Human Rights Action (HRA), the Centre for Civic Education (CGO) and Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past recall that on this day 34 years ago, the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) carried out the heaviest shelling of Dubrovnik during the aggression from 1 October 1991 to 31 May 1992. We still expect the Montenegrin prosecution service to approach the prosecution of crimes committed during the war in Croatia seriously and proactively. From Croatia, we expect cooperation and willingness to contribute to clarifying the initiated cases, viewing the issue of war crimes not only as a national one, but also as a regional issue of shared interest for the rule of law and reconciliation
On 6 December 1991, in Dubrovnik, 19 people lost their lives, while 60 were injured and wounded. Several hundred shells were fired at the old town centre, protected as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. Six buildings were completely destroyed, many more were damaged, including the main Stradun street. The Old Town was subjected to over ten and a half hours of artillery attacks. Within its walls, Pavo Urban (23) and Tonči Skočko (18) were killed, while three people were seriously wounded.
The Hague Tribunal sentenced JNA Lieutenant General Pavle Strugar to seven and a half years’ imprisonment, and Admiral Miodrag Jokić to seven years’ imprisonment, for the crimes committed during the shelling of Dubrovnik. Admiral Jokić, unlike Strugar, pleaded guilty and was convicted on the basis of command responsibility. On that occasion, Jokić apologised for the attack, expressing his regret to the people of Dubrovnik for the victims and the damage:
“…On 6 December 1991, two people were killed, three were wounded, and great damage was done to civilian buildings and to cultural and historical monuments in the Old Town of Dubrovnik. The fact that these lives were lost in the area of my responsibility will remain engraved in my consciousness for the rest of my life. I am prepared, with military dignity, to bow before all the victims of this conflict, regardless of which side they were on. Also, although I did so over the radio during the shelling itself, and afterwards in person, I feel obliged on this occasion as well to express my deepest condolences to the families of the dead and wounded, as well as to the citizens of Dubrovnik, for the pain and damage inflicted upon them by the unit under my command. I regard my regret as a condition for the reconciliation and common life of the peoples in this area.”
However, one of Dubrovnik’s defenders, Goran Žuvela, speaking at a gathering of war veterans in Podgorica in 2022, stated that 38 additional shells failed to detonate that day in the Old Town: “Someone had the decency to deceive his commander. Good for him! We will never know who it was, but a monument should be erected to him. Had those shells with burning phosphorus detonated in the heart of the city, Dubrovnik would have burned to the ground.”
Apart from the unlawful shelling of Dubrovnik on 6 December, the Hague Prosecutor’s Office did not investigate other crimes committed by members of the JNA during the six months of the conquest of the wider Dubrovnik area. During that period, 116 civilians were killed, 194 Croatian fighters and 165 JNA members from Montenegro lost their lives, 443 persons were detained in the Morinj and Bileća camps in inhumane conditions, 33,000 people were displaced, 2,071 residential buildings were destroyed, and private and public property was systematically looted. The city of Dubrovnik was without electricity and water for 138 days, under naval and air blockade.
These data indicate numerous crimes; however, Montenegro has so far prosecuted only four individuals who took part in the abuse of detainees in the Morinj camp, on the territory of Montenegro. Although the obligation to re-examine responsibility for the treatment of the Morinj camp prisoners was strategically defined as early as 2015, for a full nine years there were no real steps in that direction. Only in February 2025 was the case reopened, thereby for the first time creating the possibility to consider all forms of responsibility, especially command responsibility, and to treat this case also through the prism of a joint criminal enterprise.
In addition, since the end of June 2024, the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) in Montenegro has been conducting an investigation against the former Chief Special Prosecutor, Milivoje Katnić, on suspicion that he committed the criminal offence of a war crime against the civilian population during the conflict in the area of Cavtat, Municipality of Konavle in Croatia, during the 1991–1992 war. He is suspected of having acted in an inhumane manner towards certain civilians of Croatian nationality, by attacking them, torturing them, inflicting bodily harm, and insulting their human dignity.
During the previous period, the SDT also contacted the Croatian State Attorney’s Office (DORH), requesting the transfer of cases in which Montenegro could assume jurisdiction. However, DORH replied that no such cases existed, even though proceedings had been initiated in Croatia 16 years ago in which former JNA military officers from Serbia and Montenegro were indicted for war crimes on the Dubrovnik battlefield: Jevrem Cokić, Mile Ružinovski, Pavle Strugar, Miodrag Jokić, Branko Stanković, Obrad Vičić, Radovan Komar, Vladimir Kovačević, Milan Zec and Zoran Gvozdenović. They are accused of having failed, during the aggression on the Dubrovnik area, to prevent the conduct of their units, contrary to the Geneva Conventions, consisting of shelling populated areas, killing civilians (116), detaining, abusing and forcing civilians to flee, destroying civilian, cultural, religious and economic buildings, looting and burning.
According to data from the Court in Split, Radovan Komar and Vladimir Kovačević were born in Nikšić, but even 16 years after the indictment was filed, their residence remained unknown to the Court. Therefore, in 2022, a warrant was issued against them and a European Arrest Warrant was issued.
Since neither Serbia nor Montenegro are obliged to extradite their citizens to Croatia on charges of war crimes, it is unclear why the DORH ignored the inquiry from Montenegrin institutions and continued to delay, thereby further hindering the determination of responsibility and preventing justice for more than three decades. Such an outcome does not support regional cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes, nor does it contribute to building trust and sustainable reconciliation in the region
Human Rights Action (HRA)
Centre for Civic Education (CGO)
Documenta – Centre for Confronting the Past