Vukovar - 15 years

---STORY OF VUKOVAR---

This saturday, 18.11.2006. was the 15-year anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies in the last war in Yugoslavia. It was a day when, 15 years before, a little town called Vukovar surrendered.

Many outside ex-Yugoslavia never heard of this place. Some have, but just don't know much about it. Here is the (not so) short version.

INTRO

With the Croatian Serbs blockading major roads and starting a revolution in Croatia which was seceeding from Yugoslavia, war was about to explode into full force. In late 1991, the ocassional skirmish grew into a war as Yugoslav Army (JNA), supported by tens of thousands of Serbian paramilitary soldiers crossed the Croat-Serbian border on the river Danube. Their first target was a city on the other side of that river, a town named Vukovar populated by 85'000 people (44% Croat, 37% Serb).

Due to it's strategic location, Vukovar was the first target of a JNA/Serb offensive west into Croatia and the JNA diverted it's best formations to it's conquest. These best formations included: 3 Mechanized brigades (out of JNA's total of 7), 2 tank brigades (out of 5) and about 5 other brigades (mainly infantry). Along with Serb paramilitary units, this ammounted to about 800 tanks, 100 jet aircraft and 40-60'000 soldiers.

To defend the city, ill-equipped Croats had only 2'000 soldiers (in some cases armed only with WW2 rifles) and 4 tanks (in the wider area, not just Vukovar itself). Croat "airforce" included two Antonov An-2 biplanes - ancient dust-croppers equipped to drop TNT bags, as bombs were unavailable. Of the 2'000 defenders, majority were locals defending their homes. Some were local police and only about 400 were better trained professional Croatian soldiers. In an ironic twist of fate, for the most of the battle, commander in chief of Croatian forces was Mile Dedakovic 'Jastreb' ('Hawk') - an ethnic Serb - like many Serbs who served in Croat armed forces, he was defending his home from aggression.

Since the battle seemed like a lost affair, Croat defenders desperatly dug in and prepared for guerrilla tactics with what little of anti-tank weapons they had (AT rockets, Molotov cocktails, sticky bombs, etc).

Croat civilians escaping Vukovar
http://www.hrt.hr/auto/arhivvijesti/2000/11/18/vukovar_28.ram

THE ATTACKS

The JNA attack was a classic pincer tactics - the attack formations were split to north and south of the city. These units managed to link up and surround the city by mid-September. Thus, the city was under siege.

The first major attack was launched at the end of September by elements of the 51st JNA Mechanized Brigade's tank battallions from the direction of north-west to the city. This road, called Trpinjska cesta (road) was were the Croat defenders met them in ambush with AT weaponary. Following the failed attack, the surviving tanks retreated, leaving behind "a tank graveyard" (as reporters described it). Several more - now mostly infantry - attacks were launched from the south and north. All were repulsed with massive losses to the attacker. Reservists were immediatly called up to fill the ever increasing gaps in JNA's units.

Trpinjska cesta
http://www.hrt.hr/arhiv/vukovar/video/v4.ram

THE SHELLING

Now, the attacker chose a new tactics. Instead of wasting men, the city was subjected to a brutal artillery bombardment. Estimations show an average of 2'000 shells hit the city EVERY DAY. Among the prime targets, was the Vukovar hospital - with a huge RED CROSS hanging over the roof to be visible for miles - which looked like swiss cheese after two months. Foreign observers (and there were quite a few of them, both from the UN and EU - in the area) recorded all this.

The shelling went on through most of October, followed by several smaller attacks by tanks and men - which were always repulsed. Still, the pressured defenders were not gods, with each new attack more land was lost and supplies dwindled and they got cornered more and more towards the center of the city.

In one of these attacks, a Serb general was killed - arriving in the area and announcing all JNA soldiers are cowards, he took a lead tank into one attack, dying immediatly.

In November, the city looked ghastly. There was not a single house intact - even rare windows were unbroken. A good-looking house would have "only" hundreds of bullet and small shell holes.

Vukovar ruined

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&p=vukovar&b=0&oid=cb297c4e44088d06&rurl=www.ifilm.com&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dvukovar

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&p=vukovar&b=1&oid=cf836597a7117968&rurl=www.ifilm.com&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dvukovar

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&p=vukovar&b=54&oid=4e9b7056fa57a35e&rurl=news.bbc.co.uk&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dvukovar%26b%3D51

THE FALL

It was in November that JNA/Serb attackers launched the final assaults. Having reduced the city to a heap and having exhausted the defence which was down to it's last bullets and rockets (having been under siege for about a 80 days now), JNA and Serb forces launched attacks from all directions at once (even bringing engineering units to transport some troops from the other side of the Danube. The final assault pushed the defenders to a few surrounded city blocks - Serbs slaughtering everyone they found by this time, especially civilians (women, children too) - where the defenders finally agreed to surrender having run out of ammo and recieving guarantees from JNA that no harm will come to the survivors of the city.

3'000 people died by now, what from the shellings and fightings, what from the Serb crimes.

A BBC reporter took one notable shot of film that would represent the entire fate of the city and the war in general. On the day the city fell, he filmed a column of Serbs walking, carrying Chetnik flags and signing: "Slobodan (Milosevic), Slobodan, send us salad. There will be meat, we'll slaughter Croats."

The JNA rounded up the surviving civilians and drove them west, across the frontlines - partily because there were now hundreds of reporters in the area and civlian corpses never looked nice on TV. At the same time, the main hospital (mentioned above) was emptied and about 260 people (wounded+hospital personnel) were taken to a huge storage house outside the city - the place was called Ovcara - were they were all executed. Some of the bodies were buried in local mass graves - some were transported further away to cover it (next week, excavation near Serb capital Belgrade are to start, where Serb authorities belive many are buried). So far, the youngest remains uncovered from mass graves showed a 6-months old baby. A portion of those who were not executed, civilians and soldiers alike, were transported to concentration camps in Vojvodina and rest of occupied Croatia, where they were kept for prisoner exchange (a number of them died under torture). One of the more notorius Serb camps, at Stajicevo, was were the youngest rape victim was violated - she was 6 years old. The oldest such was 80.

Crimes against civilians

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&p=vukovar&b=18&oid=a6585bb2276c2db6&rurl=www.dailyvodcasts.com&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dvukovar%26b%3D11

THE RESULT

A tragedy in itself, Vukovar was also a great Croat victory. The Serbs lost about 300 tanks and APCs (some figures go even higher), few aircraft and over 6'000 soldiers (JNA never published full official records due to imbaressment, giving away minor numbers for less then half of the involved units) - some, overly optimistic figures, speak of over 10 thousands.

There were about 5000 dead Croats (including about 800 dead Croat Serbs who refused to leave the city and were killed by their 'brothers'), only 1500 being fighters: the rest civilians, including 54 children younger then 10 years.

But, the high Serb losses were not the only triumph for Croats. The siege and defence of Vukovar bought three precious months for Croatia to fully mobilize and prepear its military - in September, the Croat army had only 20 brigades and in November, over 60.

AFTERMATH

The new found Croat strength meant JNA could not keep up a major offensive (and did not want to considering losses taken to capture just one city). A little over a month later, a peace agreement was reached and cease fire was signed that would - for the next four years - be mainly kept. Following the successful Croat Operation Storm in 1995 - that recaptured the rest of occupied Croatia - local Serbs in occupied Easter Slavonia (including Vukovar) saw no other way out but to sign an agreement. Following three years of mixed control, Vukovar and it's surrounding area would be reverted to Croat controls.

On it's return to Croat control, Croatian officials noted that not a single building was repaired in the past four years. Also, note that 37% of the city's pre-war population were Serbs - even these were forced to live somewhere else, because they have been 'liberated' by JNA.

REACTION TO VUKOVAR IN SERBIA (from Wikipedia)

The high number of casualties incurred in the battle caused serious popular discontent in Serbia and Montenegro, where tens of thousands of those receiving draft papers went into hiding or left the country. A near-mutiny broke out in some reservist units, and mass demonstrations against the war were held in the Serbian towns of Valjevo, Cacak and Kragujevac. In one famous incident, a tank driver named Vladimir Zivkovic drove his tank all the way from the front line at Vukovar to the federal parliament in Belgrade. Many Serbs simply did not identify with the Croatian Serb cause and were unwilling to see their lives, or those of their children, sacrificed at Vukovar. Although the great majority of JNA casualties were Serbian, Serbia itself was never formally at war.

In a sign of the popular distaste for the battle, the JNA's attempts to draft further troops for a deeper attack into Croatia failed dismally. Only 13% of those eligible for the draft actually reported for duty, and by the end of 1991 six thousand cases against deserters and draft-dodgers were pending in Belgrade's military court alone.

SUMMARY

Today, Vukovar is a poor city, with dead economy and high unemployment, but populated by it's returning citizens (of both nationalities), that hope for a better tommorow and try to rebuild their broken lives.

Vukovar's 3500 dead make up only 25% of all Croats that died in the war and less then 3% of all people that were killed throughout ex-Yugoslavia.

This years commemoration of the fall was notable due to presence of a Serb organization "Woman in Black" of Serb mothers, who layed flowers at the main Vukovar monument with the message "Forgive us".

Vukovar will remain forever remembered as one of the first and among the worst Serb crimes in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. The tragedy, however, will continue for years until Serbs finally ejected Slobodan Milosevic from power.

For more media about war in Croatia (from a Serb site, no less) refer to:

http://www.zamislisrbiju.org/foto/idc_foto_02/index.htm#13

---

I will say something: I do not hate Serbs, I hate Milosevic and his extremists that did this... And Croats, Bosnians and Albanians did crimes too, but the figures we are talking about here are just waaay to far apart to say "that's equal".

I will also say this: there were THOUSANDS of Serbs that were killed by Serb soldiers (in Vukovar, Sarajevo, Dvor, etc); there were THOUSANDS of Serbs which fought alongside Croats - not against them - in Croatia (including, ironically, the highest ranking officer in Vukovar); Belgrade students protested against Milosevic - and were beaten by his police - as early as 1990 (before even the first war); and, as you read - when draft was declared in Serbia in 1991, less then 13% of population responded.

Defending Milosevic and his crimes (which I sadly find a common phenomenon on the internet boards) is not only spitting on his non-Serb victims, but also on all of the Serb victims as well.