The Battles for Jajce in 1992 and Post-war Croatian and Bosniak Interpretations

Abstract

The topic of the paper is the fighting in Jajce during the months-long Serbian siege in 1992, with special emphasis on the role of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia (HZ HB) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in organizing the defence of Jajce, as well as the post-war attempts by some Bosniak authors to deny the facts about the Croatian contribution to the defence of Jajce. Although the decision to join Jajce to HZ HB was never formally adopted by the Jajce Municipal Assembly, because the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which had the largest number of councillors in the Assembly, opposed it, the defence preparations and arming of citizens in Jajce were carried out mainly through the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) and HZ HB. From April 1992, this role was taken over by the HVO, which also included a large number of military capable Muslims/Bosniaks. On the main lines of attack by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), the mainstay of the defence was the HVO units, which held around 70% of the total defence line. Most of the weapons, military equipment and aid to the civilian population was delivered to Jajce through HVO logistics centres. Personnel assistance from the HVO municipal headquarters in central Bosnia was continuously sent until the fall of Jajce. Despite this, even at that time the Muslim media ignored the role of the HVO in the defence of Jajce, often attributing the successes of the HVO to the units of the Territorial Defense (TO), that is, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Most of the problems in the functioning of the defence of Jajce were labelled by Muslim authors in the post-war interpretation of those events the consequence of Croatian demands that Jajce should be joined to HZ HB.