The Croatian War of National Independence (1991-1995)

[Marulus]

Croatia's path towards national liberation started in 1990, when a nationalist party Hrvatska demokratska zajednica (Croatian Democratic Community), which at that time strongly favoured independence, won the overwhelming majority of votes in elections held in Croatia. Other political parties, as well as the great majority of the Croatian nation wanted to break free from the artificial multicultural country called Yugoslavia and to form an independent state. However, the structures of power of the Yugoslav Federation, dominated by Serbia, were fiercely opposed to any peaceful break-up for Yugoslavia, nay, they even envisioned a reform of Yugoslavia, whereby it should end up being even more centralized country, with all power residing and emanating from Belgrade. Especially the Yugoslav Army became the main exponent of such political tendencies. That army started to be increasingly felt as an occupation force by the majority of Croatian people throughout 1990. The political representatives of the Serb minority in Croatia also supported such political line, favouring the preservation of Yugoslavia and threatening with separation of the "Serbian" lands from Croatia, in case it declares independence. Their premises were clearly wrong because all the territories referred to as "Serbian lands within Croatia", were in fact ethnically mixed areas. None of these territories ever in history belonged to Serbia.

THE PATRIOTIC WAR

January 1991. The JNA threatened from all barracks in Croatia. In the presence of President Tudman and the Croatian delegation the Presidency of former Yugoslavia decided to demobilise the reserve of the Croatian police and to withdraw the readiness of the Yugoslav Army. The Yugoslav military counterintelligence agency KOS arrested a group of eminent citizens of Virovitice - Djuro Decak and others. They were released later after protests organised by the citizens of Zagreb in front of the Court Martial building. There was no negotiating on the future organisation of Yugoslavia. Serbia wanted a reformed federation, one in which leading bodies would be chosen on the principle of one man one vote, in other words Serbia under the name of Yugoslavia.



Serb renegades from the Knin region founded the autonomous Serb region of Krajina, which also included some boroughs in northern Dalmatia and Lika, as well as some in Kordun and Banija. In mid March it succeeded from Croatia, the Serbs took over Plitvice and ambushed Croatian police, who managed to ward them off on Easter. The first victim to fall in defending Croatia was Josip Jović. In eastern Slavonia members of the Serb Democratic Party and numerous militant politicians from Serbia, such as Vojislav Seselj, were active. Serbs in the Croatian Danube Region received arms from Serbia and their forces were strengthened by armed Chetnik terrorist groups. On 1st May two Croatian policemen were killed in Borovo Selo. Soon afterwards Serb terrorists killed twelve and wounded twenty policemen. In the Knin borough Serbs openly co-operated with the JNA and besieged Kijevo. Croatia, whose territorial defence forces were disarmed in May 1990, had only its police to defend it. The need to defend its independence lead to the founding of a regular Croatian army - The National Guard. The first parade was held at Zagreb stadium in 1991.



The referendum held on 19th May showed that 94 per cent of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia wanted Croatia to secede from Yugoslavia and gain its independence. On 25th June 1991 the Croatian Parliament proclaimed the Republic of Croatia an independent and sovereign state. By the end of June 1991 conflicts arose between the Slovenian territorial defence and the JNA, which escalated into a war. The Brijuni Treaty asked that armed conflicts cease and Croatia and Slovenia postpone their decision for independence and sovereignty for a further three months. However, the war in Croatia was in its first phase. The same day the Brijuni Treaty was signed the JNA besieged Baranja and fierce battle raged in Tenja near Osijek. Young people volunteered to defend Croatia. The war escalated in eastern and western Slavonia, in Banija and Kordun, in Dalmatia around Kijevo, Sinj, Sibenik, Zadar and Maslenica and in Lika. Chetniks slaughtered and killed Croatian civilians, plundered and shelled public buildings. The killing and persecution of Croats continued even after the signing of the cease-fire and the memorandum on observer missions to Croatia. Vukovar suffered the attacks of the JNA and Chetniks from 24th August.



The score by then, in the undeclared war against Croatia, was 2,200 Croats killed, 140,000 refugees, razed villages, shelled towns, destroyed cultural monuments, churches, hospitals, old people's homes, kindergartens. TV transmitters were also destroyed, cameramen and journalists of the Croatian Radio and Television were killed. The first such victim was Gordan Lederer.

The Banovina Dawns


The Croatian leaders decided to block all enemy barracks and airports. In five days 36 barracks and warehouses were taken over, 230 tanks and around 400 artillery pieces. On 25th September the U.N. Security Council issued an embargo on the import of military equipment to former Yugoslavia, which meant that Croatia could not purchase arms legally. Instead, it had to steal it from the enemy or buy it illegally, which it did aided by Croatian emigrants. Thousands of volunteers marched towards the frontlines. The defenders of Sibenik managed to ward of the JNA attack on the town.

"Oba su pala!", 21. rujna 1991.


Battles were waged for Karlovac, Vukovar and Vinkovci.The Chetniks took over Petrinja and the JNA Drnis. It then helped Montenegrin units to take over Konavle. At the beginning of October battles raged for Dubrovnik, Sisak and Zadar, as well as in southeastern Herzegovina.



Two days after President Tudman called for the defence of Croatia, on 7th November, JNA aircraft shelled Banski dvori. On 8th November the Croatian Sabor broke all ties to Yugoslavia and declared Croatia an independent state. The enemy intensified attacks on Dubrovnik, it attacked Slunj, Nova Gradiska, Pozega, Pakrac and shelled Split. Croatia was winning in the Brac canal and fought back JNA vessels south of Peljesac. On 18th November Vukovar fell, the town that had for months warded off Serb attack and destroyed its elite units. 2,000 defenders of Vukovar and civilians were killed, 800 went missing and 42,000 were forced into exile. The wounded were taken from Vukovar Hospital to Ovcara near Vukovar where they were executed. Croats in Nadin and in Skabrnja near Zadar, where more than 80 Croats were killed, also fell vicitim.



Zadar was shelled, the Maslenica Bridge, the only connection between south and north Croatia, was destroyed. The Croatian army was successful in Papuk and Psunj and it managed to liberate Lipik. In the action called Otkos 10 (beginning of November 1991.), 300 square kilometres of Slavonia were also liberated.

Pressured by the public the international community considered sending U.N. forces into the crisis regions. At that point there were already 500,000 refugees in the free regions of Croatia. Almost 15,000 square kilometres (26.5 % of Croatian territory) was occupied by the aggressor. The world was more and more partial to the idea of acknowledging Croatia internationally. During this period Pope John Paul II played a significant role by acknowledging "Beloved Croatia" as he called her. The Vatican officially acknowledged Croatia on 13th January 1992. By mid January the following states had acknowledged her: Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Iceland, Germany, San Marino and Austria. On 15th January Croatia was recognised by all EC member states and on 22nd May Croatia was admitted to the U.N. U.N. blue helmets arrived in Croatia on a one-year mandate and were deployed to all regions of Croatian territory occupied by the JNA and Serb renegades, to the so-called UNPA zones. The UNPROFOR fulfilled none of its tasks. Croats continued to be persecuted and forced into exile, their homes were plundered, bridges were razed, anti-personnel mines were strewn all over. Croatian refugees were joined by those from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, where war broke out in April 1992.

On May JNA left its last foothold - the islands of Lastovo and Vis.

During October the Croatian army under the command of General Bobetko liberated the Dubrovnik coastline and Konavle. Miljevci, the area between the river Krka and Drnis, was also liberated. Pressure on Zadar weakened as Kriz hill above Bibinje was liberated. The blue helmets stood by peacefully watching Serb artillery destroying Osijek, Gospic, Sisak, Karlovac, Zadar and Sibenik. The refugee crisis was at its peak. Croatia was caring for a million refugees and exiles. A part of them were to be sheltered in other countries.




1993 brought the liberation of the Zadar hinterland from Zemunik to Maslenica and Zadar airport. Croatia faced sanctions for liberating it own territory . In the Summer of 1993 Belgrade included all occupied regions into its monetary, postal and TV systems. Serbian and cyrillic were used in occupied regions of Croatia. The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions upon Serbia and completely isolated it from the international community. At the same time in October of the same year the Security Council, for the first time, confirmed that the UNPA zones were an integral part of the Republic of Croatia, however, it did not offer any integration mechanisms. Therefore, the Croatian army liberated an area southeast of Gospic called the Medak Pocket.
The Agreement on the Founding of the Bosniak-Croatian Federation in 1994 between the Croats and Moslems brought a short cease-fire to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Federation was supposed to work closely with the Republic of Croatia. At the same time, talks were held between Croatia and Serbia on the possible normalisation of relations. It was the year when Pope John Paul II visited Croatia and addressed the Croatian people in the Croatian language. His words brought encouragement and hope. The international community, on the other hand, proposed the opening of roads, railway and a gas line and then a political agreement. Dissatisfaction with moves made by the international community only fuelled the plan of the envoys of Contact Group states according to which Serbs in Croatia would receive a state within a state, so-called Plan Z4. Croatia withdrew its hospitality to the blue helmets and the Security Council promptly renamed its peace-keeping forces in Croatia UNCRO - United nations Confidence Restoration Operation. Its task was to monitor the cease-fire and Croatian borders towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.

In the meantime, Croatia had a reinforced military force and in the military operation Flash carried out on 1st and 2nd May 1995 Croatian soldiers and police liberated western Slavonia. Most of the local Serbs sought refuge in areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Serb control, from where they shelled Croatian towns in retaliation. Croatian and Bosnian Federation high officials met in Split and adopted the Declaration on the Joint Defence Against the Serb Aggressor. North of the Dinara mountain joint HVO and HV actions were organised under the name Summer '95. Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoc were taken. Knin was isolated from its hinterland. The Serbs retaliated by shelling Karlovac, Sisak and Gospic. At the negotiating table in Geneva they refused to accept peaceful reintegration. 4th August saw the key military and police action called Storm. In only 48 hours occupied regions of northern Dalmatia, south and east Lika, Kordun and Banija were liberated. 30,000 Serb soldiers and 80,000 Serb civilians fled from Croatia, although Croatian authorities employed them to stay even before the action started.



The Patriotic War concluded with action Storm. It was a war in which 11,000 Croats were killed, 37,000 wounded and 3,000 went missing. In Bosnia and Herzegovina 10,000 Croats were killed and more than 12,000 were wounded. The Croatian Danube Region, the remaining 4.6 per cent of occupied Croatian territory, was restored to Croatia not by military force but through peaceful reintegration. The UNTAES mission concluded on 15th January 1998. The Croatian Danube Region was de-militarised, a Croatian-Serb border police force was established and the kuna and Croatian legislature were introduced into the region. Croatia, thus, began its restoration process to rebuild direct material damage sustained during the war, which amounts to almost 30 billion dollars.

[source]

[Marulus]

The attacks of Serbo-Yugoslav Army on Dubrovnik (1991-1992). The siege lasted for several months. The city was cut off from water supply and elecrticity during the siege.

Siege of Dubrovnik (Croatian: Opsada Dubrovnika) is a term marking the battle and siege of the city of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area in Croatia as part of the Croatian War of Independence. The siege was marked by severe bombardment of civilian targets, drawing much international attention.

Dubrovnik is an old city located in the southernmost part of Dalmatia. It is a well-known tourist destination (a UNESCO World Heritage site), and was therefore demilitarized during the Communist Yugoslavia because it was considered that military presence does not go hand to hand with tourism. Because of this, when Croatia voted for independence in 1991, it was one of the few major cities in Croatia not to have major Yugoslav Army military forces in the area, which spared it during the September's Battle of the barracks (a Croatia-wide military operation in which Croatian forces - the nascent Croatian Army - stormed the barracks of the Serbo-Yugoslav Army in Croatia, took them and acquired weapons for struggle).

Croatian military forces in the area at September were virtually non-existent and were severely outgunned as the heaviest weapons available to them were two Soviet 76 millimeter artillery guns from 1942.

The defenders included just one locally conscripted unit - the 163rd Infantry Brigade, which - along with local police forces and volunteers - numbered less than 1,500 men and had no tanks or heavy guns. Towards the end of the year, the defenders were reinforced with the IX (9th) HOS Infantry Battalion of less than 300 men.

The siege had immediately raised attention, as western reporters took pictures of the shelling (especially the Old City of Dubrovnik - a UNESCO World Heritage Site) - which drew international criticism of the forces of the Serbo-Yugoslav Army. The siege was heavily present in the international media, which pushed the pivotal and much more brutal Battle of Vukovar into second plan.

International reactions did nothing to quell the brutal bombardment, however, and the shelling continued to the end of the year. Croatian Navy and coastal artillery had successfully repelled JNA Navy forces along Dalmatia, and the Yugoslav Navy withdrew to Montenegro naval base of Boka Kotorska, but the situation on the ground was still unfavorable. Towards the end of the year, Croatian defenders managed a small counterattack that was aimed at displacing the Yugoslav Army forces from the surrounding mountains, but this did not end the shelling entirely.

Noted poet Milan Milišić became the first casualty of the shelling on October 5. On 6 December 1991, the heaviest shelling was reported on what came to be known as the St. Nicholas day bombardment, during which 13 civilians were killed and 60 wounded.

The last ceasefire went into effect at the end of the year and the shelling ended by 1992.

It was besieged and attacked by the forces of the Serbo-Yugoslav Army in late 1991, with the major fighting ending in early 1992 and the Croatian counterattack finally lifting the siege and liberating the area in mid-1992.

The region south of Dubrovnik, know as Konavle, suffered especially heavy damages. The once thriving argicultural area turned into a heap of rubble, with houses, public buildings and churches razed to ground, everything looted. Only the city of Cavtat (the administrative center of Konavle) was spared of major destruction.

Beginning of attacks

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Attack on Dubrovnik: 1st day of attack

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Bombings of Dubrovnik by the Serbo-Yugoslav Army

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Resistance by the Croatian forces against the Serbo-Yugoslav aggressor (the film speaks of "Montenegrin units", by which units composed mostly of Montenegrins conscripted by the Yugoslav Army are to be understood)

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Bombings of Dubrovnik (some scenes from the above videao are reapeated, but there is an explanatory introduction)

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[Marulus]

Eastern Slavonia was another front. The Serb minority living there (all areas being mixed there too) was used as fifth column against Croatia and in the interest of waging war for the preservation of the Serb-centered state of Yugoslavia. The heaviest one was the battle of Vukovar. The attackers found a fierce resistance from the part of Croats living there and for that reason battle lasted almost three months. The Serb-Yugoslav Army suffered heavy losses as well: more than one thousand dead, by their own admission. Some of the most brutal massacres (1, 2, 3) were committed there (in the Eastern Slavonia in general), with many mass-graves still being dug out. Aside from Vukovar, another goal of the Yugoslav Army was to occupy Osijek and Vinkovci, another two major towns of Eastern Slavonia. They falied in it due to almost suprahuman efforts of the defenders of these two towns. especially brutal was the siege of Osijek, because of the indiscriminate shelling of civilian tragets, as the result of which about one thousand people were killed.

The occupied parts of Eastern Slavonia were reincorporated into Croatia through the process of the so-called "peaceful reintegration", supervised by the UN (1995-1997).

The most notoriously known and publicized (and for good reason) was the Battle for Vukovar.

The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of the Croatian city of Vukovar by a multitude of Serbian forces during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991.

During the three-month siege, the old city of Vukovar, located on the border of Croatia and Serbia on the Danube river, witnessed the most horrific devastation in its history, as well as numerous tales of human ingeniousness and endurance. The city was almost completely destroyed when it was finally occupied by the Serbian forces, and its Croat inhabitants exiled or killed.

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[Marulus]

The third front was Western Slavonia (a map of whole Slavonia, eastern and western). The war was less intensive in this area, no many massacres, unlike in Eastern Slavonia. The units of the Serb-Yugoslav Army crossed the river Sava in summer-spring 1991. They occupied many villages (the villages with Serb majority not yielding any resistance, but welcoming them as "liberators"), but stopped at gates of virtually all urban centers of the areas (Pakrac, Lipik, Slatina, Nova Gradiška, etc.), being unable to occupy them due to the fierce resistance of the Croatian forces. The occupied parts of the Western Slavonia were liberated in May 1995, by the Operation Flash, conducted by Croatian army and police units. One smaller part of the occupied territory was regained already in the end 1991/beginning of 1992, through the operation Orkan 91. The town of Pakrac and Lipik were especially savagely bombed, with many civilians killed. At the village called Bučje a small concentration camp was set-up where Croatian prisoners and abducted civilians were trotured and some killed (about 50?).

Serb-Yugoslav soldiers shooting at Pakrac, including its hospital and church, and bragging about it before cameras (subtitles in Serbian only, unfortunately, video was filmed by the Serbs). In the last sequence one soldier boasts that about 3000 grenades were launched and that every house must have gotten at least one (he shows his pride in this).

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[Marulus]

An article debunking the Serbian fabrication of the socalled Serbian Krajina:

KNIN NOT IN THE VOJNA KRAJINA

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Marulus

However, the structures of power of the Yugoslav Federation, dominated by Serbia, were fiercely opposed to any peaceful break-up for Yugoslavia, nay, they even envisioned a reform of Yugoslavia, whereby it should end up being even more centralized country, with all power residing and emanating from Belgrade.

Indeed, at that time more than 25% of the federal capital was under direct Belgrade control(the rest was to be spent on the other regions). That fact induced the internal economic conflict between the two existing factions: the unitarists(Belgrade centralist economic circle) and decentralists. The unitarists were in charge and (mis)used the stabilization program(which was supposed to stop the inflation and stabilize the prices) to inflict damage to the decentralist circles, but by doing so they triggered the hyperinflation(1198%) and crippled the entire economy. Aside from that, by increasing the monetary mass by 2500%, the Federal State of Serbia(hoping that Croatian and Slovenian economic growth will be sufficient to cover their robbery) caused the final downfall of the ex-common economy.
While the other socialist economies were in crisis during the 80-ies, the Yugoslavian one was literally falling apart.

Why would the Croats continue to live in such country, when there was a giant leech on their backs?

[Marulus]

The fourth front was Northern Dalmatia and Lika (roughly corresponding to what is marked as Šibenska, Zadarsko-kninska and Lička on this map). There too the Serbo-Yugoslav Army took the whole hinterland, in which there was Serb population in a certain percentage (but it was not a purely Serbian area). By means of destroying villages, expulsions and massacres (Škabrnja massacre being one of the most publicized ones) the area was ethnically cleansed. But here again the Yugoslav army did not manage to occupy cities, some of them, like Šibenik, yielded a fierce resitsance and repelled the aggressor. Nevertheless, here too there was indiscriminate shelling of cities as a result of which many people were killed in them (Zadar, Skradin, Biograd itd). However, most of the cities were not destroyed, but suffered only limited damage. The exception was the town of Gospić, whose occupation the Serb-Yugoslav forces saw as necessary i order to cut Croatia in two. Gospić was almost entirely destroyed by shelling, but - unlike Vukovar - did not fall to the enemy.

The whole area was liberated as result of the Operation Storm.

[Marulus]

The fifth front was the area of Kordun and Banovina. That territory was part of medieval Croatian-Slavonian kingdom, but during the Turkish wars it became deserted. To the deserted areas settled Serbs and Vlachs, who in that area were - along with Croats living there - soldiers of the Austrian Military Frontier. In this area the war was as savage as elsewhere, with the difference that all smaller urban centers were occupied as well. The Serb-Yugoslav Army penetrated as deeply into North as Karlovac and Sisak, but those (larger) cities managed to defend themselves.

This area too was liberated during the Operation Storm.

From TV Belgrade: the reporter speaks about the "brave" acts of Serb-Yugoslav soldiers in that area (subtitles in Serbian only, but pictures as well say much)

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Serbian soldiers deliberately shooting a church

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[Marulus]

Books:

Marcus Tanner: Croatia, a Nation forged in War

Mass killing and genocide in Croatia 1991/92: A book of evidence (Croatia in the war. Civilian casualties in the war against Croatia 1991/92) - a book which deals extensively with war crimes, mass-killings and destruction committed by the Serbo-Yugoslav Army in Croatia in war 1991/1992; it will maybe be availabe on line soon; published in 1992, by the Croatian Ministry of Health

External views and/or influences on the war in Croatia:

Israeli media and the war against Croatia (1, 2, 3, 4) - deals with the extremely pro-Serbian bias of the Israeli media and the political establishment during the war in Croatia

Army against the country - on the US involvment in the break-up of Yugoslavia, outlines connexions between some major figures in the administration of George Bush senior and some circles in Belgrade, connexions which might have played some role in the US policy of the preservation of Yugosavia at any cost and in their approval of the Serbian aggression started with that aim (ie. to preserve Yugoslavia)

Carole Hodge: Britain and the Balkans, a book written by an English professional historian, showing the bias of the official British policy in favour of the Milošević's regime in Serbia in the nineties

[Marulus]

Destroyed churches (either by deliberately shelling or with explosives):

Systematic destruction of Catholic churches, abbeys and monasteries in Croatia

(the thread once made by a member of Stripes who was banned - and with good reason - but these pictures are not his invention, but are taken from the webpage of the Croatian Conference of Bishops: HBK WWW Page)