Korelacije organizacije odbrane i stradanja stanovništva Foče 1992. godine
Correlations Between the Organization of Defence and the Suffering of the Population of Foča in 1992

Summary/Abstract: Serbian forces deployed for the purposes of aggression in the Foča area in 1992 were more numerous, better organized and commanded, and incomparably better armed and equipped than the defenders, and this imbalance was evident from the very first day of armed conflict. By midOctober 1992, these forces had taken control of all parts of the municipality, sometimes without any armed resistance, and in other cases by successively breaking either stronger or weaker resistance from Bosniak defenders. This paper examines the very rationale for offering such resistance under conditions of overwhelming military superiority and demonstrated brutality of the aggressor, by analyzing the structure of Bosniak victims in Foča during 1992 across individual local communities and functionally correlating these findings with the course of the fighting and the organization of defense. A concise overview of the course of combat in the Foča area, along with exact data on the suffering of the Bosniak population, served as the basis for classifying Foča’s local communities during the initial phase of the war into three categories. This initial period of aggression is defined as lasting from April to the end of 1992. The category of defended local communities includes those where defensive forces against the aggression were organized, engaged, and led with varying degrees of success. Partially defended communities are those where defensive forces were organized but activated only in some settlements, remaining disconnected and uncoordinated across the wider area. Undefended local communities are those where no organized resistance to the aggression took place, regardless of whether some form of defense structure existed or not, and irrespective of individual acts of resistance or isolated actions by small armed groups. By correlating the number and structure of Bosniak victims with the degree of resistance in each defined category of local community, we identified that the highest total number of victims relative to the Bosniak population, as well as the highest number of civilian victims, occurred in the undefended communities. In contrast, the lowest number of total and civilian victims was recorded in the defended communities. As expected, the number of fallen fighters showed the opposite trend: the greatest number of fighters were killed in the defended communities, and the smallest number in the undefended ones.

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