The Battle of Srem: Sixty
Years On
By Sasha Uzunov
(Melbourne & Skopje)
January, 2005
The Ilinden Uprising of 1903 was an unsuccessful
attempt to free Macedonia of five hundred years of Turkish Ottoman
occupation. Despite being a failure, many historians regard the
rebellion as laying the foundations of a future independent Macedonian
nation-state. Another event with significant importance, though
not given as much attention as Ilinden, is the controversial
Battle of Srem.
January 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the controversial
battle of Srem in north-east Serbia. Thousands of Macedonian
Partizans were sacrificed against retreating Germans at the Srem
Front during the last days of World War Two. Some have argued
that Srem represents Macedonia's betrayal by Yugoslav Communist
ruler, Josip Broz Tito, and the sabotage of the movement for
an independent and unified Macedonia.
In 1913, a decade after Ilinden, the Ottoman Turks were eventually
kicked out of Macedonia, but unfortunately for the Macedonians,
their nation was divided amongst Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece.
At the end of World War I, Albania received a slice-albeit a
small piece of Macedonia.
In between the two World Wars, Macedonians in all four parts
were denied the right to their own ethnic identity. So it came
as no surprise that a movement for the reunification and independence
of Macedonia sprung up during World War Two. Macedonians living
under Serbo-Yugoslav occupation formed a Partizan movement, under
the guidance of a united front consisting of communists and nationalists.
Ironically, on 2 August 1944, the People's Republic of Macedonia,
the part known as Vardar Macedonia that had been under Serbian
domination since 1913, was proclaimed at the ASNOM Conference
(Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Macedonia),
held at the Prohor Pcinski monastery. ASNOM delegates elected
Metodija Andonov-Cento, a non-communist Partizan from Prilep,
as Macedonia's first president. Cento's goal was to create a
reunified Macedonia, either fully independent or as a republic
within the new communist federal Yugoslavia.
He wanted to use the Macedonian Partizans for the liberation
of Aegean and Pirin Macedonia, the areas under Greek and Bulgarian
occupation respectively. But Tito, Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo,
Montenegrin-Serb communist and Tito's envoy to Macedonia, and
Lazar Kolisevski, the pro-Tito boss of the Macedonian Communist
Party, were opposed to Cento's plan. They wanted the Partizan
units for the Srem campaign, which began in October 1944.
Cento and Tempo argued bitterly over the issue. Cento told Tempo: "the
units must liberate Macedonia, and if they're sent to Serbia,
what will the Macedonian people say?" Tempo responded: "there's
no battle of survival here in Vardar Macedonia!" Cento added: "if
there is no battle of survival here, there surely is one in Aegean
and Pirin."
Cento, together with Kuzman Josifoski-Pitu, Macedonian Communist
hero, and General Mihajlo Apostolski, led the Partizan units
into Aegean Macedonia on December 5, 1943. There, Cento's army
engaged the Germans in heavy fighting. A few weeks later Cento
arrived in Salonika. Then his army reached eastern Macedonia
and fought the pro-Axis Bulgarian forces. The objective of the
mission was to lay the foundation for a national uprising in
all occupied parts of Macedonia. Three months later, Cento and
the Partizan force returned for the ASNOM conference.
Vera Aceva, female Partizan leader, described Cento's long march
as an outstanding example of heroism. "Cento is very popular
with the people." But in 1946, under the direction of Tito
and Kolisevski, Cento was sentenced to 11 years hard labour for
crimes against the people. Two of the judges in the show trial
were Kola Casule, who now promotes himself as a writer/ philosopher,
and Lazar Mojsov, later to become Yugoslav Foreign minister and
now living in retirement in Belgrade, Serbia.
In 1990 A Macedonian court overturned Cento's conviction and
he was fully rehabilitated. No criminal proceedings were ever
launched against Kolisevski, who died in peaceful retirement
in 2000, or Casule and Mojsov. In 1993 ex-political prisoners
lobbied the Public Prosecutors office to launch an investigation
into a number of Macedonia's Communist ruling elite. But intense
pressure from then ruling Social Democrats stopped the investigation.
Staff from the Prosecutors office was instructed not to open
up a can of historical worms.
Stevce Pavlovski, then Macedonia's Public Prosecutor, said in
interview in March 1993, that he would have to put "fifty
per cent of Macedonia's old Communist in jail for treason. For
that reason, no such investigation would take place." When
the self-styled nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE came to power in
1998 it also kept quiet about the issue, especially when the
son of Kole Casule, Slobodan, became Foreign minister.
By September 1944, the Germans had retreated from Greece, Aegean,
Vardar and Pirin Macedonia; and by October the British had entered
Athens. The Germans were bottled-up in northeastern Yugoslavia,
which is the Srem region in Serbia. Srem was seen as the last
stand in the Balkans.
Winston Churchill, British wartime Prime Minister, wanted to
preserved British influence in Greece, including Aegean Macedonia.
On 12 August, 1944, he warned Tito not to annex Aegean Macedonia,
but conceded in a telegram to his Foreign Secretary, Anthony
Eden, that "it will be difficult to stop."
A Macedonian Partizan brigade was dispatched to Aegean but,
according to Dusan Biber, Slovenian historian and former partisan,
on "12 December, 1944, Marshal Tito gave strict orders to
the Macedonian Headquarters not to permit the return of the Macedonian
brigade to Greece, which would have caused an international scandal." This
indicates Tito obeyed Churchill's directive.
Macedonia had its own Partizan army (NOVM) but it was forcibly
merged with Tito's National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOVJ)
in October 1944. Those who refused to serve with NOVJ were executed
or imprisoned. Therefore, a distinction must be made between "Yugoslav" and
Macedonian Partizans, as they were independent of each other
until Tito's takeover of the latter.
NOVJ was a 500,000 strong Partizan army, which consisted of
18 army corps (korpus) or 50 divisions. One hundred thousand
were Serbs; the other 400,000 non-Serbs. NOVJ was made up of
the following formations: the Macedonian 15th and 16th Army Corps,
and the Bregalnica-Strumicko Corps; Montenegrin and Hercegovian
2nd Corps; Bosnian 3rd and 5th Corps; Croatian 4th, 6th, 8th,
10th and 11th Corps; and the Slovenian 7th and 9th Corps. The
Serbs formed the First Army Group within NOVJ (1st and 12th Proletarian
Corps, 13th and 14th Corps)
The 400,000 non-Serbian Partizans are broken down into the following
categories:
Macedonians - 3 Corps: |
88,500 |
Montenegrin - 1 Corps: |
29,500 |
Bosnians - 2 Corps: |
59,000 |
Croats - 5 Corps: |
147,500 |
Slovenians - 2 Corps: |
59,000 |
Other - (Hungarians,
Albanians, Italians
etc): |
16,500 |
These statistics are based on the book Sremski Front 1944-45,
by Milovan Dzelebdzic, Ljubivoje Pajovic and Dusan Uzelac, Beogradski
Izdavacko Zavod, Belgrade, Serbia, 1979.
The figure of 88,500 indicates that the Macedonians were a major
part of NOVJ. NOVJ fought the Axis occupiers, Germany, Italy,
and Bulgaria, and their collaborators, Serbian Chetniks, Croatian
Ustashe, Slovenian Domobrans, and Albanian Ballists.
The Srem campaign got underway in October 1944, and in January
1945 the Macedonian 15th Army Corps entered the fray. This means
29,500 Macedonians were sent to Srem. However, critics of Tito
maintain the figure was higher and should include those diverted
to Bosnia and Croatia to mop up Axis resistance, and those executed
for refusing to serve at Srem. Only an impartial commission of
inquiry can discover the true figure. No Macedonian governments-since
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991-have responded to calls
for such an inquiry.
Mitre, 82, is a Macedonian Srem veteran now living in Melbourne.
He said he was told that he would be marching to liberate Solun
(Salonika). "Instead, we were tricked, and sent to Srem
to fight the retreating Germans. We were used as cannon fodder."
Tase, 76, said he was in Skopje in 1944 working as a tailor's
apprentice but was too young to go into the army. "I remember
thousands of men singing and dancing like it was a wedding feast
(svadba). They were euphoric about going to Solun. But the commanding
officers that were mainly Serbs and pro-Yugoslav communist Macedonians
rounded them up and sent them against their will to Srem. They
were herded like cattle into train carriages."
Jonce, another Srem veteran, begins to shake and tears roll
down his face as he recalls his wartime experiences. "I
was very lucky. A relative of mine, who knew the truth, told
me to keep my mouth shut about going to Solun. Some of my friends,
who put their hands up to go there, were taken away and shot.
I still have nightmares about it."
Milovan Djilas, Montenegrin Marxist and partisan officer, wrote
in his memoirs, Wartime, that Aleksandar Rankovic-Leka, with
Tito's approval, ran the Srem campaign. Rankovic, a Serb, was
expelled from the Yugoslav Communist Party (SKJ) in 1966 for
abusing his position as director of UDBa, the secret police.
He also opposed the creation of an independent Macedonian Orthodox
Church, and orchestrated a ruthless crackdown on ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo in the early 1960s.
According to Djilas, "Srem was the greatest and bloodiest
battle our army (NOVJ) ever fought.Yet it was that battle, that
breakthrough, which has been most criticised even from participants:
essentially, that all the fighting was superfluous because the
Germans were collapsing, and the new (communist) government was
already established in Belgrade." Djilas, who later fell
out of favour with Tito, was in favour of the Battle of Srem
because it "aided the Yugoslav revolution" but the
opportunity for Macedonian reunification was lost-probably for
ever.
Many are quick to point out that Tito was bound by the 'Big
Three Agreement' at Yalta not to encroach upon the British sphere
of influence in Aegean Macedonia. However, during the Greek Civil
War (1946-49), Tito supported the Aegean Macedonian Partizans
(SNOF) against the British and US-backed Greek Monarchists. Therefore,
Tito broke the Yalta agreement. Josif Stalin, Soviet dictator,
also opposed Tito's intervention.
Some historians have argued that Tito thwarted Macedonian reunification
in 1944, because a strong Macedonia would have seceded from the
Yugoslav federation; but advocated Macedonian reunification during
the Greek Civil War in order to provoke a split with Stalin.
The Yugoslav Communist leader used the Macedonian question as
a pawn in his diplomatic game. Djilas points out that Tito used
a similar trick with the Slovenians over the city of Trieste,
which was in Italian hands. Tito threatened to annex Trieste
for Slovenia, but was bluffing in order to squeeze concessions
from the British and Americans after the Second World War.
In 1949 Yugoslavia broke away from Moscow's orbit, and Britain
and the US came to Tito's assistance. He, in return for western
support, pulled out of the Greek Civil War and closed the border
with Greece. There were instances of Macedonian border guards
being forced to shoot ethnic Macedonia refugees and partisans
from Aegean. Those who were not shot drowned themselves in Lake
Prespa to avoid capture and certain death at the hands of the
Greek Monarchist forces. But before the frontier was sealed,
over 20,000 Aegean Macedonian children (deca begalci) managed
to flee into the Vardar Macedonia and Eastern Europe. Some eventually
found their way to Canada, and Australia.
Sasha Uzunov is a freelance photo-journalist and ex-Australian
soldier who did 2 tours of peacekeeping duty in East Timor.
