Log Revolution
Encyclopedia
The Log Revolution was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990 in areas of the Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by ethnic Serbs
.
A full year of tension, including minor skirmishes, passed before these events would escalate into the Croatian War of Independence
.
of Croatia, still within Yugoslavia, resulted in a victory for the pro-independence party of Franjo Tuđman. Tuđman's party, the Croatian Democratic Union
, implicitely and explicitely announced that Croatia will not tolerate anymore what they claimed to be privileged status of Serbs that they had in Croatia and propagated a policy in which Croatia will decide about itself and that Belgrade will not anymore decide about Croatian politics. Also they propagated they will not anymore support economically hypergenerous policy of giving funds to Yugoslav federal funds that distributed those money to Serbia, while Croatia had large underdeveloped areas (e.g., 1965-1970, Croatia was the source of 50% of foreign currency income of Yugoslavia, but retained solely 7%; from federal reserves, Croatia was getting solely 16,5% of funds, while Serbia 46,6%.
The victory of Tuđman's party on 1990 general election
was not the wished outcome for ruling political circles of Serbs, which were mostly hegemonists. The more things developed, it was more obvious that they will not easily agree on new, confederative relations in organization of Yugoslavia, proposed by new Croatian and Slovenian authorities. In Yugoslavia before democratization and free elections, Serbs lived in one country and on that basis they used many privileges, established during openly Serb hegemonist Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Communist dictatorship (Communist Yugoslavhood was often implicitely Greater Serbian chauvinism) in Yugoslavia , that proved to be the dungeon for Croats. Because of that, the followers the idea of Serb hegemony and the idea of the Greater Serbia, which were the big majority in military and civil structures of Yugoslav government, needed Yugoslavia for the greaterserbianist ethnocentric expansion (the program developed by from Jovan Rajić
, Ilija Garašanin
, Vaso Čubrilović
, Stevan Moljević
and many others to Memorandum SANU
). That very idea, idea about the Serbs as the chosen nation that must be the leading nation among all neighbouring nations, was the ideological embrio of the all evils done by Serbs to their neighbours.
So even before first democratic elections in Croatia, general situation was getting risingly tense in some parts of Croatia. Serbian politicians tagged the very idea of elections in Croatia as the betrayal of Yugoslav ideals, socialism, etc. So before first free elections, local Serbs in the village of Berak in Vukovar area put the baricades, in order to disrupt the elections.
During May 1990, before the elections, the weapons of TO (Territorial Defense) of Croatia was taken away by JNA, preventing the possibility of Croatia having its own weapons. Same thing was not done to Slovenia.
Following the first democratic elections and victory of HDZ, militant part of Croatian Serb minority, incited, encouraged and supported by Greater Serbian ideologists and Serb hegemonist circles from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina started to refuse authority of the new Croatian government.
During the act of passing of governing from the former to the new authorities in Croatia, the Yugoslav People's Army
made an implicit threat by organizing a "regular military maneuvre" in which a regiment of parachutists was deployed to the Pleso Airport.
Already in June and July of 1990, Serb representatives in Croatia openly rejected and proposals of Amendments to the Constitution of SR Croatia.
In an act of protest, the militant part of Croatian Serbs in some areas where they formed a majority started to refuse authority to the new Croatian government and held several meetings and public rallies since early 1990 protesting their cause.
and Milan Martić
, the local Serbs proclaimed SAO Kninska Krajina
in August 1990 and began blockading roads connecting Dalmatia
to the rest of Croatia. The blockade was mostly made from logs
cut down from nearby woods, which is why the event was dubbed the "Log Revolution". The organizers were armed with illegal weapons supplied by Martić. Since it was planned action, done during the Summer and severed land ties to Dalmatia, high economic damage was done to Croatian tourism
.
The revolt was explained by the Serbs with words that they are "terrorized [by Croatian government]" and that they "[fight for] more cultural, language and education rights". Serbian newspaper "Večernje Novosti" wrote that "2.000.000 Serbs [are] ready to go to Croatia to fight". The Western diplomats commented that the Serbian media is inflaming passions and Croatian government said "We knew about the scenario to create confusion in Croatia...".
The tension grew at a rate that was described as crawling (puzajuća agresija, "a crawling aggression").
The minor skirmishes of the Log Revolution had apparently caused a police casualty - in the night of November 22/23, 1990, a Croatian police car was fired upon on a hill near Obrovac
and one of the policemen, 27 year old Goran Alavanja, died of seven gunshot wounds. The incident involved three policemen of Serb ethnicity who were reportedly shot by a sole rebel Serb gunman, but the murder was never actually officially resolved.
In another earlier incident near Petrinja
, another Croatian policeman one Josip Božićević, was shot by a firearm in the night of September 28, 1990, and a leaked Ministry of Internal Affairs memo classified this as a fatality.
On December 21, 1990, the municipalities of Knin
, Benkovac
, Vojnić
, Obrovac
, Gračac
, Dvor
and Kostajnica
adopted the "Statute of the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina
".
On December 22, 1990, the Parliament of Croatia
ratified a new Constitution of Croatia
. It changed the status of Serbs from an explicitly mentioned minority to a national minority listed with other minorities. Majority of Serb politicians read this as a removal of some of the rights from the Serbs that had been granted by the previous Socialist constitution, because Constitution of SR Croatia treated solely Croats as constitutive nation. Croatia was "national state" for Croats, "state" for Serbs and other minorities.
Over two hundred armed incidents involving the rebel Serbs and Croatian police were reported between August 1990 and April 1991.
The open hostilities of the Croatian War of Independence
began in April 1991.
with the prosecution, in 2006 Milan Babić testified against Martić during his ICTY trial, saying Martić "tricked him into agreeing to the Log Revolution". He also testified that the entire war in Croatia was "Martić's responsibility, orchestrated by Belgrade
".
Serbs of Croatia
Višeslav of Serbia, a contemporary of Charlemagne , ruled the Županias of Neretva, Tara, Piva, Lim, his ancestral lands. According to the Royal Frankish Annals , Duke of Pannonia Ljudevit Posavski fled, during the Frankish invasion, from his seat in Sisak to the Serbs in western Bosnia, who...
.
A full year of tension, including minor skirmishes, passed before these events would escalate into the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
.
Background
The first democratic electionsCroatian parliamentary election, 1990
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 22 April 1990, with a second round of voting on 6 May. The first free elections since multi-party politics were introduced, they resulted in a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 55 of the 80 seats...
of Croatia, still within Yugoslavia, resulted in a victory for the pro-independence party of Franjo Tuđman. Tuđman's party, the Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
, implicitely and explicitely announced that Croatia will not tolerate anymore what they claimed to be privileged status of Serbs that they had in Croatia and propagated a policy in which Croatia will decide about itself and that Belgrade will not anymore decide about Croatian politics. Also they propagated they will not anymore support economically hypergenerous policy of giving funds to Yugoslav federal funds that distributed those money to Serbia, while Croatia had large underdeveloped areas (e.g., 1965-1970, Croatia was the source of 50% of foreign currency income of Yugoslavia, but retained solely 7%; from federal reserves, Croatia was getting solely 16,5% of funds, while Serbia 46,6%.
The victory of Tuđman's party on 1990 general election
Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 22 April 1990, with a second round of voting on 6 May. The first free elections since multi-party politics were introduced, they resulted in a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 55 of the 80 seats...
was not the wished outcome for ruling political circles of Serbs, which were mostly hegemonists. The more things developed, it was more obvious that they will not easily agree on new, confederative relations in organization of Yugoslavia, proposed by new Croatian and Slovenian authorities. In Yugoslavia before democratization and free elections, Serbs lived in one country and on that basis they used many privileges, established during openly Serb hegemonist Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Communist dictatorship (Communist Yugoslavhood was often implicitely Greater Serbian chauvinism) in Yugoslavia , that proved to be the dungeon for Croats. Because of that, the followers the idea of Serb hegemony and the idea of the Greater Serbia, which were the big majority in military and civil structures of Yugoslav government, needed Yugoslavia for the greaterserbianist ethnocentric expansion (the program developed by from Jovan Rajić
Jovan Rajic
Jovan Rajić was a Serbian writer, historian, traveller, and pedagogue, considered one of the greatest Serbian academics of the 18th century...
, Ilija Garašanin
Ilija Garašanin
Ilija Garašanin was a Serbian politician and statesman, serving as Interior Minister and Prime Minister ....
, Vaso Čubrilović
Vaso Cubrilovic
Vaso Čubrilović was a student in Sarajevo, when Danilo Ilić recruited him and his friend, Cvjetko Popović, to help assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria...
, Stevan Moljević
Stevan Moljevic
Dr Stevan Moljević was Serbian and Yugoslav politician, lawyer and publicist, president of the Yugoslav-French Club, president of the Yugoslav-British Club, president of Rotary International Club of Yugoslavia and member of the Central National Committee of Yugoslavia in World War II...
and many others to Memorandum SANU
Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a 14-member committee composed by members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1985 to 1986, presided by Kosta Mihailović...
). That very idea, idea about the Serbs as the chosen nation that must be the leading nation among all neighbouring nations, was the ideological embrio of the all evils done by Serbs to their neighbours.
So even before first democratic elections in Croatia, general situation was getting risingly tense in some parts of Croatia. Serbian politicians tagged the very idea of elections in Croatia as the betrayal of Yugoslav ideals, socialism, etc. So before first free elections, local Serbs in the village of Berak in Vukovar area put the baricades, in order to disrupt the elections.
During May 1990, before the elections, the weapons of TO (Territorial Defense) of Croatia was taken away by JNA, preventing the possibility of Croatia having its own weapons. Same thing was not done to Slovenia.
Following the first democratic elections and victory of HDZ, militant part of Croatian Serb minority, incited, encouraged and supported by Greater Serbian ideologists and Serb hegemonist circles from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina started to refuse authority of the new Croatian government.
During the act of passing of governing from the former to the new authorities in Croatia, the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
made an implicit threat by organizing a "regular military maneuvre" in which a regiment of parachutists was deployed to the Pleso Airport.
Already in June and July of 1990, Serb representatives in Croatia openly rejected and proposals of Amendments to the Constitution of SR Croatia.
In an act of protest, the militant part of Croatian Serbs in some areas where they formed a majority started to refuse authority to the new Croatian government and held several meetings and public rallies since early 1990 protesting their cause.
The blockades
Led by Milan BabićMilan Babic
Milan Babić was from 1991 to 1995 the first President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a Croatian region at the time of the war largely populated by a Serbs of Croatia that wished to break away from Croatia.He was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former...
and Milan Martić
Milan Martic
Milan Martić is a Serbian politician, former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina...
, the local Serbs proclaimed SAO Kninska Krajina
SAO Kninska Krajina
Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Kninska Krajina was a Serb self-proclaimed autonomous region in SR Croatia. It was formed in 1990 and was subsequently transformed into SAO Krajina and later included into the Republic of Serbian Krajina. The center of the SAO was the city of Knin.-History:After...
in August 1990 and began blockading roads connecting Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
to the rest of Croatia. The blockade was mostly made from logs
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
cut down from nearby woods, which is why the event was dubbed the "Log Revolution". The organizers were armed with illegal weapons supplied by Martić. Since it was planned action, done during the Summer and severed land ties to Dalmatia, high economic damage was done to Croatian tourism
Tourism in Croatia
Tourism in Croatia is a well-developed industry. Many tourists visit to experience the country's extensive coastline and well-preserved coastal Renaissance towns...
.
The revolt was explained by the Serbs with words that they are "terrorized [by Croatian government]" and that they "[fight for] more cultural, language and education rights". Serbian newspaper "Večernje Novosti" wrote that "2.000.000 Serbs [are] ready to go to Croatia to fight". The Western diplomats commented that the Serbian media is inflaming passions and Croatian government said "We knew about the scenario to create confusion in Croatia...".
The tension grew at a rate that was described as crawling (puzajuća agresija, "a crawling aggression").
The minor skirmishes of the Log Revolution had apparently caused a police casualty - in the night of November 22/23, 1990, a Croatian police car was fired upon on a hill near Obrovac
Obrovac, Croatia
Obrovac is a town located in northern Dalmatia, in the Zadar County of Croatia. Town population is 1,500 people , and the whole Obrovac municipality has a population of 4,000 people. The town is located in the canyon of the river Zrmanja....
and one of the policemen, 27 year old Goran Alavanja, died of seven gunshot wounds. The incident involved three policemen of Serb ethnicity who were reportedly shot by a sole rebel Serb gunman, but the murder was never actually officially resolved.
In another earlier incident near Petrinja
Petrinja
Petrinja is a city in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banovina. The city belongs to Sisak-Moslavina County .- History :The name of Petrinja has its roots in Latin petrus, meaning "stone"...
, another Croatian policeman one Josip Božićević, was shot by a firearm in the night of September 28, 1990, and a leaked Ministry of Internal Affairs memo classified this as a fatality.
On December 21, 1990, the municipalities of Knin
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
, Benkovac
Benkovac
Benkovac is a town and municipality in the interior of Zadar County, Croatia.- Geography :Benkovac is located where the plain of Ravni Kotari and the karstic plateau of Bukovica meet, 20 km from the town of Biograd na Moru and 30 km from Zadar. The Zagreb-Split motorway and Zadar-Knin...
, Vojnić
Vojnic
Vojnić is a municipality in Karlovac County, Croatia. There are 5,495 inhabitants, 50% which are Serbs and 36% which are Croats. The municipality is part of Kordun.-Demography:...
, Obrovac
Obrovac, Croatia
Obrovac is a town located in northern Dalmatia, in the Zadar County of Croatia. Town population is 1,500 people , and the whole Obrovac municipality has a population of 4,000 people. The town is located in the canyon of the river Zrmanja....
, Gračac
Gracac
Gračac is a village and a municipality in the southern part of Lika, Croatia. It is located south of Udbina, northeast of Obrovac, northwest of Knin and southeast of Gospić...
, Dvor
Dvor
Dvor is a town and a municipality in the Banovina region in central Croatia. Administratively it belongs to the Sisak-Moslavina County and is located across the Una River from Novi Grad in Bosnia and Herzegovina....
and Kostajnica
Hrvatska Kostajnica
Hrvatska Kostajnica, often just Kostajnica, is a small town in central Croatia. It is located on the Una river in the Sisak-Moslavina county, south of Petrinja and Sisak and across the river from Bosanska Kostajnica in Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...
adopted the "Statute of the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina
SAO Krajina
Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina or SAO Krajina was a self proclaimed Serbian autonomous region within modern-day Croatia . It existed between 1990 and 1991 and was subsequently included into Republic of Serbian Krajina...
".
On December 22, 1990, the Parliament of Croatia
Parliament of Croatia
The Parliament of Croatia or the Sabor is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia and legislature of the country. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, represents the people and is vested with the legislative power...
ratified a new Constitution of Croatia
Constitution of Croatia
The current Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia on December 22, 1990. It replaced the Constitution of 1974 ratified in socialist Yugoslavia...
. It changed the status of Serbs from an explicitly mentioned minority to a national minority listed with other minorities. Majority of Serb politicians read this as a removal of some of the rights from the Serbs that had been granted by the previous Socialist constitution, because Constitution of SR Croatia treated solely Croats as constitutive nation. Croatia was "national state" for Croats, "state" for Serbs and other minorities.
Over two hundred armed incidents involving the rebel Serbs and Croatian police were reported between August 1990 and April 1991.
The open hostilities of the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
began in April 1991.
Aftermath
As a part of his plea bargainPlea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
with the prosecution, in 2006 Milan Babić testified against Martić during his ICTY trial, saying Martić "tricked him into agreeing to the Log Revolution". He also testified that the entire war in Croatia was "Martić's responsibility, orchestrated by Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
".
See also
- Breakup of Yugoslavia
- Špegelj Tapes
- Index of Serbs of Croatia-related articles