Ethnic cleansing in Croatia

Ethnic cleansing has been used several times to change the balance in national composition of Croatia and other countries throughout history. It went hand in hand with genocide against the Serbs and foibe massacres of the Italians in WWII, but the method was used again in '91-'95 Croatian secession war.

History

Croatia, as it is today, consisted of several regions with very different history. The northern part of this country belonged to Austro-Hungarian Empire and Hungary, while the Dalmatian coast had a fate similar to the other parts of Adriatic coast, and cities like Venice. Republic of Ragusa was one example of such a city state, and it was later included in Austro-Hungarian Empire after the conquest of Napoleon.

Dalmatia had a distinct population, which consisted of Italians and Slavs. Italians were mostly concentrated in cities, like Zara, Fiume, Ragusa and other. Istria was always a part of Italy, up to 1945 when it was occupied by the Croatian Tito's communists. But even further to the south, around 400,000 Italians lived, which constituted around 40% of the population of Dalmatia. The remaining population was mainly Slavic, roughly half of which were Serbs, and the rest were Catholic Dalmatians, later turned into Croats. Serbs were also concentrated in Krayina region which extended further to the north, along the boundary with Turkish Empire.
They lived there for centuries, and there were around a million of them in the present day Croatia in 1900. Out of 4 million people almost half were not Croats, even if one counts Dalmatian Catholics, indeed all Slavic Catholics, as Croats.

After WWI, Italy lost part of the Dalmatian coast. It remained in Istria and some other towns, like Zara further to the south. The Serbian forces, who victoriously defeated the Austro Hungarian army at the Solun front marched all way to the Slovenia, and the country, dominated by the victorious Serbs, was created.

In WWII, Italians regained control of most of the Dalmatian coast, despite some of it being incorporated in the notorious NDH. The NDH was involved in the genocide against the Serbs, and almost a million of them were killed in present day Croatia and Bosnia, which were both included in this Nazi puppet state. Their plan was to get rid of the Serbs, by killing one third, expelling the other third and assimilating the rest. The first goal was achieved in WWII by the Ustasha genocide.[http://books.google.com/books?idZcUNELPsQQsC&pgRA7-PA130&lpgRA7-PA130&dqpago+island+italian&sourceweb&ots9HDRmRC5Ry&sigPavuUBjjztsOh_cxWY4U8-eWhIU&hlen]

However, in 1943, with the fall of Mussolini's Italy, Germany regained control of the Dalmatian coast, while partisans engaged in the first wave of killings of Italians in the notorious foiba pits. The worst atrocities perpetuated by Croatian communists were done however in 1945, with German withdrawing. Tito's communists killed several thousand Italians and foiba's were filled with Italian bodies. They occupied Istria, cities of Trieste, Fiume, historical capital of Dalmatia Zara, which were always Italian, and expelled several hundred thousand of Italians in the first wave of ethnic cleansing.

Some Germans, who lived in Slavonia, were also expelled, but their number was not so large as Germans were a small minority there. While Germans were Nazis up to '45, Italians fought on the side of Allies since '43, like they did in the WWI.

The final episode of ethnic cleansing happened in '95, where all of the Krajina Serbs were expelled, while thousands of mostly elderly and hapeless were mercilesly killed. Out of over 500,000 Serbs present in Croatia in '91, most of who lost someone in the genocide in WWII. Out of them, only around 100,000 Serbs remained, mostly in cities where they were further discriminated against, just as the remaining Italians are forcibly assimilated and slowly expelled from Croatia after WWII.

Thus, the 95% population of present day Croatia claims to be purely Croat. This is up from 82% in the 1991, 68% after WWII, and 35% (52% if one counts all Slavic Catholics) after WWI. The results of ethnical cleansing in Croatia are indeed impactful.Dalmatian language, a dialect of Italian is now extinct.

Ante Pavelic

Ante Pavelic was the leader of the Independent State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945.

As the leader of the Ustaše he directly ordered, organized and conducted a campaign of terror. PaveliÄ‡'s Ustaše regime was arguably the most murderous in relation to its size in the whole of occupied Europe. Numerous testimonies from the Nuremberg Trials and in German, Italian and Austrian war archives bear witness to bestialities perpetrated against the civilian population.

According to these testimonies, German officers themselves were dismayed by the atrocities committed by the Ustaše, to the extent that they occasionally intervened to stop the bloodshed (Jasenovac, 1941), arrest one of the most notorious Ustaše (Fra Miroslav FilipoviÄ‡-MajstoroviÄ‡, Banja Luka, 1942) and disarm an Ustaše detachment (Eastern Bosnia, 1942). The regime declared in advance its intention to eliminate the Serbian population in NDH by killing one part, expelling a second part and converting the rest. .

A Gestapo report to Himmler (17 February 1942) on increased Partisan activities stated that "Increased activity of the bands is chiefly due to atrocities carried out by Ustasha units in Croatia against the Orthodox population. The Ustashas committed their deeds in a bestial manner not only against males of conscript age, but especially against helpless old people, women and children. The number of the Orthodox that the Croats have massacred and sadistically tortured to death is about three hundred thousand."

Official recognition of Genocide

There is a growing movement in Italy (and Europe) toward asking for the official recognition of "genocide" [http://books.google.com/books?idhhD0R8DBr_UC&pgPA103&lpgPA103&dqethnic+cleansing+of+dalmatian+italians&sourceweb&ots5WAZ_hWme1&sigZdO3tsGQPWkJ0Ln1CRM04sK5lOo&hlen] Many Italians, like the historian Arrigo Petacco, argue that there it is a long history of Ethnic cleansing in Croatia, as reported by the United Nations.

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