October 1, 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Yugoslav Army begins the siege of Dubrovnik
On October 1, 1991, Yugoslav Army forces advanced from Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, andSerb-controlled Croatiatoward the western region of southern Dalmatia with the city of Dubrovnik as their mainobjective. The capture of the towns ofPrevlaka, Konavle, and Cavtat allowed the Yugoslavs to encircle Dubrovnik. Artillery batteries placed on the surroundingheights, together with Yugoslav Navy ships on the coastal waters, opened fireon the city, starting a seven-month siege. Yugoslav planes also conducted air strikes on Dubrovnik. International diplomatic pressures and widespread foreign media coverageof the siege eventually deterred the Yugoslav Army from carrying out a groundassault on the city.
(Taken from Croatian War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)
Background By the late 1980s, Yugoslavia was faced with a major political crisis, as separatist aspirations among its ethnic populations threatened to undermine the country’s integrity (see “Yugoslavia”, separate article). Nationalism particularly was strong in Croatia and Slovenia, the two westernmost and wealthiest Yugoslav republics. In January 1990, delegates from Slovenia and Croatia walked out from an assembly of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the country’s communist party, over disagreements with their Serbian counterparts regarding proposed reforms to the party and the central government. Then in the first multi-party elections in Croatia held in April and May 1990, Franjo Tudjman became president after running a campaign that promised greater autonomy for Croatia and a reduced political union with Yugoslavia.
Ethnic Serbs in Croatia formed the majority population in Northern Dalmatia, Lika, and parts of Western Slavonia and Eastern Slavonia.Ethnic Croatians, who comprised 78% of Croatia’s population, overwhelmingly supportedTudjman, because they were concerned that Yugoslavia’snational government gradually had fallen under the control of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s largest and mostpowerful republic, and led by hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic. In May 1990, a new Croatian Parliament wasformed and subsequently prepared a new constitution. The constitution was subsequently passed inDecember 1990. Then in a referendum heldin May 1991 with Croatian Serbs refusing to participate, Croatians votedoverwhelmingly in support of independence. On June 25, 1991, Croatia,together with Slovenia,declared independence.
Croatian Serbs (ethnic Serbs who are native to Croatia) numbered nearly 600,000, or 12% of Croatia’s totalpopulation, and formed the second largest ethnic group in the republic. As Croatiaincreasingly drifted toward political separation from Yugoslavia, theCroatian Serbs became alarmed at the thought that the new Croatian governmentwould carry out persecutions, even a genocidal pogrom against Serbs, just asthe pro-Nazi ultra-nationalist Croatian Ustashe government had done to theSerbs, Jews, and Gypsies during World War II. As a result, Croatian Serbs began to militarize, with the formation ofmilitias as well as the arrival of armed groups from Serbia.
Croatian Serbs formed a population majority in south-west Croatia(northern Dalmatian and Lika). There, inFebruary 1990, they formed the Serb Democratic Party, which aimed for thepolitical and territorial integration of Serb-dominated lands in Croatia with Serbiaand Yugoslavia. They declared that if Croatia wanted to secede from Yugoslavia, they, in turn, should be allowed toseparate from Croatia. Serbs also interpreted the change in theirstatus in the new Croatian constitution as diminishing their civil rights. In turn, the Croatian government opposed theCroatian Serb secession and was determined to keep the republic’s territorialintegrity.
In July 1990, a Croatian Serb Assembly was formed thatcalled for Serbian sovereignty and autonomy. In December, Croatian Serbs established the SAO Krajina (SAO is theacronym for Serbian Autonomous Oblast) as a separate government from Croatia in the regions of northern Dalmatia and Lika. Croatian Serbs formed a majority population in two other regions in Croatia, which they also transformed intoseparate political administrations called SAO Western Slavonia, and SAO EasternSlavonia (officially SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Syrmia). (Map 17 showslocations in Croatiawhere ethnic Serbs formed a majority population.) In a referendum held inAugust 1990 in SAO Krajina, Croatian Serbs voted overwhelmingly (99.7%) forSerbian “sovereignty and autonomy”. Thenafter a second referendum held in March 1991 where Croatian Serbs voted unanimously(99.8%) to merge SAO Krajina with Serbia, the Krajina governmentdeclared that “… SAO Krajina is a constitutive part of the unified stateterritory of the Republic of Serbia”.
