The Chetniks were partners in the pattern of terrorism and counter-terror that developed in Yugoslavia during World War II . They used terror tactics against Croats in areas where Serbs and Croats were intermixed , against the Muslim population in Bosnia , Herzegovina and Sandžak , and against the Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and their supporters in all areas . These tactics included the killing of civilians , burning of villages , assassinations and destruction of property and exacerbated existing ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs . The use of terror tactics against the Croats and the Muslim Bosniaks was a response to attacks on Serbs but was also motivated by traditional animosity and the policy that areas intended to be part of Greater Serbia were to be cleansed of non-Serbs in accordance with Mihailović 's directive of 20 December 1941 . The terror against the communist Partisans and their supporters was ideologically driven . In terms of Chetnik motives for collaboration , David Bruce MacDonald stated that it is " highly misleading to suggest that Chetniks throughout the war collaborated with the Germans and Italians to carry out genocide of Croats and Muslims . " The Ba Congress held in January 1944 marked a change in the main war objective of Chetniks , instead their initial aim to restore pre-war Yugoslavia as unitary monarchy they accepted Yugoslavia as federal state structure with dominant Serb federal unit
attacks on Serbs
Persecution of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia
Chetniks