Operation Winter '94 - Background

Background

Following the 1990 electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, ethnic tensions worsened. The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana) weapons to minimize resistance. On 17 August, the tensions escalated into an open revolt by Croatian Serbs, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin, parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia. This was followed by two unsuccessful attempts by Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo to obtain the Yugoslav Presidency's approval of a JNA operation to disarm Croatian security forces in January 1991. After a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March, the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the federal Presidency declare a state of emergency and grant the JNA wartime powers. The request was denied on 15 March, and the JNA came under control of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than preservation of Yugoslavia, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the federal Presidency. By the end of the month, the conflict had escalated into the Croatian War of Independence. The JNA stepped in, increasingly supporting the Croatian Serb insurgents, and preventing Croatian police from intervening. In early April, the leaders of the Croatian Serb revolt declared their intention to integrate the area under their control with Serbia. The Government of Croatia viewed this declaration as an attempt to secede.

In May, the Croatian government responded by forming the Croatian National Guard (Zbor narodne garde – ZNG), but its development was hampered by a United Nations (UN) arms embargo introduced in September. On 8 October, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, and a month later the ZNG was renamed the Croatian Army (Hrvatska vojska - HV). Late 1991 saw the fiercest fighting of the Croatian War of Independence, culminating in the Siege of Dubrovnik, and the Battle of Vukovar. A campaign of ethnic cleansing then began in the RSK, and most non-Serbs were expelled. In January 1992, an agreement to implement the peace plan negotiated by UN special envoy Cyrus Vance was signed by Croatia, the JNA and the UN. As a result, the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) deployed to maintain the ceasefire, and the JNA was scheduled to retreat to Bosnia and Herzegovina where further conflict was anticipated. Despite the peace arrangement requiring an immediate withdrawal of JNA personnel and equipment from Croatia, the JNA remained on Croatian territory for seven to eight months. When its troops eventually withdrew, the JNA left their equipment to the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina (ARSK). The January ceasefire also allowed the JNA to hold onto the positions in East and West Slavonia that were on the brink of military collapse following a Croatian counteroffensive which reclaimed 60% of the JNA-held territory in West Slavonia by the time the ceasefire went into effect. However, Serbia continued to support the RSK. The HV restored small areas around Dubrovnik to Croatian control and during Operation Maslenica it recaptured some areas of Lika and northern Dalmatia. Croatian population centres continued to be intermittently targeted by artillery, missiles and air raids throughout the war.

On 9 January 1992, a Bosnian Serb state was declared, ahead of the 29 February – 1 March referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina (later cited as a pretext for the Bosnian War). The Bosnian Serb state was later renamed Republika Srpska. As the JNA withdrew from Croatia it started to transform into a Bosnian Serb army, handing over its weapons, equipment and 55,000 troops. The process was completed in May, when the Bosnian Serb army became the Army of Republika Srpska (Vojska Republike Srpske – VRS). It was faced by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), established in April, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina TO—renamed the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine – ARBiH) in May. Formal establishment of these forces was preceded by the first armed clashes in the country as the Bosnian Serbs set up barricades in Sarajevo and elsewhere on 1 March and the situation rapidly escalated. Bosnian Serb artillery began shelling Bosanski Brod by the end of the month, and Sarajevo was first shelled on 4 April. By the end of 1992 the VRS held 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, following a large-scale campaign of conquest and ethnic cleansing backed by military and financial support from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Bosnian War gradually evolved into a three-sided conflict. The initial ARBiH–HVO alliance soon deteriorated as the forces became rivals for control of parts of the country. Ethnic tensions escalated from apparently insignificant harassment in July, to open Croat–Bosniak War by October 1992. The Bosnian Croat authorities, organized in the Herzeg-Bosnia territory, were intent on attaching the region to Croatia. This was incompatible with Bosniak aspirations for a unitary state.