Croatian Defence Council - Operative Zones

Operative Zones

At first, each political district (općina) in the HZ HB was responsible for its own defense preparations. Later, the HVO divided responsibility for defense of the territory of Herzeg-Bosnia among four Operative Zones (OZ), the headquarters of which were at Tomislavgrad, Mostar, Vitez, and Orašje. The OZ boundaries were determined by the existing opcina boundaries rather than by major terrain features, the idea being to keep the HVO military organization parallel to the civilian governmental structure. The key municipalities of Posušje, Livno, Tomislavgrad, Kupres, Bugojno, Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje, and Prozor-Rama fell in the Operative Zone Northwestern Herzegovina and those of Jablanica, Konjic, Mostar, Široki Brijeg, Ljubuški, Grude, Čitluk, Čapljina, Stolac, Neum and Ravno in the Operative Zone Southeastern Herzegovina. The principal towns in Operative Zone Central Bosnia were Jajce, Travnik, Novi Travnik, Vitez, Busovača, Kiseljak, Zenica, Kakanj, Vareš, Žepče, Zavidovići, and Sarajevo. Although effort was made to coordinate the operations of the four OZs, coordination and cooperation between them was never very good.

The territorially based Operative Zone was the principal HVO administrative and operational entity. Roughly equivalent in function to a U.S./North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) corps headquarters, the HVO OZ headquarters controlled a varying number of subordinate tactical brigades and supporting forces but had under its command far fewer combat troops and fewer organic combat support and combat service support units than did a U.S./NATO corps headquarters. Moreover, the HVO OZ headquarters itself was far smaller. The proposed "authorized" staffing for HQ, OZCB, prescribed in November, 1992, called for only forty-one officers and slightly more than sixty enlisted personnel. Even that staffing level was never reached: in April, 1993, the HQ, OZCB, had only twenty-five staff officers—only three of whom had any substantial military training for the tasks they were assigned.

In July, 1992, the HVO command in central Bosnia established four subordinate territorial commands to control the operations in the various municipalities and later those of the tactical brigades. With the redesignation of the Central Bosnia Armed Forces Command as the Operative Zone Central Bosnia, the OZCB commander reorganized the subordinate territorial commands, then also called Operative Zones, and redesignated them as Operative Groups (OG). Municipalities subordinate to the old 1st OZ headquartered in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje were transferred to the Operative Zone Northwest Herzegovina. The new 1st OG (formerly 2d OZ) was given responsibility for the municipalities of Travnik, Novi Travnik, Vitez, Jajce, and Zenica. The 2d OG (formerly 3d OZ) took over the municipalities of Kiseljak, Kreševo, Busovača, Fojnica, Vareš, Kakanj, and Sarajevo. The 3d OG (formerly 4th OZ) was made responsible for the municipalities of Žepče, Zavidovići, Maglaj, Teslić, and Tešanj.