SNS Asked Serbs to Reject Knin, Declared Olga Carević a Traitor
The Serbian People's Party sought a peaceful solution, and between 9,000 and 12,000 Serbs actively defended Croatia in the ranks of the ZNG and HV.
The Serbian People's Party sought a peaceful solution, and between 9,000 and 12,000 Serbs actively defended Croatia in the ranks of the ZNG and HV.
In late August 1991, the Serbian People's Party (SNS) called on all Serbs in Croatia to neither recognize nor obey the self-proclaimed leaders in Knin. It also demanded distancing from the terrorist undertakings of paramilitary formations operating with JNA support.
The party was founded in May 1991 by a group of Serbian intellectuals and politicians led by Milan Đukić. The goal was to represent the interests of Serbs living in areas under Croatian government control. Because of this, Đukić and his associates were branded "traitors" by Serbian media and Knin.
Already during the summer of 1991, extremists set fire to his family home in Donji Lapac. Đukić was forced to flee.
Throughout the war, the SNS remained a legal opposition party in the Croatian Parliament. Đukić later served as Vice President of the Parliament, advocating for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and the integration of Serbs into Croatian society. Propaganda from Belgrade and Knin sought to portray a unified uprising, but historical records and testimonies tell a different story.
According to the 1991 census, of the more than half a million Serbs in Croatia, the majority lived in urban centers and in unoccupied areas-outside the influence of the Knin Krajina. The vast majority of these Serbs did not support the Log Revolution or the war conflicts.
Even in the occupied Krajina areas, the local population often offered silent resistance. Mobilization faced great difficulties, and many fled to Serbia or abroad to avoid the front lines.
Serbs who remained in the free part of Croatia found themselves in an extremely difficult position. On one hand, they suffered suspicion and pressure from parts of the Croatian public, while on the other, Knin extremists considered them legitimate targets for having "betrayed the Serbian cause."
A rarely mentioned fact about the Homeland War is the engagement of citizens of Serbian nationality in Croatian military forces. According to estimates by military experts and those who led the mobilization, between 9,000 and 12,000 Serbs actively participated in the defense of Croatia in the ranks of the ZNG and HV.
Olga Carević was an intellectual and scientist of world renown who contributed to the creation of Sumamed. A peace activist and respected member of Croatian society, she devoted all her energy at the beginning of the Homeland War to opening the eyes of the Serbian minority to which she herself belonged. She wanted them to resist Serbia's inflammatory politics.
Her son Mislav was a member of the 100th Brigade of the ZNG in Pokupsko. He passed away after returning from the front.
Olga tirelessly repeated that Croatia was her homeland, as well as the homeland of her compatriots. As early as August 18, 1990, she issued her first appeal to Serbs to resolve their problems in the Parliament. The war nonetheless erupted in full force, but she never ceased her appeals.
After the verdicts against Generals Markač and Gotovina, she spoke out with sharp words: "If the Homeland War is a criminal enterprise, how do we describe the destruction of Vukovar, Dubrovnik, Škabrnja, and the crimes at Ovčara?"
She was particularly hurt that the state her son fought for was called a criminal organization. "I am ashamed to go out on the street now," she said at the time. Then she offered her calculation: "If Gotovina got 24 years, how much will Mladić get if they ever catch him? At least 24 years squared!"
Everything that happened during Operation Storm, as she saw it, was placed on Gotovina's shoulders. "As a humanist, that bothers me terribly," she added.
Olga Carević, a person who called herself "a Serb who loves her homeland Croatia," never accepted the theory of civil war. "It was pure aggression," she maintained until her death in 2020.
