Draft:Clashes in Petrinje

Defense of Petrinje
Part of Croatian War of Independence
Date 2. – 21 September 1991 Location Petrinja, Croatia Result Serbian Victory Petrinja falls into hands of Serbs All non-Serb population of Petrinja is Killed or Displaced
Belligerents
SAO Krajina	Croatia
Commanders and leaders
Zeljko Raznatovic	Unknown
Units involved
Serb Volunteer Guard White Eagles	Unknown
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Clashes in Petrinja (in Serbian: Obrana Petrinje; in Serbian Cyrillic: Обрана Петриње; in Croatian: Obrana Petrinje) is a set of combat activities undertaken by Croatian forces at the beginning of the Great Serbian aggression against Croatia ( Croatian War of Independence) in order to defend the town of Petrinje. Due to the weak armament of the Croatian forces, the still unfavorable international environment, the great superiority in technology and manpower of the Great Serbian invaders, the strong fifth column, i.e. numerous rebels, the city fell into the hands of the invaders.

Prelude of the Battle

Croatian Police forces were newly trained members of the First Croatian Police Officer course.In September 1990, the legal Croatian authorities established a police station where they displayed the Croatian National Coat of arms on the station board, which, like every Croatian coat of arms, was called Ustaše by the anti-democratic and Greater Serbian forces. At that, the Serbs from Petrinja and the surrounding villages inhabited by Serbs gathered and revolted. They attacked the Croatian police station with weapons and tried to take weapons from it. This renegade outburst was suppressed. The exceptional courage of the Petrin policemen played a big role in this, as did the help of the unit from Zagreb that came to help the Petrin colleagues. On November 29, 1990, members of the MUP of Croatia arrested Željko Ražnjatović, known as Arkan, in the Dvor na Uni and brought him to the investigating judge in Zagreb.

On January 5, 1991, the so-called The Supreme Administrative Court of Krajina informed the MUP of the Republic of Croatia that the police units of Knin, Obrovac, Benkovac, Gračac, Donje Lapac, Titove Korenica, Dvor na Una, Glina, Kostajnica and Vojnić became part of the so-called SUP of Krajina. This announcement announced the boiling of the situation around Petrinja, because the nearby Glina, Hrv. Kostajnica and Vojnić are hereby declared a rebel area. On January 28, 1991, the so-called The Serbian National Council and the Executive Council of SAO Krajina made a decision that SAO Krajina disassociates from the Republic of Croatia and remains in Yugoslavia. On February 15, 1991, Borislav Mikelić, president of the "Gavrilović" Management Board, later a high-ranking official of the rebel parastate, submitted his irrevocable resignation.

On April 1, 1991, the so-called The Executive Council of the National Council of SAO Krajina passed the Decision on the annexation of Krajina to the Republic of Serbia, and that the laws of the Republic of Serbia and the Constitution of the SFRY are valid on its territory, and on May 1, at the constituent session of the "Assembly of SAO Krajina", a referendum was announced on the annexation of Serbia, on May 4, armored units came to the Dvor na Una, on May 11 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia declared the "SAO Krajina" referendum on the annexation of Serbia unconstitutional, but on May 16 the so-called The Assembly of SAO Krajina unanimously passed the Decision on the annexation of Serbia.

Towards the end of the spring and the beginning of the summer of 1991, the JNA openly helped the Serbian rebels in Croatia.

On June 8, members of Chetnik-terrorist units attacked the settlements of Hrvatska Dubica, Bačin, Cerovljane, Predora and the surrounding towns, terrorizing the civilian population, killing several dozen Croatian citizens.

On June 25, the Croatian Parliament adopted the Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia. Along with Croatia, Slovenia also declared independence. On the same day, the "martićevci" attacked the Dvor na Una, and on June 26, in the early morning hours, at 4:45 a.m., the first aggression of the Serbs in the Sisak-Bania region began with the attack of armed paramilitary enemy groups on the police station of the Croatian police in Glina, and on the same day, the rebels in the Dvor declared a "state of war" and mobilization for the JNA. On June 27, in Bosanski Grahovo, the unification of the Bosnian Krajina and the SAO Krajina was announced and a Declaration was made about it.

When the JNA attacked Slovenia, the possibility of Croatia attacking the JNA was considered, as an aid to the ally Slovenia. ZNG commander and defense minister General Martin Špegelj advocated a general Croatian attack on the JNA barracks, and only Stjepan Mesić supported him at the VONS session. The President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, rejected this proposal. He and his like-minded people were convinced that the leadership of the JNA was waiting for such a thing, which would give it quasi-legitimacy for an attack on Croatia, for which it would be dangerous, considering that it had been disarmed by handing over the weapons of the Territorial Defense of the then SR of Croatia to the Yugoslav People's Army on 23 May 1990

In July and August 1991, the JNA more and more openly sided with the Greater Serbs, conspicuously obstructing every action of the Croatian police by imitating a buffer zone between the Croatian police and the Serbian rebels, although by law the JNA did not have a mandate for these things at all, the police did. As a rule, every such action saved the Serbian rebels from defeat, disarmament and arrest. In this way, the JNA made a kind of coup d'état, because it ignored the legal authorities of the state of Croatia (as it was defined back in the SFRY) and sided with the rebels, obstructing the work of the police and civil authorities, and in addition abusing the armed forces it had. That July and August, the Greater Serbs persecuted and killed the Croatian population in the vicinity of Petrin: Hrastovica, Kraljevčani, Hrvatski Čuntić, Bjelovac and other places.

On July 2, the police station in Kozibrod (Dvor on Una municipality) was attacked. On July 15, the JNA attacked the outposts of the MUP of the Republic of Croatia and Kraljevčane with tanks. Residents of Hrvatski Čuntić, Kraljevčani, Dragotinaci and Prnjavor fled towards Petrinja. During the escape, they were exposed to heavy machine gun and mortar fire. They arrived in Petrinja, where around 800 residents from those villages found temporary refuge. On July 25, the traffic cut off of Petrinja is increasing. The railway line Sisak Predgrađe - Petrinja - Karlovac was mined in several places, the stations were damaged, as a result of which traffic on that line was completely interrupted. The railway connection to Sisak lasted until August 18. The next day, July 26, the JNA attacked in nearby Glina the MUP station of the Republic of Croatia in Jukinac, a part of Glina in the direction of Petrinja, inhabited by Croats. Due to the safety of the population and the intensity of the attack, the MUP and ZNG evacuated across Rijeka Glina towards G. and D. Viduševac. Thus, Petrinja remained surrounded on the southwest side as well. On July 29, Petrinja remained indirectly cut off from traffic. Neighboring Sisak is cut off towards Sunja. On the railway Sisak suburb - Sunja - Bosanski Novi and Sunja - Novska there is a complete interruption of traffic: the railway is mined in several places between Sunja and Hrvatska Kostajnica and Šaš and Jasenovac; electrotechnical devices were damaged or robbed in several places.

On August 25, the security conditions were still such that the President of the Republic of Croatia Franjo Tuđman was able to visit the front line in Pecki near Petrinja, the city of Petrinja itself, Sisak and Hrvatska Kostajnica. The organizers of the defense were Đuro Brodarac and Ivan Bobetko, who then submitted a report on the situation on the front and the organization of the defense. On August 31, the JNA attacked the industrial zone of Sisak, in the immediate vicinity of Petrinja.

Timeline of Battle

After the ethnic cleansing of the area and the creation of a strategically cleared area on the other side of the river, the paramilitary units of the insurgent Serbs, the Chetnik units from Serbia and the Yugo-communist JNA, which was managed by the Serbs, attacked Petrinja. Fighting broke out on September 2. Petrinja was attacked by the JNA from its tank garrison under the command of Tarbuk, before the September peace conference on Yugoslavia, the battles for the barracks and the expiration of the moratorium on the Croatian declaration of independence.

Tanks and armored vehicles came out of the barracks in Petrinja and entered the center of the city, which was followed by firing from them and demolition of everything they encountered. The Croatian authorities mobilized all men between the ages of 18 and 50 to join the ZNG reserve in order to strengthen the defense. The Croatian defenders resisted the most at Taborište, Pecki and other points that were the approach to the city.

Lieutenant Colonel Tarbuk threatened the Croatian forces at 12:18 pm and ordered the firing of five to six grenades towards the villa "Gavrilović". With this, the JNA committed an open attack on the city and the inhabitants of Petrinja, during which the city suffered one of the greatest destructions in its history. The fighting lasted until 19:50. Tank missiles. were destroyed dj. kindergarten, church of St. Lovre, secondary school center, municipal court, Municipality building, several commercial buildings, among which "Slavijatrans" workshop, "Gavrilovića" food silo, shoe factory, hospital building, and several residential and commercial buildings. 11 civilians and three ZNG members were brought to the hospital in Sisak; Nikola Lokner and Stjepan Bučar died. Serbian attacks on the city continued. The next day, September 3, fighting took place in the positions around the village of Pecki, which is defended by the Croatian Guard, and the attacks come from Luščan and Bačuga.

More than 40 mines were fired in the mortar attack; six Croatian fighters were wounded. Hope for the success of the defense was provided by the news that the 57th battalion of the Sisak National Guard Corps, under the command of Antun Bobetko, captured the military-storage area of ​​the occupying JNA called Barutana in nearby Sisak, which was the first conquered JNA barracks in Croatia. 7. On September 1, Serbian forces attacked a strategically important settlement in the immediate vicinity of Petrinja from the south, Taborište. The ZNG troops were forced to withdraw from the position there. On September 8, from the "V. Gaćeša" barracks, 10 tanks went to positions towards Kotar forest (Kotar-Stari gaj), immediately southeast of Petrinja. During the day, JNA attacks on positions of Croatian forces in Hrastovica and Pecko became more frequent. On September 9, around 100 Serbian reservists gathered near the inn in Mali Šušnjar and set off on foot towards Hrastovica, a place south of the city, west of Taborište.Immediately after arriving at the positions around the railway station not far from Hrastovica, they opened rapid fire on the place. On the same day, a ZNG and MUP patrol was ambushed in the village of Križ. On that occasion, Andrija Barić, a member of the MUP reserve, was killed, and one member was seriously wounded. Not long after that, an infantry attack on Križ and Hrastovica followed (it was a coordinated action by Serbian troops and the JNA). Across Kupa, in Sisak, the situation worsened, so increased security measures had to be implemented. A curfew was introduced from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.; blackout measures also came into effect.Together with the local Serbs whom it previously armed, the occupied JNA entered Hrvatska Kostajnica on September 12, and on September 13, a large part of the Croatian forces there naively surrendered (relying on promises, school friendships, and family ties), but some decided to breakthrough from the hoop towards the free territory. On September 13, members of the JNA entered the facilities of the "Kodričevo" work unit of the "Gavrilović" factory in Petrinja. Some hope was offered by the news that Croatian defenders had captured JNA Major General Milan Aksentijević and several JNA officers in the vicinity of Karlovac. On September 14, Serbian terrorists attacked Croatian forces in Topusko. The JNA uses various weapons to fire at Petrinja, and around 5:30 p.m. it hits the "Gavrilović" silo and the tower of the church of St. Kate. Hrvatska Kostajnica fell to the end in the hands of the JNA. Chetniks in Petrinja captured and shot 14 members of the MUP and ZNG.

The attack on September 16, 1991, which was ordered by warlord and war criminal Slobodan Tarbuk, is notorious. They captured 17 Croatian defenders and killed them at Villa Gavrilović; other sources state September 18, 1991 as the date of the execution, the place of execution is the position around the new hospital, and they say that members of the ZNG were massacred. On September 16, a mortar attack on Petrinja, Brest and Mošćenica began from the direction of the "V. Gaćeša" barracks. The infantry of the JNA entered the city from the direction of the same barracks, and at the same time around the bypass in Petrinja, Češki Selo and Drenčina, the Croatian defenders are retaliating against the superior enemy. During the fighting, the Serbian forces damaged the toxic ammonia tank in "Gavrilović", which contains 87 tons of ammonia. On the same day, the JNA entered the business circle of "Gavrilović" and destroyed it. With six shells, they also hit the "Finel" wood industry, and the shells also fell on Mošćenica and Praćno, settlements east of Petrinja, and west of Sisak; several family houses were affected. The fire trucks of the special unit from Zagreb arrive in Brest, but the JNA does not allow the fire in "Gavrilović" to be extinguished. About forty wounded guardsmen and civilians from Petrinja, Brest and Mošćanica were brought to the hospital in Sisak; ZNG members Stjepan and Zlatko Žugaj were killed. A member of the Chetnik-terrorist units Jugoslav Vidić singled out Stjepan Komes from a group of workers in the MI "Gavrilović" circle (he shook hands with President Tuđman during the President's visit to Petrinja) and cut off his hand with a butcher's knife; Stjepan Komes died from his wound. On this terrible day, the good news for the defenders of Petrinja was that the Croatian army destroyed the radar system in the Sašin Greda military-missile base near Sisak, and conquered that base, which was held by JNA soldiers.

On September 18, there was a fierce mortar attack on Petrinja from all types of weapons from the direction of the JNA barracks "V. Gaćeša". The first news about the massacre of 17 guardsmen at positions around the new hospital has reached the public. On that day, Croatian defenders shot down two Yugoslav aircraft over Petrinja. September 19, the first foreign journalist victim. The explosion killed journalist Pierre Blancket and seriously wounded Patrick Giganti.

After the failure of the conquest of the city, between the same protagonists and the decision to attack Petrinja again, it was agreed to cut off all communications with the competent commands (with the command of the Fifth Military District in Zagreb), so that the attack would not be stopped. September 21 was the fiercest attack on the city. Attacked by airplanes, and they especially targeted the Kupa bridge. JNA tanks from a position above České Selo opened fire on the positions of the Croatian army in Mošćenica and Petrinja. ZNG members Ivica Kunert, Đuro Marković and Milan Klarić died on that occasion. In the evening, fierce battles were fought around the Kupa bridge towards Brest, and the defenders were forced to cross the bridge and organize a defense on the left side of the Kupa. Petrinja was occupied by the JNA and Serbian paramilitary units under heavy infantry fire on September 21 at 6:30 p.m. According to the information presented in the conviction of Slobodan Tarbuk, a lot of Croatian civilians were killed in the attacks of September 16 and 21, and there was a need to bury them. The dead were found in houses, gardens, streets, garages, halls, streets, yards and basements. The dead were buried in the "St. Benedict" and "St. Nicholas" cemeteries, and many in the yards and gardens on the spot where they were found, and it is believed that the owners or tenants of those houses were buried there. In addition, a common grave was made which was called "Economy" and was in the area of ​​the "Vasilj Gaćeša" barracks. The JNA collected the dead for 5-6 days, and they started after the last attack on September 21, 1991. Civil protection continued the burial work. Most of those killed were middle-aged civilians who were shot dead, but some were killed with axes or mutilated afterwards. The reviewed materials showed that over a hundred citizens of Petrinja were killed in the attack on July 21.

At the trial of Slobodan Tarbuk (in absentia), the court concluded that the fact that members of the Territorial Defense took part in the destruction of Petrinja was partially accepted, but it was undoubtedly established that they were fully armed with weapons from the barracks and that they were under the command of Slobodan Tarbuk and that they actively participated with him in the elaboration of the plan, the attack that was made on the city.

On September 26, insurgent Serbs opened artillery fire on the town of Grabovac, about 15 km to the south, killing Dubravka Špoljarić (18), Josipa Špoljarić (17) and Ivan Špoljarić (two months) and wounding five civilians.

Soon the Greater Serbs occupied Hrvatska Dubica and all the Croatian villages around them.

On other battlefields, Croatia managed to achieve victories, but on September 24, 1991, an international event paralyzed Croatian efforts for liberation. The UN Security Council, at the urging of Great Britain, voted the infamous Resolution no. 713, which introduced an embargo on arms imports to Yugoslavia.

Although Petrinja fell on September 21, Croatian forces from the area did not surrender. The village of Nova Drenčina, to which Petrinja continues to the north, is essentially merged with that city and represents the northern quarter. On October 6, Chetniks attacked Nova Drenčina. Then they killed Nikola Jelekovac and ZNG member Mirko Vidović in the attack, and destroyed and set fire to a large number of residential and commercial buildings.

Consuequences of the invasion

With the fall of Petrinja, Serbia completed its conquests in the area of ​​Banovina all the way to Kupa. Glina, Topuska and Hrvatska Kostajnica were already conquered by the Greater Serbs and joined to their parastate. By stabilizing these conquered areas, they achieved a strategic hinterland and the conditions for further attempts to conquer Croatia to the north, south and west. The attack on Karlovac soon followed as part of the general attack on Croatia at the beginning of October 1991.

After capturing the city, the Greater Serbs killed a large number of civilians and all traces of these civilians were lost. In addition to civilians, they also committed crimes against captured soldiers. The places of slaughter were in Petrinja and in the surrounding villages. In the months that followed, they killed more than 250 civilians (about a hundred in November 1991 alone), mostly elderly people, but also children aged 10 to 13.

Some were found brutally murdered, decapitated, as is the case with one body in Graberje, ten kilometers from Petrinja. Excavations after the war found mass graves near Petrinja, one in the Petrinja cemetery. The carcasses of domestic animals, cows, dogs, and cats were transferred over the human remains, and since none of the returnees knew that there was a mass grave there, the site was used as a garbage dump in recent years.

Although the Greater Serbs occupied the city, the nearly month-long resistance of the Croatian forces gave Croatia the much-needed time. Croatia engaged the best forces (the 2nd Guards Brigade and others) that it had available and thus gained time, occupied the Serbian forces in the area of ​​Petrinja, the defense on the Kupa was consolidated, and in other places Croatian cities were successfully defended (Karlovac , Zadar, Šibenik, Gospić, Vinkovci, Bjelovar, Dubrovnik, Osijek, Pakrac, Lipik...), and the first liberations began. Croatian diplomacy also profited a lot from this, because during the fight for Petrinja there was a conference on the former Yugoslavia and tireless lobbying in the UN and elsewhere. During that conference, the attributes of statehood were taken away from Yugoslavia, and from September 7, every thesis about a "civil war" was demolished, and Serbia was clearly declared the aggressor.

Due to the clever organization of the Croatian defense, Croatian soldiers and civilians avoided a catastrophe of genocidal proportions. Given that the attackers of Petrinja were guided by the same ideology, implemented the same strategy carried out by the same type of people according to the same instructions from Belgrade, Petrinja would suffer a similar fate as Srebrenica. Since the Croatian army constantly ensured the evacuation of the city despite heavy casualties, the Croats avoided the fate of Srebrenica.

Serbian Occupation

After all the exiles who had to leave Petrinja and their homes due to the occupation in 1991 were listed, this figure was arrived at: 10,535 citizens, of which 9,352 Croats, 215 Muslims, 790 Serbs and 178 others. During the battle for the city and the occupation of Petrinja, Petrinja suffered great damage to commercial buildings. More than 3,350 residential buildings were damaged and destroyed, of which 1,579 apartments and houses were completely demolished and burned, if there was no possibility of repairing these homes. Because of this, most of the returnees were left without any property with which they could continue their lives. During the Great Serbian occupation, more than 300 civilians, Croats, were killed in Petrinja. The killed Croats were mostly elderly people who stayed behind because they believed that they had done no harm to anyone. The exiled people of Petrinja could never understand how all these evils and murders in Petrinja happened before the eyes of more than eight thousand Serbs, who remained in Petrinja after the exiles left. Many of those Serbs who remained, with weapons in hand, just calmly watched as the houses of their neighbors, with whom they lived in harmony for almost half a century, disappeared in flames. It is particularly incomprehensible how many Croats from Petrinja went to the partisans in 1941 bare-handed to oppose similar evil, which then, above all, befell them.

The military casualties of the Croatian forces, whose place of residence and life belonged to the former municipality of Petrinja, by the end of the Homeland War were as follows: 224 veterans were killed and missing.

Liberation

Petrinja waited a long time for liberation. The rebels, considering that Petrinja was a larger settlement located opposite Sisak, firmly fortified the town and made it the main stronghold in the northern sector. It was the largest occupied city of Banovina with a very strong and fortified barracks of the former JNA. Therefore, it was very difficult to liberate it, as it was possible during the war in other places. Only on the third day of the Croatian military-police operation Storm, Petrinja saw its freedom, when large parts of Banovina, Kordun and Lika were liberated.

The Croatian forces encountered fierce resistance from the Serbs at the entrance to Petrinja. 2. Mr. Gromovi had the task of attacking towards Petrinja, but a serious setback occurred. Since the commander of ZP Zagreb did not fully comply with the order of the Chief of Staff of the HV, the forces did not carry out the planned task on the main and auxiliary lines, because he deviated from the main direction of the attack, so the Croatian forces went with a direct attack on Sisak - Petrinja, to which they the enemies (31st Infantry Brigade) were prepared. In the fighting at the entrance to the city, the HV lost several tanks due to rebel anti-tank missiles, many Croatian soldiers were killed, including the commander of the 2nd battalion of the 2nd brigade, Predrag Matanović. It also got stuck on auxiliary routes, and even where a breakthrough was established, losses were suffered and a standstill ensued. The change of leadership (led by Major General Ivan Basarac) and the breakthrough of lines in other directions contributed to overcoming the crisis.

The Greater Serbs, aware of the guilt of the crimes committed, of weak morale and demoralized by the fall of Knin the day before, on August 6, the strongholds in the northern sector - Banovina, Lica and Kordun - fell one after the other. The key was that the Croatian forces liberated Hrvatska Dubica on August 5, forced the Una river towards Hrvatska Kostajnica and Dvor, and that General Petar Stipetić came to head Sector North. It was very certain that the Serbian rebels around Petrinja and Glina would be cut off because the Croatian forces were advancing from behind along the Una. General HV Stipetić regrouped his forces and repeated the attack on Petrinja. He introduced fresh forces and it was soon relieved by the 2nd Brigade. On the morning of August 6, Gromovi, that is, the forces of ZP Zagreb, liberated Petrinja and its surroundings. The fighting in the entire North sector was fierce and in that sector the HV suffered the heaviest losses, both at the very beginning of the liberation campaign and in the momentum phase.

References

Category:Battles of the Croatian War of Independence Category:Croatian War of Independence