The so-called
anti-bureaucratic revolution of
Serbian leader
Slobodan Milošević aimed at strengthening of Yugoslav federal institutions triggered condemnations and separatist response in
Slovenia and
Croatia. This in turn provoked
security dilemma among at the time numerous
Serbs of Croatia community which strongly opposed any move towards Croatian independence if it will separate them from the other parts of Yugoslavia. The dilemma was rooted in historical experience of the
Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia stirred up by rising Serb and Croat nationalism. Croatian Serb political leaders of the nationalist
Serb Democratic Party advocated for the
partition of Croatia in case of independence which would enable Serb inhabited areas to remain in Yugoslavia. Croatian Serb politician
Jovan Rašković argued for the creation of the "integral region" by bringing together predominantly Serb municipalities in Croatia into an Association of Municipalities which would act as one of the first-level administrative units within the republic. While the Croatian legal system at the time formally permitted such a form of municipal organization the move was perceived as highly controversial and led to some of the first clashes. After
Operation Storm, the application of the law which allowed autonomy would be temporarily suspended. In 2000 this part of the law was formally repealed. The process of creation of the self-proclaimed Serb Autonomous Regions in Croatia included inter-ethnic clashes and violence as well as widespread
ethnic cleansing of non-Serb population from the areas that those regions ended up controlling. Some of the highest ranking political and military leaders involved in this process were prosecuted by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for their direct or command responsibility for a number of
war crimes committed. In the effort to preserve the peace in the region
European Community limited the recognition of post-Yugoslav entities exclusively to previously established Yugoslav federal units (republics) in their administrative borders and explicitly discouraged it in case of any new secessionist region while at the same time it conditioned recognition of republics with credible minority rights guarantees. Serb Autonomous Regions in Croatia therefore failed to ever gain any formal international recognition. == SAOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina ==