the Appendices some parts
have been considerably abridged and others omitted [the omitted parts are marked by
three points in brackets (...)] in order to facilitate the understanding of the documents by
the foreign readers and focus on parts important for the appreciation of the circumstances
which led to Storm. However, in order to provide the readers of the English translation
an overview of all the documents published in the Croatian edition, the description of
their contents is given at the beginning of the Appendices.
Th e fi rst chapter of the Appendices comprises 30 documents testifying to the intensive
eff orts of Serbian politicians focused on preparing the unifi cation of Serbs from the
Republic of Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina (that is, the so-called Republic of Serbian
Krajina and Republika Srpska) in a single Serbian state. Th us, the Appendices list in
chronological sequence documents showing that the Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia
and Herzegovina continued to draft bills for the proclamation of the “United Serbian
Republic” even aft er their defeat in Operation Flash in which the Croatian armed
forces liberated part of Croatia (in early May 1995), and that the process, a step away
from becoming reality, was interrupted by the victory of the Croatian armed forces in
Operation Storm.
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