The Z-4 Plan or Draft agreement on the Krajina, Slavonia, Southern Baranja and Western Sirmium stands for the Zagreb 4 peace proposal to end the Croatian War of Independence. The proposal was made by the Zagreb 4 group (also known as the Mini-Contact Group) and would have reintegrated the Republic of Serbian Krajina into Croatia. The Zagreb 4 group consisted of the United States (through former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance), Russia, and the European Union (though France and Germany). Their plan was never implemented due to the onset of Operation Storm, a military operation in which Croatia defeated the Krajina Serbs and captured its territory.
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The plan was meant to allow for the reintegration of the Republic of Serbian Krajina into Croatia by offering wide-ranging autonomy through most of Serbian Krajina. In addition, the plan called for the return of all Croatian refugees. However, the plan would have required UNPROFOR to extend its mandate in order to implement the agreement, and the Croatian constitution would have to have been amended to accommodate the requirements of autonomy.
Some aspects of the proposed autonomy included the following:
The plan was given to Croatian and Krajina authorities by the EU in January, 1995. Croatia accepted the plan as a basis for future negotiations, but found many parts of it unacceptable. Some in the Croatian opposition supported the Z-4 Plan. However, MPs from the right-wing parties called for the automatic rejections of the agreement.
Croatia is organized as a unitary state, and many viewed acceptance of the plan as a step to the federalization and confederalization of the state, both of which were unacceptable. The plan was also opposed because it would have required amending the constitution in significant ways. Croatia had also stated that it would not extend UNPROFOR’s mandate in Croatia past March 31. Croatia did accept the parts of the plan that concerned the establishment of Croatian sovereignty on its entire territory, return of the refugees, and local self-administration for the Serbian ethnic communities. However, Croatia rejected the aspects that exceeded the limits of constitutional provisions and international conventions on the rights of ethnic communities or minorities.
The Krajina authorities refused to even consider the plan because it required reintegration with Croatia. Their official response, however, was that there would be a freeze on talks with Croatia until Croatia changed its attitude towards Krajina.
The authorities in Belgrade accepted the plan but only on the conditions that sanctions against Yugoslavia were to be lifted; however, despite this, Krajina authorities still refused to accept the plan. In Yugoslavia, only the Serbian Renewal Movement called for outright acceptance of the plan. Slobodan Milošević eventually stated that he agreed with the plan, but that it was up to the Krajina Serbs to accept or reject it. One reason Milošević said this was because Yugoslavia was planning at the time to diplomatically recognize Croatia, but this was unlikely to occur unless an agreement was reached between the Serbs in Krajina and the Croatian government. Milošević had some concerns about the plan because he believed that if Croatia accepted the plan in its initially unacceptable form, Yugoslavia may have been forced to accord the same status to Vojvodina, Kosovo and Sandžak.
In Belgrade, Vojislav Šešelj (founder of the nationalist far-right Serbian Radical Party) said that the self-proclaimed Serbian states in Croatia and Bosnia (the Republika Srpska) should declare a union between their two states. Other people called for Yugoslavia to recognize Krajina as being a state, just as Turkey did to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Albania had done with the Republic of Kosova from 1990-1999.
On August 2, negotiations took place in Geneva for Krajina to enter a political settlement with Zagreb. The basis for negotiations in Geneva was a modified version of the Z-4 plan which would treat the eastern and western part of Krajina equally. On August 2, Krajina Prime Minister Milan Babic publicly declared his acceptance the Z-4 Plan through negotiations with U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith. Croatia refused to acknowledge the plan's acceptance by Krajina authorities, since Krajina president Mile Martić refused even to receive plan.