UNESCO and the assault on Dubrovnik
As part of the UNESCO World Heritage, Dubrovnik did not expect a war to be waged on its territory. In 1991, when the war was already under way on the Eastern Slavonian front, Dubrovnik offered to shelter refugees in its hotels. Not even after the first attacks on the villages in the border areas of the Dubrovnik municipality at the end of 1991 or after the first calls for help of the Dubrovnik local authorities was anyone afraid that the Old City would be attacked. Any kind of attack on the historical center was unexpected, and especially such a forceful one as the attack carried out on 6th December 1991. It was precisely due to this disbelief that, the next day, hundreds of citizens of Dubrovnik toured the ruins of the City in shock, despite the grave danger they put themselves in.
UNESCO became involved in promoting peace and stability in former Yugoslavia and conserving its cultural and natural heritage from the end of October onwards, when the Deputy-General of UNESCO Federico Mayor sent the Director of his Executive Office, Daniel Janicot to assess the damage and suggest possible measures for the protection of UNESCO sites. A month later, on 27th November 1991, special expert consultants arrived in Dubrovnik, as the first UNESCO officials in history to be sent to a mission in a war zone.
Until 1998, when Dubrovnik was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger, UNESCO continued its fact-finding mission, conducting protection measures and restoration of Dubrovnik’s cultural heritage damaged in the war.