| Battle of Osijek | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theCroatian War of Independence | |||||||
 "Fićo gazi tenka!" monument to the Battle of Osijek | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
.svg) Yugoslavia |  Croatia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Andrija Biorčević | Branimir GlavašKarl Gorinšek | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 800 soldiers and civilians killed | ||||||
TheBattle of Osijek (Serbo-Croatian:Bitka za Osijek) was the artillery bombardment of theCroatian city ofOsijek by theYugoslav People's Army (JNA) which took place from August 1991 to June 1992 during theCroatian War of Independence. Shelling peaked in late November and December 1991, then diminished in 1992 after theVance plan was accepted by the combatants.Airstrikes and attacks by JNA infantry and armored units against targets in the city accompanied the bombardment, which caused approximately 800 deaths and resulted in a large portion of the city's population leaving. Croatian sources estimated that 6,000 artillery shells were fired against Osijek over the period.
After the JNAcaptured Vukovar on 18 November 1991, Osijek was the next target for itscampaign in Croatia. The JNA units subordinated to the 12th (Novi Sad) Corps, supported by theSerb Volunteer Guard, achieved modest advances in late November and early December, capturing several villages south of Osijek, but theCroatian Army maintained its defensive front and limited the JNA's advances.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Osijek, Croatian authorities charged thirteen JNA officers withwar crimes against civilians, but no arrests have been made to date. Croatian authorities also charged the wartime commander of Osijek's defence,Branimir Glavaš, and five others with war crimes committed in the city in 1991. The five were convicted and received sentences ranging between eight and ten years, and as of March 2015, judicial proceedings against Glavaš are in progress.
In 1990, following theelectoral defeat of the government of theSocialist Republic of Croatia, ethnic tensions worsened. TheYugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated the weapons of Croatia'sTerritorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana – TO) to minimize potential resistance.[1] On 17 August 1990, the escalating tensions turned intoopen revolt by theCroatian Serbs.[2] The revolt took place in the predominantly Serb-populated areas of theDalmatian hinterland aroundKnin[3] and in parts of theLika,Kordun,Banovina regions andeastern Croatia.[4] In January 1991,Serbia, supported byMontenegro and Serbia's provinces ofVojvodina andKosovo, made two unsuccessful attempts to obtain approval from theYugoslav Presidency to deploy the JNA to disarm Croatian security forces.[5]
Aftera bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents andCroatian special police in March,[6] the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the federal Presidency to grant it wartime powers and declare astate of emergency. The request was denied on 15 March 1991,[7] and the JNA came under the control of Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević in the summer of 1991 as the Yugoslav federation started to fall apart.[8] By the end of the month, the conflict had escalated, resulting in thefirst fatalities of the war.[9] The JNA then stepped in to support the insurgents and preventCroatian police from intervening.[7] In early April, leaders of the Serb revolt in Croatia announced their intention to integrate the areas under their control with Serbia. TheGovernment of Croatia considered this an act ofsecession.[10]
The JNA intervened directly against Croatia for the first time on 3 July 1991, driving Croatian forces out ofBaranja, north of the city ofOsijek,[11] and out ofErdut,Aljmaš andDalj east of Osijek.[12] The advance was followed by intermittent fighting around Osijek,Vukovar andVinkovci.[13] At several points, JNA positions approached to within several hundred yards of Osijek city limits.[14]
The JNA units near Osijek were subordinated to the 12th (Novi Sad) Corps,[15] commanded byMajor GeneralAndrija Biorčević.[16] In the city itself, the JNA had several barracks which housed the 12th Proletarian Mechanised Brigade and the 12th Mixed Artillery Regiment.[17] The 12th Proletarian Mechanised Brigade contained one of a handful battalions maintained by the JNA at fullcombat readiness.[18] Osijek was established as their starting point in aplanned westward offensive towardNašice andBjelovar.[15]
Croatian forces in the area were formally subordinated to the Operational Zone Command in Osijek headed by ColonelKarl Gorinšek.[19] In practice, the city's defense was overseen byBranimir Glavaš, then head of the National Defence Office in Osijek, according to information presented at Glavaš trial in the 2000s. Glavaš formally became commander of city defenses on 7 December 1991.[20]
The JNA first attacked Osijek by mortar fire on 31 July 1991,[21] and heavily bombarded the city's center on 19 August 1991.[22] The attacks came from positions north, east and south of Osijek,[23] and were supported by JNA garrisons stationed in Osijek itself.[24] On 7–9 September, an inconclusive battle was fought inTenja, within three kilometres (1.9 miles) of the city.[25] TheJNA garrisons were besieged by Croatian forces in mid-September. After a barracks in the city centre was captured on 15 September 1991,[26] the remaining JNA garrison tried to break through the Croatian troops besieging the barracks and, after heavy fighting, reached JNA positions south of Osijek on 17 September 1991.[17] The intensity of the shelling increased thereafter, peaking through November and December. After a ceasefire was arranged in January 1992, following the acceptance of theVance plan, the artillery attacks dropped off and became intermittent,[27] and ceased by June.[23]
During its height, the intensity of the bombardment was reported to reach as high as one shell per minute,[28] and the artillery attacks were compounded byYugoslav Air Force strikes against the city.[29] According to Croatian sources, a total of 6,000 artillery shells were fired against Osijek in the period.[30] Prior to the start of the bombardment, the civilian population of Osijek totaled 104,761 city residents and 129,792 municipal residents.[31] These numbers were significantly reduced as civilians fled the fighting. It is estimated that only about a third of the population remained in the city by the end of November,[32] with some sources placing the estimate even lower, suggesting that the population of the city was reduced to just 10,000 civilians during the most intense periods of the bombardment.[33] Those who remained in Osijek through the fighting generally slept inbomb shelters.[14]
After JNAcaptured Vukovar on 18 November, the JNA 12th (Novi Sad) Corps, supported by the Serbian Ministry of Interior-trainedSerb Volunteer Guard paramilitaries,[34][35] started to advance west between Vinkovci and Osijek on 20 November.[34] The city of Osijek appeared to be the next target of the JNA,[36] which was later confirmed by GeneralŽivota Panić, commander of the JNA 1st Military District.[37]
On 21 November 1991, the JNA captured the villages of Stari Seleš, Novi Seleš andErnestinovo situated approximately ten kilometres (6.2 miles) south of Osijek.Laslovo, five kilometres (3.1 miles) south of Ernestinovo, was captured three days later. Those developments threatenedĐakovo and pointed to the potential encirclement of Osijek.[12] On 4 December 1991, theSpecial Envoy ofSecretary-General of the United NationsCyrus Vance visited Osijek to inspect the damage.[38]
In early December, the JNA made modest advances, capturingAntunovac located six kilometres (3.7 miles) south of Osijek on 5 December 1991.[12] On the same day, an armoured JNA force unsuccessfully attacked positions held by the Croatian 106th Brigade in Rosinjača Forest nearNemetin, approximately two kilometres (1.2 miles) east of Osijek.[39] On 6 December, the JNA pushed Croatian troops out from Tenja,[12] followed by a heavy attack against Osijek repulsed by theCroatian Army (Hrvatska vojska – HV) on 7 December.[40] On 11 December, HV personnel entered the frontline village ofPaulin Dvor, less than three kilometres (1.9 miles) west of Ernestinovo,[12] and summarily executed 19 civilians (18 Serbs and one Hungarian).[41][42] The JNA captured Paulin Dvor five days later, on 16 December,[12] and attacked Osijek once again.[43] The HV managed to contain the attack, though fighting continued south of Osijek until January 1992.[34]
Advances of the JNA north of Osijek threatened HV control of a narrowbridgehead held across theDrava River skirting the city's northern edge. By mid-December the bridgehead was reduced to a strip of land opposite Osijek, encompassing suburban settlements of Podravlje and Tvrđavica. In order to remove the threat, the HV launched an offensivecodenamed Operation Devil's Beam (Croatian:Operacija Đavolja greda) on 17–18 December. The offensive, involving the 1st Battalion of the 135th Brigade, elements of thespecial forces Frankopan Battalion and the Osijek-basedOrao special police unit, Drava River flotilla, artillery of the 106th Brigade,[44] and personnel of the 4thBeli Manastir Police Station,[45] successfully pushed the JNA north, across Stara Dravaoxbow lake located approximately four kilometres (2.5 miles) north of Osijek.[46] The JNA also withdrew from the village ofKopačevo towardsDarda andVardarac, but the HV did not have sufficient resources to exploit the development.[47] The HV lost eight killed in the offensive,[48] but the JNA's advance towards Osijek from the north was halted.[45]
By June 1992, approximately 800 people had been killed by the bombardment.[27] By the end of theCroatian War of Independence in 1995, a total of 1,724 people from Osijek had been killed, including 1,327 soldiers and 397 civilians.[49] The city itself suffered great damage during the war, with the bulk of direct damage occurring as a consequence of the 1991–92 bombardment.[50] Direct war damage sustained by the city was estimated at a total of US$1.3 billion.[51] The damage was regularly recorded by 400 volunteers during the bombardment.[52]
Although media reported on the bombardment of Osijek, journalists in the city itself felt that it was receiving an unduly low level of media coverage compared to wartime events elsewhere in Croatia.[53] The attacks on Osijek were welcomed by thePravoslavlje newspaper published by theSerbian Orthodox Church, which appeared to give a blessing to the attack as a part of a "holy war", setting it in the context ofWorld War II massacres andconcentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia.[54]
The JNA withdrew from Croatia in 1992, but continued to contribute personnel and equipment to theArmy of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (ARSK) which controlled the areas previously held by the JNA.[55] Although theUnited Nations Protection Force peacekeepers deployed to the area on the basis of the Vance plan and placed most of the ARSK heavy weapons in storage,[56] Osijek was intermittently bombarded throughout the war—the last artillery strike occurred in September 1995.[57] The hostilities ceased in November 1995 through theErdut Agreement securing restoration of Croatian rule in the region.[58]
In November 2010, then-Croatian PresidentIvo Josipović officially apologized for thePaulin Dvor massacre, shortly after his Serbian counterpartBoris Tadić issued a formal apology for themassacre at Vukovar.[41]
In 2008, Croatian authorities formally charged Colonel Boro Ivanović, commanding officer of the JNA 12th Proletarian Mechanised Brigade, and twelve other JNA officers withwar crimes against the civilian population. The charges include causing the deaths of 307 civilians in Osijek and surrounding areas, injuries to another 171 civilians, and the destruction of at least 1,188 different structures. As of 2013[update], all of the indicted officers remain at large inSerbia.[59]
In 2005, the Osijek District Court convicted former Croatian soldier Nikola Ivanković for his involvement in the killings at Paulin Dvor, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. In 2012, Enes Vitesković was also convicted for his involvement in the atrocity, and given an eleven-year sentence.[42]
After the war, five Croatian fighters were charged and convicted of eleven counts of murder, one of attempted murder, and one of torture of Serb civilians found in the JNA barracks, which surrendered on 15 September 1991. They received prison sentences of between five and eight years. Glavaš, who was tried alongside them for the same crimes, received a ten-year sentence.[26][60] Before the conviction became final in 2009, and to avoidextradition, Glavaš fled toBosnia and Herzegovina, where he had granted citizenship. His sentence was reduced to eight years and became final in 2010, when he was arrested and imprisoned in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[61] In January 2015, the conviction was set aside by theConstitutional Court of Croatia, pending a new trial before theSupreme Court of Croatia.[62]
