Siege of Dubrovnik
The Siege of Dubrovnik
(Serbo-Croatian: Opsada Dubrovnika, Опсада Дубровника) was a military
engagement fought between the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Croatian forces
defending the city of Dubrovnik and its surroundings during the Croatian War of
Independence. The JNA started its advance on 1 October 1991, and by late
October, it had captured virtually all the land between the Pelješac and
Prevlaka peninsulas on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, with the exception of
Dubrovnik itself. The siege was accompanied by a Yugoslav Navy blockade. The
JNA's bombardment of Dubrovnik, including that of the Old Town—a UNESCO World
Heritage Site—culminated on 6 December 1991. The bombardment provoked
international condemnation, and became a public relations disaster for Serbia
and Montenegro, contributing to their diplomatic and economic isolation, as
well as the international recognition of Croatia's independence. In May 1992, the
JNA retreated to Bosnia and Herzegovina, less than 1 kilometre (0.62 miles)
from the coast in some places, and handed over its equipment to the newly
formed Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). During this time, the Croatian Army (HV)
attacked from the west and pushed back the JNA/VRS from the areas east of
Dubrovnik, both in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by the end of May
linked up with the HV unit defending the city. Fighting between the HV and
Yugoslav troops east of Dubrovnik gradually died down.
The siege resulted in the deaths
of 194 Croatian military personnel, as well as 82–88 Croatian civilians. The
JNA suffered 165 fatalities. The entire region was recaptured by the HV in
Operation Tiger and the Battle of Konavle by the end of 1992. The offensive
resulted in the displacement of 15,000 people, mainly from Konavle, who fled to
Dubrovnik. Approximately 16,000 refugees were evacuated from Dubrovnik by sea,
and the city was resupplied by blockade-evading runabouts and a convoy of
civilian vessels. More than 11,000 buildings were damaged and numerous homes,
businesses, and public buildings were looted or torched.
The operation was part of a plan
drawn up by the JNA aimed at securing the Dubrovnik area and then proceeding
north-west to link up with the JNA troops in northern Dalmatia via western
Herzegovina. The offensive was accompanied by a significant amount of war
propaganda. In 2000, Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović apologized for the
siege, eliciting an angry response from his political opponents and from
Serbia. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
convicted two Yugoslav officers for their involvement in the siege and handed a
third over to Serbia for prosecution. The ICTY indictment stated that the offensive
was designed to detach the Dubrovnik region from Croatia and integrate it into
a Serb-dominated state through an unsuccessful proclamation of the Dubrovnik
Republic on 24 November 1991. In addition, Montenegro convicted four former JNA
soldiers of prisoner abuse at the Morinj camp. Croatia also charged several
former JNA or Yugoslav Navy officers and a former Bosnian Serb leader with war
crimes, but no trials have yet resulted from these indictments.
Aftermath:
Regardless of
its military outcome, the siege of Dubrovnik is primarily remembered for the
large-scale looting by JNA troops and the artillery bombardment of Dubrovnik,
especially its Old Town. The reaction of the international media and media
coverage of the siege reinforced an opinion, already taking shape since the
fall of Vukovar, that the conduct of the JNA and the Serbs was barbaric and intent
on dominating Croatia, regardless of the destruction of priceless cultural
heritage that occurred in the process. Serbian authorities thought the international
community had no moral grounds to judge because they did not interfere when
hundreds of thousands of Serbs were killed in Croatian concentration camps
during World War II. Besides the protests made by Mayor Zaragoza, Vance and the
ECMM, 104 Nobel Prize laureates published a full-page advertisement in The New
York Times on 14 January 1992 at the incentive of Linus Pauling, urging
governments throughout the world to stop the unrestrained destruction by the
JNA. During the siege, UNESCO placed Dubrovnik on its list of World Heritage in
Danger. Because the siege shaped
international opinion of the Croatian War of Independence, it became a major
contributor to a shift in the international diplomatic and economic isolation
of Serbia and rump Yugoslavia, which came to be viewed as an aggressor-state in
the West. On 17 December 1991, the European Economic Community agreed to
recognize the independence of Croatia on 15 January 1992.
11,425 buildings in the region
sustained damage; 886 were totally destroyed and 1,675 sustained damage. The
cost of the damage was estimated at 480 million Deutsche Marks. Damage to the
Old Town of Dubrovnik was observed by a UNESCO team which stayed in the city
from 27 November until 20 December 1991. It was estimated that 55.9 percent of
buildings were damaged, that 11.1 percent were heavily damaged and one percent
were burned down. Seven burnt Baroque palaces were the greatest losses. Additional
damage was caused by the JNA troops looting museums, businesses and private
homes. All exhibits held by Vlaho Bukovac Memorial Museum in Cavtat were taken
away by the JNA, as were contents of
hotels in Kupari. The Franciscan monastery of St. Jerome in Slano was also
targeted. The JNA admitted that looting took place, but Jokić said the property
would be distributed to Serbian refugees by a special JNA administration set up
on 15 December 1991. It is probable, however, that the looted property ended up
in private homes or was sold on the black market. Dubrovnik's Čilipi Airport was also targeted
and its equipment taken to Podgorica and Tivat Airports.
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