The siege of Dubrovnik (Serbo-Croatian: opsada Dubrovnika, опсада Дубровника) was a military campaign 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. Citizens of Dubrovnik endured three months without electricity and water. 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 a "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.
Background
In August 1990, an insurrection took place in Croatia, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around the city of Knin, parts of the Lika, Kordun, and Banovina regions, and settlements in eastern Croatia with significant Serb populations. These areas were subsequently named the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) and after declaring its intention to integrate with Serbia, the Government of Croatia declared the RSK a rebellion. By March 1991, the conflict had escalated and the Croatian War of Independence erupted. In June 1991, Croatia declared its independence as Yugoslavia disintegrated. A three-month moratorium followed, after which the decision came into effect on 8 October. The RSK then initiated a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Croat civilians, expelling most non-Serbs by early 1993. By November 1993, fewer than 400 ethnic Croats remained in the United Nations (UN) protected area known as Sector South, and a further 1,500 – 2,000 remained in Sector North.
As the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) increasingly supported the RSK, and the Croatian Police were unable to cope with the situation, the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) was formed in May 1991. In November, the ZNG was renamed the Croatian Army (HV). The development of the military of Croatia was hampered by a UN arms embargo introduced in September, while the military conflict in Croatia continued to escalate with the Battle of Vukovar, which started on 26 August.
Dubrovnik is the southernmost major Croatian city. It is located on the Adriatic Sea coast. The walled city centre, known as the Old Town, is a site of historical monuments and heritage buildings largely dating to the Republic of Ragusa; the city has been placed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 1991, the Dubrovnik area had a population of approximately 40,000, of whom 82.4% were Croats and 6.8% were Serbs. Croatian territory surrounding the city stretches from the Pelješac peninsula to the west and the Prevlaka peninsula in the east at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor on the border with Montenegro. This territory is very narrow, especially near Dubrovnik itself, and consists of a 0.5-to-15-kilometre (0.31-to-9.32-mile) wide coastal strip of land.
Prelude
In mid-1991, top JNA commanders—including Yugoslav Federal Defence Minister General Veljko Kadijević, JNA Chief of the General Staff General Blagoje Adžić and deputy defence minister Vice Admiral Stane Brovet—planned a military offensive entailing an attack on the Dubrovnik area followed by a westward JNA advance towards western Herzegovina to link up with the JNA 9th Knin Corps in northern Dalmatia once the area was secured. General Jevrem Cokić submitted the plan of the Dubrovnik offensive to Adžić for his approval.
In September 1991, the JNA and the leaders of Montenegro agreed that Dubrovnik should be attacked and neutralized to ensure Montenegro's territorial integrity, to prevent ethnic clashes and to preserve the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović stated that Croatian borders needed be revised, attributing the existing border line to "poorly educated Bolshevik cartographers". The propaganda, compounded by JNA Colonel General Pavle Strugar's allegations that 30,000 Croatian troops and 7,000 terrorists and Kurdish mercenaries were about to attack Montenegro and seize the Bay of Kotor, led many in Montenegro to believe that Croatia had actually started an invasion. The newspaper Pobjeda was the most significant media source that contributed to the spread of the propaganda. In July 1991, high-ranking Serbian official Mihalj Kertes said at a political rally in Nikšić that a Serbian state was to be established west of Montenegro extending to the Neretva River with Dubrovnik—renamed Nikšić-at-Sea—as its capital.
On 16 September 1991, the JNA mobilized in Montenegro citing the deteriorating situation in Croatia. Despite a radio broadcast appeal by the JNA 2nd Titograd Corps on 17 September, considerable numbers of reservists refused to respond to the call-up. On 18 September, Đukanović threatened harsh punishment of deserters and those refusing to respond to the mobilization, while calling to "draw the demarcation lines vis-à-vis the Croats once and for all". The army mobilization and the propaganda of the Montenegrin government were in contrast with assurances from the Yugoslav federal authorities in Belgrade that there would be no attack against Dubrovnik. The JNA's strategic plan to defeat Croatia included an offensive to cut off the southernmost parts of Croatia, including Dubrovnik, from the rest of the country.
On 23 September, JNA artillery attacked the village of Vitaljina in the eastern part of Konavle and Brgat to the east of Dubrovnik. Two days later, the Yugoslav Navy blockaded maritime routes to the city. On 26 September, the JNA renamed its Eastern Herzegovina Operational Group the 2nd Operational Group and subordinated it directly to the Federal Ministry of Defence and the JNA General Staff. Cokić was appointed the first commanding officer of the 2nd Operational Group but was replaced by General Mile Ružinovski on 5 October following the fall of Cokić's helicopter on 30 September. Strugar replaced Ružinovski on 12 October. On 1 October, the day of the start of operations on Dubrovnik, Montenegrin Ministry of the Interior Pavle Bulatovic issued a secret order to the Republic's Special Police Unit to mobilize and assist the JNA in "carrying out combat operations in the conflict of war on the border between the Republic of Montenegro and the Republic of Croatia."
Order of battle
The JNA tasked the 2nd Titograd Corps and the 9th Boka Kotorska Military-Maritime Sector (VPS)—both of which were elements of the 2nd Operational Group—with cutting off and capturing the Dubrovnik area. The 2nd Titograd Corps deployed the 1st Nikšić Brigade while the 9th Boka Kotorska VPS employed the 5th and the 472nd Motorized Brigades. The Corps boundary running north-to-south near Dubrovnik was set. The 2nd Operational Group also commanded the 16th Border Patrol Detachment and 107th Coastal Artillery Group, and mobilised Territorial Defence units from Herceg-Novi, Kotor, Tivat, Budva, Bar, Mojkovac, Bijelo Polje and Trebinje. Strugar was in overall command of the 2nd Operative Group while the 9th Boka Kotorska VPS was commanded by Vice Admiral Miodrag Jokić. Jokić replaced Admiral Krsto Đurović, who had died in uncertain circumstances hours before the offensive began. Major General Nojko Marinović, once commanding the 472nd Motorized Brigade and subordinate of Đurović, said that the JNA had killed the admiral because he opposed the offensive. Marinović resigned his post on 17 September and joined the Croatian ZNG. The JNA 2nd Operational Group initially deployed 7,000 troops and maintained similar troop levels throughout the offensive.
The defences of Dubrovnik were almost non-existent—at the outset of hostilities there were 480 troops in the city area, out of which only 50 had some training. The only regular military unit was a platoon armed with light infantry weapons that was stationed in the Napoleonic era Fort Imperial atop the Srđ Hill overlooking Dubrovnik. The rest of the troops in the area were poorly armed because the Croatian Territorial Defence had been disarmed by the JNA in 1989. Unlike elsewhere in Croatia, there had been no JNA garrisons or storage depots in Dubrovnik since 1972 and thus very few arms and munitions captured during the September Battle of the Barracks were available to defend Dubrovnik. On 26 September 200 rifles and four artillery pieces captured from the JNA on the island of Korčula were sent to reinforce the city. The guns were a mix of 76 mm and 85 mm Soviet World War II-era divisional guns. In addition, an improvised armoured vehicle was supplied to the city. Dubrovnik also received additional HV, Croatian Police and Croatian Defence Forces troops from other parts of Croatia. This brought the number of Croatian troops in Dubrovnik to 600. By November, about 1,000 Croatian troops were defending the city. On 19 September, Marinović was appointed commanding officer of the defences in Dubrovnik, at which time he assessed them as inadequate. The troops, initially organized as the Territorial Defence of Dubrovnik, were reorganized into the HV 75th Independent Battalion on 28 December 1991 and were later reinforced with elements of the 116th Infantry Brigade to form the 163rd Infantry Brigade on 13 February 1992. The Armed Boats Squadron Dubrovnik, a volunteer military unit of the Croatian Navy consisting of 23 vessels of various sizes and 117 volunteers, was established on 23 September to counter the Yugoslav Navy blockade.
Timeline
JNA advance
On 1 October, the JNA started its offensive towards Dubrovnik, moving the 2nd Titograd Corps west through the Popovo field north of the city. The JNA 2nd Corps destroyed the village of Ravno before turning south towards Dubrovačko Primorje area, aiming to envelop Dubrovnik from the west. The second axis of the JNA advance was assigned to the 9th Boka Kotorska VPS. It originated in the Bay of Kotor about 35 kilometres (22 miles) south-east of Dubrovnik and was directed through Konavle. The advance started at 5 am after preparatory artillery fire against Vitaljina and other targets in Konavle. The advance, using several roads in the region, was supported by the Yugoslav Navy and the Air Force. Croatian defences were nonexistent in Konavle and light in Dubrovačko Primorje—the only JNA casualties of the day occurred during a successful ZNG ambush in the village of Čepikuće. On the first day of the offensive, JNA artillery attacked Srđ Hill and the Žarkovica promontory just to the north and east of Dubrovnik, while Yugoslav Air Force MiG-21s struck Komolac in Rijeka Dubrovačka to the west, destroying supplies of electricity and water to Dubrovnik. Until the end of December, Dubrovnik relied on fresh water supplied by boats and electricity from a few electric generators.
Over the next three days, the JNA made slow progress. Its artillery attacked Srđ Hill, the Fort Imperial and Žarkovica on 2 October. The next day, the JNA shelled Belvedere Hotel, where a ZNG defence post was located, and the Yugoslav Air Force bombarded the city's Argentina Hotel. On 4 October, the JNA 2nd Corps captured Slano in Dubrovačko Primorje, interdicting the Adriatic Highway there and isolating Dubrovnik from the rest of Croatia. On 5 October, the Ploče district of Dubrovnik was shelled, followed by a Yugoslav Air Force strike on the Fort Imperial the next day.
On 15 October, Croatia offered peace talks to Montenegro, but the President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević dismissed the offer. The offer was made to the Montenegrin officials because the offensive was first officially endorsed by the Montenegrin government on 1 October. Three days later, Serbia publicly distanced itself from the move, blaming Croatia for provoking the JNA. On the seventh day of the offensive, the Montenegrin parliament held a joint extraordinary section to discuss the future status of the Prevlaka Peninsula, while at the same time declaring that the JNA "was the only instance responsible" for the deployment of Montenegrin reservists. On 16 October—a day after Milošević declined the Croatian offer—the JNA 9th Boka Kotorska VPS force captured Cavtat. The capture of Cavtat was supported by an amphibious landing operation approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) east of Dubrovnik and an airstrike on Ploče district of Dubrovnik on 18 October. The following day, a ceasefire was agreed but it was violated as soon as it came into effect. On 20 October, the Yugoslav Air Force attacked Dubrovnik and on 22 October, the Yugoslav Navy bombarded hotels housing refugees in the Lapad area of the city.