Operation Maslenica - Aftermath

Aftermath

In strictly military and, to a certain degree, political terms, Operation Maslenica was immediately hailed as a major success for the Croatian government. However, subsequent events have put that into question.

While the Croatian military inflicted a heavy blow on Krajina and retook a relatively large section of Croatian territory, it failed to completely remove the threat towards the Dalmatian cities. Even the stated aim of securely connecting Dalmatia to the rest of Croatia was not achieved. This became apparent with the opening of a pontoon bridge at Maslenica later in the year. The bridge was in range of RSK artillery, thus allowing RSK leader Milan Martić to publicly brag about his ability to sink it or close it to traffic at his leisure. Traffic over the bridge normalised only after UN-sponsored negotiations.

The Croatian Army's failure to properly exploit the initial success of the offensive is usually attributed to tactical mistakes in the latter stages of the operation and its lack of superior artillery - an issue that would be addressed in 1994 and 1995. By exposing these weaknesses, Operation Maslenica allowed Croatian military staff to remedy them and plan more ambitious and ultimately more successful offensives like Operation Flash and Operation Storm.

A new Maslenica Bridge was built in 1997-1998, on a slightly different location from the old bridge that had been destroyed. The renovation of the latter was completed in early 2006.

Twelve years after the operation, during the 2005 campaign for local elections in Croatia, these events sparked another controversy. On May 1, 2005, the 10th anniversary of Operation Flash, the Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, used the celebrations to campaign for his HDZ party. The Croatian president Stipe Mesić, reacted by expressing outrage over the use of Croatian military operations for party politics and claimed that Operation Maslenica had been executed solely as a Tuđman pre-election stunt and had resulted in the needless waste of Croatian lives. This statement was almost immediately attacked by many segments of the Croatian public.