Tomasevich state that the uprising was a " spontaneous , unorganised outburst " that was doomed to failure , and involved neither the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović nor the Communist Party of Yugoslavia ( Serbo @-@ Croatian : Komunistička partija Jugoslavije , KPJ ) . He contend that the uprising was the result of several factors , including the Ustaše persecutions , fear and hatred of the NDH authorities , a local tradition of rebellion against the Ottoman Empire , the poor economic conditions in eastern Herzegovina , and news of the launching of Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union . Hoare concur with Tomasevich that the uprising was in the tradition of the Herzegovinian rebellions against the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century , such as the uprisings in 1875 – 77 . Edmund Glaise @-@ Horstenau , the German Plenipotentiary General in the NDH , believed that the Italians might have deliberately avoided interfering in the uprising . General Renzo Dalmazzo , the commander of the Italian 6th Army Corps , blamed the Ustaše and Muslims for stoking the revolt .