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RSK

The "Republic of Serbian Krajina" (Republika Srpska Krajina, RSK) was an internationally unrecognized Serbian republic that existed between 1991 and 1995 and partially until 1998 in Croatia.

The original Krajina was carved out of the crownlands of Croatia and Slavonia by Austria in 1553/1578 in order to form the Military Frontier with the Ottoman Empire. Many Serbs immigrated in the region and participated in the fight against the Ottomans. The Austrians controlled the Frontier from military headquarters in Vienna and did not make it a crown land, though it had some special rights in order to encourage settlement in an otherwise deserted, war-ravaged territory. The abolition of the military rule took place between 1869 and 1871. After that, the areas were returned to their previous crownlands.

Following World War I, it became part of Yugoslavia where it was in the Posavska banovina with most of old Croatia-Slavonia. Following World War II, the Partisan leaders made it part of the republic of Croatia. The political self-organization along national lines existed since the early 20th century, and the Serbs of Croatian Krajina as well as Bosnian Krajina and other non-Serbian territories had a notable political party in the Independent Democratic Party under Svetozar Pribičević between the two world wars.

At the beginning of the Yugoslav wars in 1990, a group of Serbian Autonomous Regions (SAOs) were proclaimed, mainly occupying territories where the Serbs were in a majority in the old Slavonian and Croatian Military Frontier regions. The Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian paramilitary formations waged war against the Croatian government forces to secure Krajina's secession. The Republic as such was proclaimed on December 19, 1991.

Almost the entire Croatian population of the region was expelled or fled in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" which the Krajina Serb leader, Milan Babić, admitted in a plea bargain with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in January 2004. The region was at the same time partly re-populated by Serbs from the rest of Croatia.

During spring 1991 the census showed that there lived 555,540 people in the region of the later proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina. Of these, 331,619 (59,7%) were Serbs, 168,026 (30,2%) were Croats and 55,895 (10,1%) were people of other nationalities. The allocation of the population in the different parts of the RSK was as follows:

Krajina (main)	Western Slavonia	Eastern Slavonia
255.966 (67%) Serbs 70.708 (28%) Croats 13.101 (5%) others	14.161 (60%) Serbs 6.864 (29%) Croats 2.577 (11%) others	61.492 (32%) Serbs 90.454 (47%) Croats 40.217 (21%) others

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Sources vary about the population numbers, and it was difficult to determine exactly due to the war. Some put the number between 450,000 to 600,000. According to a local census by the RSK authorities from 1993, there were 480,000 people: 91% Serbs (433,595), 7% Croats and 2% others.

By signing the final cease fire of 1992, Croatia recognized the status quo — Krajina's de facto independence — though this didn't have much relevance on its international standing. The RSK wasn't internationally recognized in the sense that it exchanged diplomatic credentials with other countries, though its existence was recognized by Serbia's traditional allies: Greece, Russia, and several other countries with Orthodox Christian majority. With the creation of new Croatian counties on December 30, 1992, the Croatian government also set aside two autonomous regions (kotar) for ethnic Serbs in the areas of Krajina. The United Nations peacekeeping forces UNPROFOR were stationed throughout the region in order to maintain the cease fire.

The RSK lasted until 1995, when Croatian forces retook western Slavonia in Operation Flash (May) and overran the rest in Operation Storm (August). As a consequence, almost the entire Serbian population fled in what was in part an evacuation ordered by the Krajina Serb authorities and (allegedly) in part "a large-scale deportation and/or displacement" conducted by Croatian forces under the command of Colonel General Ante Gotovina (for which the latter has been indicted by the ICTY) .

Around 150,000 — 200,000 Serbs (including 60.000 Serbian Soldiers) left "Krajina" in 1995. Of the Serb inhabitants that lived in the "Serbian Krajina" not bordering the Danube only 4000 were left. Some Serbs and most of the expelled Croats have since returned, but the Krajina Serb population is still only a fraction of its pre-1995 numbers. The autonomous regions planned by the government in 1992 were disbanded on February 7, 1997 and the areas were integrated into civic counties.

The parts of Krajina in eastern Croatia (along the Danube) remained in place as the Republic of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srem (previously the Srpska Autonomna Oblast Slavonija, Baranja i zapadni Srem, or sometimes called Sremsko-Baranjska Oblast). The national and local authorities signed the Erdut Agreement in 1995, sponsored by the United Nations, that set up a transitional period during which the UNTAES peacekeepers would oversee a peaceful reintegration of this territory into Croatia. This process was completed in 1998.

See also

• Heads of State of Krajina
• Heads of Government of Krajina