Operation Buna

Operation Buna
Part of the Croat–Bosniak War
Date 9 January – 14 February 1994. Location Vitez, Busovača, Bosnia and Herzegovina Result HVO tactical victory
Belligerents
Herzeg-Bosnia	Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Commanders and leaders
Mate Boban Slobodan Praljak	Alija Izetbegović Rasim Delić
Units involved
ZP Vitez	3rd Corps El Mujahid

The operation Buna was HVO's code name operation and response to the ARBiH attempt to split and weaken the enclave of Vitez and Busovača. ARBiH got less than a kilometer to divide Vitez and Busovača into 2 regions. The HVO began operation Buna driving them back and securing the area from a potential fall.^[1][2]

By early 1994, developments borne of necessity had put the ARBiH at least on a par militarily with the HVO. The HVO was still probably better organized on the unit level and had on average more and better equipment. The Bosnian Army had, however, made major advances in organization, discipline, and coor- dination of larger military operations. It was a fairly even fight, and even with the Croatian Army's inter- vention in support of Herceg-Bosna, the Bosnian Army had the weight of numbers on its side.^[3]

The new year's fighting commenced on 9 January 1994 with a Bosnian Army attack on the Vitez enclave,^[4] just hours before peace talks began between Croat and Muslim representatives in Germany. The 3rd Corps troops surprised the defenders of the HVO Vitez Corps District with a predawn attack and attempted to cut the Vitez-Busovača enclave in two at its narrowest point. Infantry battles raged in the Vitez suburbs on 9 and 10 January, supported by the liberal use of heavy weapons fire on both sides. Another Bosnian Army drive from the south against Croat-held Krušćica further squeezed the HVO positions to the point where the Croats held only a few hundred meters on either side of the road. The desperate HVO defenders hung on doggedly as the two sides battled each other in house to house and hand-to-hand fighting over shattered buildings that changed hands each day. At times reduced to a little less than a kilometer wide isthmus, they still managed to retain control of the vital east west road link, but their traffic was always vulnerable to Bosnian Army gunfire.

Suddenly roughly the third week of January the government forces let up on their offensive on the Vitez enclave for reasons that remain unclear. The Bosnian Army offensive may simply have run out of steam, with its exhausted troops daunted by the prospect of infantry assaults across level ground, for that is what probably would have been necessary to overrun the Croat positions. HVO took back Dubravica, Sivirno Selo, Šantići and Krtine. Then HVO took back Rijeka, Vraniska, Donja Rovna and some other villages. February 14 the HVO liberated Buhine Kuće^[5] and returned the Vitez - Busovača road under control. In the end ARBiH plan to reach Busovača – Vitez road failed and in the end they even lost a bit more land than they had before this attack.^[6]

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Central Intelligence Agency. "Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict, 1990-1995".