Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.21857/ypn4oc8ko9
Serbian Democratic Party from the constitution of the first multi-party Parliament to the outburst of Serbian rebellion in Croatia in August 1990
Domagoj Knežević
orcid.org/0000-0002-8651-8016
; Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The topic of this paper is the activity of Serbian Democratic Party in Croatia from the establishment of the first multi-party Parliament to the outburst of Serbian rebellion in August 1990. The paper further tackles the establishment of party committees in other Yugoslav republics, as well as the role of leadership and party members at the beginning of Serbian rebellion. The work is based on available archive documents, testimonies and media outlets of party leaders. The secondary and tertiary sources have also been consulted, such as Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian and Herzegovinian media, as well as available monographs about circumstances current at that time. In the analyzed period, the party leader Jovan Rašković, who was present at most founding meetings in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojvodina and Serbia, played a crucial role in the establishment of new Serbian Democratic Party committees. However, his dream of becoming party leader among Serbs at Yugoslav level completely failed. In this period, Serbian Democratic Party started institutionally taking over authority in several Croatian municipalities, as this was an essential precondition for deciding on joining the newly established Community. Serbian Democratic Party policy was geared towards the creation of illegitimate and parallel institutions, which tried to match their decisions with Croatian Parliament’s legitimate decisions. It was furthermore in line with the destabilization of Croatia's internal affairs, since Serbian Democratic Party correctly assessed that this line would be the first line of defence of Croatia’s constitutional order and sovereignty. Additionally, there was turmoil within the party leadership. Jovan Rašković survived the first attempt, initiated by some party leaders, to shift from the presidency. However, Milan Babić overtook, supported by Serbian state politics, the leadership initiative. Within the same party, a differentiation was present between the supporters of Communist and of Chetnik ideologies. Nevertheless, this process did not question their negative attitude toward the new political circumstances in Croatia. Serbian Democratic Party itself was undoubtedly the initiator and organizer of the rebellion of the Croatian Serbs, while the role of low-rank party members was carrying out armed action in the field. All this was evidently done with the political support of Serbia and Yugoslav National Army. Additionally, Serbian Democratic Party stepped out of the regulal political activity by destroying Croatian constitutional order, thus becoming a terrorist organization and the core of personnel in the upcoming Serbian aggression on Croatia.
Ključne riječi
Serbian Democratic Party; Jovan Rašković; rebellion; Milan Babić; Knin.
Hrčak ID:
211532
URI
Datum izdavanja:
6.12.2018.
Posjeta: 3.554 *