ULOGA JNA U PRIPREMI AGRESIJE NA REPUBLIKU BOSNU I HERCEGOVINU 1992‒1995. I OTPOR AGRESIJI, S POSEBNIM OSVRTOM NA PODRUČJE SJEVEROISTOČNE BOSNE
THE ROLE OF YPA IN THE PREPARATION OF AGGRESSION AGAINST THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN 1992-1995, AND RESISTANCE TO THE AGGRESSION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE AREA OF NORTHEAST BOSNIA

Author(s): Izet Šabotić
Subject(s): Regional Geography, Military history, Military policy, Studies in violence and power, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Institut za istraživanje zločina protiv čovječnosti i međunarodnog prava Univerziteta u Sarajevu
Keywords: Yugoslav People’s Army (YPA); Territorial defence (TD) of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bosnia and Herzegovina; northeast Bosnia; Tuzla; aggression;
Summary/Abstract: The paper points out at the role of the YPA in the preparation and implementation of the aggression against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with special reference to northeast Bosnia. The YPA took the side of the great-state Serbian ideologists, blindly implementing the policy created in Belgrade, which implied open aggression and pretensions towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this respect, the YPA has been carrying out numerous activities since the late 1980s, working on the Serbisation of the YPA, installing exclusively Serbian-Montenegrin command staff in key positions. This made it possible for the YPA to be fully involved in the preparation of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it played a key role in all of this. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the YPA implemented a plan to disarm and disable the TD of Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking over most of its weapons. It openly armed the Serb national component in Bosnia and Herzegovina, worked in cooperation with the SDS to undermine the constitutional and legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to implement war plans, such as the “RAM”, “TEPIH” and “DRINA” plans, which implied open aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the aforementioned plans, the area of northeast Bosnia had a special significance for the aggression planners. Therefore, the YPA carried out numerous activities in this area. Preparations for the aggression were entrusted to the YPA 17th Corps, based in Tuzla. According to a clearly developed plan, the YPA armed the Serb population, for which the high-ranking YPA officers were strictly in charge of. Through the YPA, a significant number of YPA units, which arrived from Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro, were deployed in northeast Bosnia. Propaganda was constantly spread in this area for the purpose of collapsing the security situation and creating insecurity among the population. In preparation for the aggression, YPA units occupied important military-strategic points in this area. All the aforementioned activities were carried out by the YPA under the complete control of the military and political leadership from Belgrade, and in cooperation with the SDS of Bosnia and Herzegovina. By April 1992, the YPA had made all the necessary preparations for the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aggression began in early April 1992, precisely in the area of northeast Bosnia, with the attack on Bijeljina and other places in the Bosnian Podrinje. The consequences of the brutal aggression would have been much greater if the goals of the great-state ideologists and planners had not been recognised on time in this area, so that the preparations were made accordingly, responsibly, and decisively to start providing resistance to the aggression.

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