Serbian Casualties in the 20th Century

By Professor Ljubodrag Dimic, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Belgrade, [13 May 1999]

The Serbian question is not a marginal question of European history. In the long period from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day, it has always surpassed the actual borders of Serbia, attracted the attention and provoked the reaction of the Great Powers, “infringed” on their vital interests, and acquired European proportions. For the Serbs, the 20th century began with the wars for liberation and unification. As a result, the Serbian state again stretched over the territory it had in the Middle Ages and the Serbian people for the most part found themselves within the borders of one state. This century ends with open aggression by NATO, which is attempting to destroy this European people.

In this gory century, the Serbs have fought 5 wars for survival, in which they experienced and lived through 2 genocide, 2 civil wars, 2 foreign occupations, won two liberation wars, lost their state twice and created a new state three times. In the last decade of the century, with the help of the USA and a united Europe, the Serbs have experienced a large-scale Exodus and lost their ethnic territories. Since 24 March 1999, the Serbs have been waging their sixth war in the 20th century with the sole aims of surviving, saving their lives, their state, and preserving their tradition and identity which cannot exist without Kosovo and Metohija .

In the first Balkan war, fought by the Balkan states of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria against Turkey in 1912, the Serbian casualties amounted to 30,000 wounded or killed Serbian soldiers. The unsolved political issued and territorial disputes of the Balkan states provoked the second Balkan war in 1913, out of which Serbia came victorious, but materially exhausted and with casualties amounting to 41,000 soldiers.

Two world wars almost reduced the Serbian people to a demographic minimum. “The demographic collapse” of Serbia in the First World War expressed numerically amounts to around 1,250,000 killed (402,435 soldiers and 845,000 civilians), and around 500,000 invalids with permanently reduced working ability, the demographic loss (killed, unborn and unable to work) being 35% of the entire Serbian population. The greatest loss was suffered by male working population (18-55)—62% of the entire population (53% killed and 9% invalids). Such losses amounted to the eradication of the entire nation and caused permanent, unresolved consequences in the patriarchal society of the Serbian villages (22% more women than men). The wars for liberation and unification which lasted several years (1912-1918), in which the Serbs fought on the side of the allies (France, England, USA, Russia, etc.) consumed much energy, “wore out” the Serbian people, bore “war exhaustion”, “weakness”, “stagnation”, and the loss of entire generations.

The death toll in the Second World War was at least 1,000,000 Serbian lives (the exact data have never been established because in 1946 the Communist authorities in Yugoslavia impeded the work of the Committee for establishing the crimes of occupiers, for political reasons). Imprisonment and wounding included, the demographic loss of the Serbian population amounted to over 20%. Settled on the territory of the entire Yugoslavia, the Serbian people was fractioned and exposed to the danger of biological, national and cultural destruction.

In the period 1941-1944 under the German occupation, more than 80,000 Serbs were killed, for the most part in death camps, special prisons, punitive expeditions, reprisals in which 100 Serbs were murdered for 1 wounded German soldier, and 150 for a killed soldier. More than 350,000 Serbs were forcefully taken to German camps. x On the territory of the Italian protectorate of Great Albania (Metohija), more than 10,000 Serbs were executed; 80,000 Albanians at a minimum were settled there. In the Hungarian occupation zone, only during 1941 10,000 Serbs were killed (out of that number, 4,000 Serbs were thrown into the frozen Danube on the site which used to be occupied by the bridge destroyed in these days by NATO bombs). The outcome of the Bulgarian occupation was 20,000 murdered and 50,000 displaced Serbs. The crime committed on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia assumed the largest proportions. 1,900,000 were exposed to terror. According to German sources, 700,000 Serbs were murdered in Croatia, 250,000 of them converted and more than 400,000 evicted to Serbia. x Crimes against the Serbian population were committed in the years of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The disintegration of the SFRY was carried out by means of armed secession, was amply supported by the international community. The principle of the territorial integrity of a state and the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders (UN Charter, the Concluding Act of the Conference of Cooperation and Security in Europe) was not observed in Yugoslavia's case. The right to self-determination was linked to federal units. The Serbs were exempted from the universal right to self-determination. Their commitment to living with other nations in a common state was ignored. The diplomatic acknowledgement of the secession made it possible for the civil war, which commenced in Croatia in 1991 and spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, to be characterized as aggression.

In those wars the Serbs suffered greater losses than other peoples of Yugoslavia did. In 1990's, about 500,000 Serbs permanently left Croatia (emigrated or evicted). According to some sources, in 1991 723,665 Serbs lived in Croatia; today, there are 130,000—150,000 of them. Accordingly, the demographic loss is almost 600,000 Serbs. According to the estimates of analysts, the Serbian casualties in Croatia amount to 8,000—10,000. Out of total losses of life in Bosnia-Herzegovina (estimated at 80,000), more than 30,000 are Serbs.

In the first decades of this century, the Serbs were in the majority in Macedonia, Kosovo, Metohija and Sandzak (50.4%). In Bosnia-Herzegovina, they constituted a majority of the total population (43%) and were in the majority in 28 districts, out of 53. The Serbs lived in compact groups in Croatia and Slavonia (21%) and Dalmatia (17%). They constituted a numerical majority in 20 districts. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were forced to leave Kosovo and Metohija. In the period 1971-1981, the number of Serbs who immigrated from Kosovo and Metohija was 13 times higher than the number of those who settled there; as regards Montenegrins, 9 times as many of them immigrated from Kosovo and Metohija than settled there. At the end of the century, it is evident that the territories on which the Serbs lived have been ethnically emptied. By a policy of repression, their presence in Croatia has been reduced to the percentage that is not statistically significant. They constitute 30% of the population in Bosnia-Herzegovina today.

A new crime against the Serbs is being committed now!

Belgrade is being destroyed for the 42nd time in its history!