Siege of Dubrovnik
The Siege of Dubrovnik ( Croatian Opsada Dubrovnika ) describes the siege or the battle for the city of Dubrovnik and its surroundings in the initial phase of the Croatian War . The attacks were started in June 1991 by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and ended nine months later in 1992 after a counter-offensive. Numerous civilian targets were bombed during the siege .
Population structure before the attack
According to the 1991 census, a total of 71,419 people lived in the former municipality of Dubrovnik, including 49,728 in the city, before the attack. 82.4 percent of the residents were Croatians , 6.8 percent Serbs , 4 percent Bosniaks and members of 20 other ethnic groups.
prehistory
Dubrovnik is a city in the extreme south of Croatia . The old town is one of the most important tourist attractions in the country and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 . At the time of Yugoslavia there were no bases of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in the city or in its immediate vicinity . For this reason, when the people of Croatia voted in the referendum for national independence in 1991, there were no JNA troops in the city. The defense of the city was problematic due to the geographical location, due to the proximity of the state borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro , when both states were still part of Yugoslavia, which means that Dubrovnik was in an isolated position. The southernmost part of Croatia was separated from the rest of Croatia by the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina by a corridor near Neum . In addition, the area north of the city is mountainous and difficult to access for military operations and difficult to maintain. This meant that the Yugoslav People's Army could attack from the neighboring republics and the Croatian defenders could only be supplied by sea .
course
Before the attack on the city began, there were also around 15,000 displaced Croats from the Konavle region south of Dubrovnik .
7,500 to 20,000 Yugoslav soldiers , most of them of Serbian and Montenegrin origin, were involved in the offensive against Dubrovnik and the occupation of the Konavle area south of the city . The chief commanders were the members of the Yugoslav General Staff under the command of Veljko Kadijević , Blagoje Adžić and Slobodan Milošević .
During the air, artillery and mortar attacks , the Sponza Palace, in which the historical archive of Dubrovnik is located, the Dominican and Franciscan monasteries , one of the oldest European synagogues , a mosque , a Serbian Orthodox church , the Catholic bishopric, the catholic town church of Sv. Vlaho, the city wall and many other historical buildings damaged. Also phosphorus grenades were allegedly used by the Yugoslav armed forces.
On October 1, 1991, the city's telephone, electricity and water supplies were cut. Yugoslav warships prevented any access to the city from the seaside . The strongest fighting took place on December 6, 1991. That day, Yugoslav troops fired around 600 grenades into the old town. The attackers tried to achieve a mass exodus of the Croats from the city, but they did not succeed.
The repeated attempt of the JNA, supported by irregulars, to occupy the hill above the old town of the former cable car station in order to completely close the siege ring around the city to the north and west, failed.
During the autumn months, the city was supplied with relief supplies three times by ferry boats operated by the Croatian Jadrolinija . In October the Libertas convoy of civilian ships under the leadership of the ferry Slavija reached Dubrovnik, in November the Ilirija delivered relief supplies and in December the Liburnija led the Libertas 2 convoy.
The city was besieged until 1992, when the Croatian armed forces lifted the siege of the city by breaking the siege ring and a counter-offensive, pushing the Yugoslav troops back behind the recognized border lines and thus getting them out of reach of Dubrovnik.
Consequences of war
Several thousand grenades struck the city and, according to the Croatian Red Cross , a total of 114 civilians and 200 soldiers were killed. Since Dubrovnik itself and the wider area around the city have been completely demilitarized since 1971 and there are no military installations, depots, barracks , radar systems or the like, the attack on Dubrovnik and the surrounding area is assessed as a war crime and a violation of the Geneva Conventions , as purely civilian objects and targets were attacked.
The shelling of the UNESCO - World Heritage Site by the JNA took no significant international consequences. 33,000 Croatian residents of the places south of Dubrovnik, which the Yugoslav army conquered at that time, were expelled and their villages plundered. Dubrovnik Airport , located near Cavtat , was also looted and devastated. A total of 11,425 buildings were destroyed or damaged. The material damage to property amounted to 245 million euros.
See also
Web links
- Attack video
- Annex XI Destruction of cultural property report, English
- The battle of Dubrovnik, Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, English
Individual evidence
- ↑ Julija Barunčić Pletikosić, Željka Križe Gračanin: Croatian Print Media Coverage of Humanitarian Activities Organized in 1991 in the Dubrovnik Region , in: Renaud de la Brosse, Mato Brautović (ed.): Reporting the Attacks on Dubrovnik in 1991, and the Recognition of Croatia , Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, pp. 185–199 (in English) ISBN 978-1-4438-7279-9