Prof. dr. Stjepo Obad
professor; contemporary history-Faculty of Philosophy, Zadar
Mihovila Pavlinoviaa 9/III
23000 Zadar-CROATIA

The Prevlaka peninsula as it is being called in recent times, or Cape Ostro, Ostra or Ponta Ostra as the locals of Konavle call it, was situated in the district of Vitaljina or Vitalina during the Middle Ages. It was first mentioned in history in the tenth century, although, there is more information available about the peninsula in the fourteenth century. In the late Middle Ages, Vitaljina was closely linked with the remaining Konavle region with whom it formed a broader geographic, economic, ethnic and religious entity. The border between Vitaljina and Prevlaka was more precisely known in the year 1391 especially in 1419 when eastern Konavle and Vitaljina, properties of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian lord Sandalj Hranic, were sold to the inhabitants of Dubrovnik. The sale contract, among other things, states that the territory passed into the possession of Dubrovnik "na vike vika" (forever and ever). Just as the remaining Konavle was divided among the citizens and estate owners of Dubrovnik, so was the peninsula of Prevlaka. The land was to be cultivated by the villagers-serfs of Vitaljina. Throughout the duration of the Republic of Dubrovnik, Prevlaka was to serve as a shelter to the people of Konavle to protect them from invading mountain tribes from the hinterlands of territory to the north-east of Konavle.

In the early eighteenth century, the Republic of Dubrovnik separated from Venetian Dalmatia and Venetian Boka Kotorska through the corridors of Sutorina and Kleka. From that time, Ottoman Herzegovina descended towards the sea on both sides of the republic and surrounded it on all three sides until its collapse in 1808. During the periods of the later nations in this region, such as Napoleon’s France, Austria, Austro-Hungary and monarchist and socialist Yugoslavia, the border of Konavle with Prevlaka towards its neighbours in the south-east did not change.

After the defeat of the French in Europe (1813), the victors created a new map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna, according to which Dalmatia and Istria entered into the formation of Austria, and later Austro-Hungary until 1918. The new Kingdom of Dalmatia extended from Rab and Karlobag in the north to Budva in the south and after the Berlin Congress (1878) it reached as far as Spie near Bar. Accordingly, the former territory of the Republic of Dubrovnik with Prevlaka entered into the Kingdom of Dalmatia and like a bridge connected Dalmatia and Boka Kotorska into a broader administrative-political entity. The first modern land survey in Dalmatia, carried out in the 1820’s and 1830’s, and in Konavle and Prevlaka in 1837, once again confirmed the fifteenth century borders towards the neighbours to the south-east of Konavle and stretched from Cape Kobila along the elevations of Kosara Mountain, or Montanja as the people of Vitaljina call it, to near the village of Ploeice and from there over the Gumanac Mountain to Debeli Brijeg and then north along the stream and then east along the elevations of Mount Bjelotina to Kunak where Konavle borders with Herzegovina.

During Austrian and later Austro-Hungarian rule, Prevlaka obtained strategic importance due to the construction of a fortress (For), a road, lighthouse, and pier for military purposes in the 1850’s. Until the downfall of the Monarchy in 1918, there was a permanent military garrison in the fortress. Prevlaka’s importance increased with the conflicting interests of the great forces in World War I. The Entente powers, namely, through a secret pact in London, promised Italy a part of the eastern Adriatic and its war ships attempted to prevent the delivery of arms, ammunition, food and reinforcements to the Austro-Hungarian military base in the Boka Kotorska Bay. Prevlaka obtained great significance for defending the entrance to the Boka Kotorska Bay as well as for preventing the disembarking of Italians in the ports of Cavtat and Molunat in Konavle. Austro-Hungarian military and civilian authorities, wishing to purchase Prevlaka, evaluated the land plots whose value amounted to 290,145.62 Austro-Hungarian crowns in gold. The authorities were ready to pay the quoted amount to the proprietors of Vitaljina and the Priests’ Assembly in Dubrovnik, however, in the meantime, the war ended and the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, thereby bringing an end to this transaction.

In the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Yugoslavian army took possession of the Prevlaka point and during the period between the two wars, the army slowly spread toward the middle of the peninsula, constructing new buildings along with another pier on the inner side, as well as military hangars. The farmers of Vitaljina were denied the cultivation of the land and the gathering of harvest. On several occasions, the peasants complained to civil and military authorities on all levels, even to the government president Petar Zivkovic and King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic. They stated, amongst other things, that their plots of land in Prevlaka were their source of life and that they were paying taxes on land which they were not cultivating, forcing many to become beggars. However, all complaints were in vain. Some families from Vitaljina, who had been serfs for the Priests’ Assembly in Dubrovnik, officially rather than practically, became land owners during the agrarian reform of 1931, so that all of Prevlaka was in the was owned by the villagers of Vitaljina.

With the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, neighbouring Boka Kotorska was forcefully separated from Dalmatia with whom for centuries it had lived a civilised life administratively, economically, and culturally, and was annexed to the Zeta District (1922), then the Zeta Banovina (Ban’s dominion) (1929) in other words - Montenegro. This is how the centuries-old historical border between Venetian, Austrian, French, and again Austrian or Austro-Hungarian Dalmatia, one of three Croatian lands, towards Montenegro, was tyrannically severed and moved west to the old border which divided Konavle and Sutorina along the mountain tops of Kosara (Montanja), Gumanac, Debeli Brijeg, and Bjelotina.

During World War II, the eastern half of Konavle with Prevlaka and Boka Kotorska found itself under Italian occupation. There was an Italian military crew and camp on the peninsula of Prevlaka where anti-fascists were brought mainly from the coastal areas. After the collapse of fascist Italy, Prevlaka was occupied by the Germans until the end of the war when it was freed by Croatian partisans. During the war, the farmers freely cultivated the land in Prevlaka and gathered their harvest.

In the first few years after the war, the farmers of Vitaljina cultivated the free plots of land in Prevlaka. However, the lots with military facilities were not accessible for cultivation or grazing. From 1951 to 1954, the Yugoslavian National Army paid rent to the farmers for the land on which there were military facilities. The State Secretariat for National Defence in Belgrade was ordered to administer the plots of land and the military facilities on Prevlaka. Two years later, the farmers were denied access to Prevlaka and the payment of rent was suspended to those Vitaljina farmers on whose land military facilities were to be found. The farmers voiced complaints to the civil and military authorities and pleaded that they be paid for the "confiscated land," or that they be given back their property to cultivate since they continued to pay taxes. They did not succeed. Finally, on December 15, 1958, the State Secretariat of National Defence brought a resolution, which, among other things, determines that the body which will administer property in the Vitaljina cadastral district, including Prevlaka, will be the State Secretariat of National Defence." The District Court in Dubrovnik, as the land registry court, had to carry out the registration. This was done. The appeals of the farmers to the Regional Court in Dubrovnik and the Supreme Court in Zagreb were in vain. The latter, namely, replied that the decision of the Regional Court was "final and valid". Since there was no legal redress, the farmers turned to some well known generals and admirals who promised to intercede on their behalf but nothing became of it. The farmers also called upon one of Montenegro’s most prominent leaders, Blaz Jovanovic, who told them: "You are in the right but you are weak". In the end they decided to visit Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade to complain about the behaviour of the military authorities but they could not gather enough money to settle the travel and hotel expenses so that in the end they gave up. This is how the farmers of Vitaljina lost both their land and money. After World War II, in the territorial exchange between the government of the People’s Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the government of the People’s Republic of Montenegro, Herzegovina’s Sutorina became a part of Montenegro. From then on, the People’s Republic of Croatia, subsequently called the Socialist Republic of Croatia, and today’s independent and sovereign Republic of Croatia border with Montenegro, along the same elevations marked in the land registry books of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. With the formation of the independent and free Croatian state, after multi-party and democratic elections, the question arose as to the future existence of the Yugoslav Army on its territory and in Prevlaka. In July of 1991, around the village of Vitaljina, the Yugoslav People’s Army installed three machine-gun nests. The first provocation occurred on September 13, 1991, when a Croatian police van was attacked from Ilinica as it was approaching Vitaljina from Dubrovnik. The same incident occurred again the following day. On Sunday, September 22, 1991, the Yugoslav People’s Army opened machine gun fire from the exact place on the Vitaljina people in the centre of a village called Greben, a place where the villagers regularly gathered on Sunday afternoons. They quickly scattered for shelter and, fortunately no one was killed. On the following day, the frightened people abandoned their homes and headed towards Cavtat and Dubrovnik. The provocation continued and within the next few days the members of the Yugoslav People’s Army by agreement, shot at one another in such a way as to blame the "Ustashe" from Vitaljina of attacking them. Meanwhile, the people of Vitaljina were completely defenceless. The Yugoslav Army resorted to all kinds of fabrications, well-known from histories of warfare, so as to instigate Serbs and Montenegrins into turning against the Croatians in the Dubrovnik region thereby justifying a general attack on the region on October 1, 1991. The Yugoslav People’s Army attacked Konavle from the Montenegrin and Herzegovinian side by land, sea, and air. The majority of people were forced to leave their homes and move into Cavtat, Dubrovnik and other Croatian towns. A group of forty inhabitants of Konavle decided to move into the mountains in order to defend their birthplace. Over one hundred homes were looted and burned while many people were captured and placed into the camps in Morinje and Bileca where they were mistreated in such a way that some became ill and died while others were simply killed. After the year long occupation of the Dubrovnik hinterland and the shelling of Dubrovnik which occurred repeatedly, an agreement was reached between the President of Croatia, Dr. Franjo Tudjman and the President of the so-called Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dobrica Cosic, in Geneva, in which the Yugoslav Army had to pull out of the Dubrovnik area. This was the first time the Yugoslav Army, by agreement, had to withdraw from Croatian national territory, while the peninsula Prevlaka was to remain under the control of United Nations observers.