Tomorrow, it will be 15 years since the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) attacked Dubrovnik. Twenty years before that, the city was demilitarized to protect this world cultural heritage site from becoming a victim of war. In the last 14 centuries, no one but the JNA has directly attacked Dubrovnik.
From October 1, 1991 to May 1992, the city was under siege from the land, air, and sea. Citizens’ water and electricity was cut off. There was no food.
Political leaders in Belgrade and Podgorica entrusted their militaries to create by force a ‘Dubrovnik Republic’ in the Dubrovnik region that would become part of ‘Greater Serbia.’ The result of this insane idea and the consequent siege of Dubrovnik was between 82 and 88 dead civilians, according to the UN. One hundred defenders of the city were also killed. In ‘the Pearl of the Adriatic,’ 563 building were damaged. The most deadly artillery attack occurred on December 6, 1991; 19 people were killed and 60 were wounded. Citizens of all ethnicities were among those killed.
The Hague Tribunal has indicted four people for war crimes in the Dubrovnik area. Blagoje Adzic, Borisav Jovic, Veljko Kadijevic, and Aleksandar Vasiljevic, the commanders and inspirers of the Dubrovnik crimes, live in Serbia. Numerous anonymous smaller scale war criminals are also among us. The least that Serbia can do is what Montenegro has done: apologize to the dead and living citizens of Dubrovnik. Serbia should also return everything that was taken by force and pay war reparations. That has not been done.
Today, on the fifteenth anniversary of the beginning of the criminal and shameful siege of Dubrovnik, as in all previous years, we again look for the Serbian government, which loves to call itself ‘democratic,’ to take on its responsibility, to take the stain of Dubrovnik off its citizen, and to adequately punish all those who committed crimes on the Dubrovnik front.
Women in Black
Belgrade, September 30, 2006
