storm - Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog ...

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1995, 18 May
Borovo Selo
Part of the speech of the RSK President Milan Martić on the state of the crisis aft er the
Croatian Army liberated Western Slavonia, and on plans of unifi cation with Republika
Srpska as the fi rst step towards the unifi cation of all Serbian lands
___________________
TAPE RECORDING
OF THE THIRD MEETING OF THE REGULAR SESSION
OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIAN KRAJINA,
HELD IN BOROVO SELO ON 18 MAY 1995
[...]
Distinguished assemblymen,
I shall obviously have to present once again the causes and the scope of the crisis which
has befallen us, and to off er ways and means to overcome it.
Before I speak up directly and concretely about certain segments of the events in and
around Western Slavonia, I must briefl y review the following problems and dilemmas,
and raise the following question: what is the Serbian national goal, and has it changed?
What is our position with respect to war and peace, to Serbia (Yugoslavia) and Republika
Srpska? How do authorities function in Krajina? What is our position with respect to UN
and Croatia? Let me reiterate once again: Western Slavonia fell because of inadequate
responses to all these questions, and military defeat is the logical aft ermath.
On the national goal and its implications for the state crisis
(...) Tragically enough it [the creation of a single common state of Serbs in the area of
the former Yugoslavia] has not happened yet. Western Slavonia would not have fallen,
probably, had there been a single state. However, to make misery and tragedy even worse,
unifi cation has not been accomplished owing primarily to internal Serbian quarrels and
lack of understanding.
Without entering into the underlying reasons of the diff erences, their dual consequences
are noticeable: fi rst, the national cause is being treated as a partial issue - separately
for Serbia, separately for Republika Srpska, separately for the RSK; second, correlated
with the fi rst, is the transfer of the Serbian national cause from the constitutive to the
democratic sphere. Both have had a dramatic and lethal eff ect on the overall national
interest, and have clearly shown that some of the subjects involved have amended the
goals of their struggle. Th ey have uncritically abandoned the programme focused on
the creation of a common Serbian state in the belief that it could not be realized at this
time. As opposed to this concept, they advocate the solution of the issue through the
achievement of democratic rights of the Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina.