Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Bosanska Krajina |
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Српска аутономна област Босанска Крајина Srpska autonomna oblast Bosanska Krajina |
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Self-proclaimed entity | ||||||||||
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Capital | Banja Luka | |||||||||
Government | Provisional government | |||||||||
Historical era | Breakup of Yugoslavia | |||||||||
• | Established | 1991 | ||||||||
• | Disestablished | 1992 | ||||||||
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The SAO of Bosanska Krajina (Serbian: Српска aутономна oбласт Босанска Крајина, Srpska autonomna oblast Bosanska Krajina) was a self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous Oblast within today's Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was sometimes called the Autonomous Oblast of Krajina (Serbian: Аутономна oбласт Крајина, Automna oblast Krajina), or the Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK). SAO Bosanska Krajina was located in the geographical region named Bosanska Krajina. Its capital was Banja Luka. The region was subsequently included into Republika Srpska.
The SAO Bosanska Krajina developed in summer and autumn of 1991 in preparation for a step to independence being taken by Bosnia like Slovenia and Croatia had done. The goal was to have areas where Serbs had a majority or a significant portion of population prevent such independence. The Serbs for this created three Serbian autonomous districts and one Serbian autonomous region (SAO Bosanska Krajina being the region).
The SAO Bosanska Krajina was created from the Community (Association) of Bosanska Krajina Municipalities, with the exception that it did not include the region known as Cazinska Krajina or Prijedor municipality at first. Other similar situations were done in other Associations of Municipalities (or Community of Municipalities) in Bosnia, which were a type of government created under the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.