Suchergebnisse

At the end of 1944 NDH was in a very difficult military and political position. Not only were strong Tito's Partisan forces operating on its territory, but at the same time Soviets and Partisans occupied Serbia and advanced to the eastern border of NDH. This was the reason for the NDH authorities to reorganise their existing armed forces, and also to organise a nation-wide mobilisation. This organization, which was under control of the civilian authorities, was intended to be filled with men not serving in the armed forces and women. Its main purpose was to help war efforts with various labor activities (agricultural works, construction of fortifications). There were also plans to create armed units of people's defence, but NDH was short of infantry weapons even for its armed forces, so these plans were never materialized. Because of the difficult military situation, people's defence units were never organized in most parts of the NDH. At the same time NDH armed forces organized the People's Uprising Corps under the command of general Metzger. This unit, which was much more effective than the people's defence, was active in Slavonia, Srijem and northern Bosnia and filled with around 40 000 civilians living in that area. Its main duties were agricultural works on farms abandoned by their owners (Volksdeutsche) who were evacuated to the Third Reich, repairment of roads, construction of field fortifications, guard duties, etc. (SOI : CSP: S. 49)

In many countries the violations of human rights and the deterioration of democracy are a direct consequence of the inability of the civilian government to control their military and security forces. The military are a part of society and as such should be constantly monitored by the civilian, political authorities. This control must be regular and efficient and not defective or faulty. The civilian control of the military in the USA was enacted by the Constitution of 1789. The initiative "Partnership for Peace" has the central role in the transformation of the armed forces in the transitional countries, and the civilian control of the army is the prerequisite for bolstering and giving a boost to democracy. The analysis of the political and defence system of the Republic of Croatia definitely indicates that in Croatia, even at this stage, there is an efficient control of its armed forces (SOI : PM: S. 127)

The author deals with the history of Croatian Home Guardsmen in the World War Two. The organization and the development of the Home Guard, or Croatian, armed forces is presented, with reference to the political, military and economic conditions. The author emphasizes the need for further studying the history of Croatian Home Guard in the Independent State of Croatia. Along these lines the author presents his views of the problem. (SOI : CSP: S. 583)

A number of military units were active on the territory of the Independent Stat of Croatia (ISC). Since the end of 1941 there were, in the operational sense, one side the armed forces of ISC, Germans, Italians and chetniks, and on the other side partisans. Numerical ratio changed depending on the events in the field and the international situation. The armed forces of the ISC were repeatedly trained and getting more numerous. Until the middle of 1944 their number exceeded the chetniks and partisans together, which jeopardized ISC. The force of ISC were dependent on Germans, and until 1943 on Italians too. German and Italian units were getting stronger, but they were not supported by the local population. Italian units supported the chetniks, thus provoking strong resistance of the population, who in the so-called Italian zones joined the partisans. Chetniks were also supported by Germans, chetniks from Serbia and Montenegro, and the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Near the end of the war, chetniks went over to the partisans in great number because of loss o support by the Germans and Italians. Partisans, making use of the enemy's mistakes, got stronger and stronger. The partisan predominance was realized only when the countries of the antifascist coalition decided to support Josip Tito, the communist-partisan leader. Since the autumn of 1944 partisans got abundant military and political support which helped them win the war. (SOI : CSP: S. 196)

In addition to national and international armies - armed forces of states and alliances, paramilitary armed formations (the so-called paramilitary) play aprominent role in contemporary international and non-international armed conflicts. They are made up of so-called voluntary fighters (patriots, contracts), i.e. mercenaries or "looters" (so-called war dogs) within armed formations that are not officially part of, and most often not under the command, of regular armed forces. As a rule, they are formed, armed, equipped, trained, paid and controlled by certain political centers of power - foreign governments and intelligence, hostile political emigration, political parties, criminal and other extremist (pseudo-patriotic, nationalist and para-religious) organizations (the so-called warlords) for whose account the paramilitary formations occupied part of the territory of the sovereign state in which the armed conflict took place and established power on it. They are often associated with numerous war crimes, terrorist attacks and robberies. Since the terms 'warlords', 'paramilitary', 'mercenaries', and 'war dog' are oftenincorrectly usedin everyday communication of media, public and even scholars, this paper attempts to conceptualize and make a clear distinction between these phenomena. ; Осим националних и међународних војски – оружаних снага држава и савеза држава, у савременим међународним и немеђународним оружаним сукобима све значајнију улогу узимају паравојне оружане формације (тзв. паравојске). Њих чине тзв. добровољни борци (патриоте, уговорци), односно плаћеници или "пљачкаши" (тзв. пси рата) који су део наоружаних формација које званично нису у саставу, а најчешће ни под командом регуларних оружаних снага. Паравојске по правилу формирају, наоружавају, опремају, обучавају, плаћају и контролишу извесни политички центри моћи – иностране владе и обавештајне службе, непријатељска политичка емиграција, политичке партије, криминалне и друге екстремистичке (псеудопатриотске, националистичке и параверске) организације (тзв. господари рата) за чији рачун су паравојне формације и заузеле део територије суверене државе у којој се одвија оружани конфликт и на њој "успоставиле власт". За њих се неретко везују бројни ратни злочини, терористички напади и пљачке. Како се у животу, а неретко и у теорији безбедности не разликују и погрешно употребљавају термини "господари рата", "паравојске", плаћеници и "пси рата", у раду је учињен покушај појмовног одређења и дистанцирања ових појава.