As the centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County and a settlement with over 40,000 inhabitants, Bjelovar is one of the political and cultural hubs of central Croatia. According to the 1991 census, 5,898 Serbs lived in Bjelovar, making up 8.93% of the total population. According to the most recent census in 2011, 1,877 Serbs live in Bjelovar, constituting 4.66% of the total population. Although Bjelovar no longer covers the same area as it did in 1991, and currently has 40,276 inhabitants compared to 66,039 previously, there is a clear significant change in the national structure of the population, visible in the decline of the Serbian population share in this area.

Period: From 29 September to 3 October 1991

Description of crimes: The JNA barracks Božidar Adžija, which housed the 265th Motorised Brigade of the JNA, was located in Bjelovar. In the autumn of 1991, about 150 JNA soldiers were stationed in the barracks. On 29 September 1991, at around 7 a.m., members of the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) began an attack on the barracks. During the day-long conflict and exchange of fire, JNA soldiers hit several civilian buildings in Bjelovar, and three women were killed in the shelling. In the afternoon of the same day, JNA Colonel Rajko Kovačević ordered a ceasefire and the laying down of arms. The ZNG forces then entered the barracks and disarmed the JNA soldiers and officers. Among the prisoners, Colonel Rajko Kovačević, Lieutenant Colonel Miljko Vasić, and First-Class Captain Dragiša Jovanović were singled out and killed with gunshots to the head. On the same day, ZNG forces surrounded a weapons depot in the Bednik forest. After a short fight, the depot commander, Major Milan Tepić, ordered his soldiers to surrender while he stayed in the depot. As Croatian forces entered the facility, Tepić detonated explosives and destroyed the depot. The explosion killed him as well as 11 ZNG members and seven JNA soldiers. Six JNA members — Radovan Barberić, Zdravko Dokman, Radovan Gredeljević, Ivan Hojsak, Boško Radonjić, and one unidentified person — were captured and taken to the police station in Bjelovar. On the night of 3 October 1991, they were taken to the Česma forest near the village of Malo Korenovo and killed there. This is testified by Savo Kovačević, a civilian from Bjelovar accused of being a sniper, who was also taken to the forest but survived the shooting.

Victims:

  1. Barberić, Radovan (-), born 6 September 1958
  2. Dokman, Zdravko (-), born 27 October 1958
  3. Gredeljević, Radovan (Nikola), born 24 April 1958
  4. Hojsak, Ivan (Drago), born 9 September 1959
  5. Jovanović, Dragiša (-), born 1 January 1960
  6. Kovačević, Rajko (Lazo), born 15 April 1941
  7. Radonjić, Boško (Nedeljko), born 8 September 1965
  8. Vasić, Miljko (-), born 1 January 1964

Judicial consequences: Jure Šimić, former president of the wartime crisis headquarters and president of the Executive Council of the Bjelovar Municipal Assembly, was detained in November 2010 by order of the Bjelovar County State Prosecutor’s Office on suspicion of committing a war crime against prisoners of war. According to the allegations in the prosecutor’s request, Šimić singled out three prisoners, K.R., V.M., and J.D., from a group. He then ordered a group of several armed individuals to take the prisoners about ten metres away and kill them, which they did by firing shots from firearms. Šimić was released from detention, but according to statements from the State Attorney’s Office at the time, his trial was to begin in 2015 before the County Court in Rijeka. On 8 June 2015, the main hearing in the criminal proceedings against Jure Šimić for crimes against prisoners of war commenced at the County Court in Rijeka with the reading of the indictment. According to the indictment, the accused Šimić ordered the killing of three captured officers of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), commanders of the Božidar Adžija barracks in Bjelovar. On 29 September 1991, nearly 60 officers and 150 regular soldiers surrendered to Croatian military and police forces; they were disarmed and dressed in just trousers and undershirts. Šimić is charged in the indictment as the president of the Bjelovar Crisis Headquarters with having singled out Colonel Rajko Kovačević, commander of the 265th Motorised Brigade stationed at the barracks, and his assistants Lieutenant Colonel Miljko Vasić and First-Class Captain Dragiša Jovanović, ordering an unidentified group of soldiers to take them aside and kill them. This was carried out by shooting. During the trial, Šimić pleaded not guilty, and four witnesses testified, none of whom were personally present in the barracks at the time of the shooting of the three JNA officers. In October 2019, Šimić was provisionally acquitted of the war crime charge by the County Court in Rijeka. In June 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the state prosecutor’s appeal as unfounded and upheld the acquittal.

In a separate case against Luka Markešić, Zdenko Radić, Zoran Maras, and Ivan Orlović, based on the indictment from September 2001 and subsequent amendments, they were accused of assisting unknown persons in committing the war crime against prisoners of war and the war crime against civilians. This case concerned the victims Radovan Berbetović, Zdravko Dokman, Radovan Gredeljević, Ivan Hojsak, Boško Radonjić, and one unknown person. By a verdict of the County Court in Bjelovar from January 2001, the accused were acquitted. A Supreme Court ruling from April 2004 annulled that first-instance verdict. By a verdict of the County Court in Varaždin from February 2005, the accused were again acquitted, but the Supreme Court annulled that verdict as well. By a verdict of the County Court in Varaždin from December 2007, the accused were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms: Markešić to four years, and the other defendants to three years each. The Supreme Court also annulled this verdict and returned the case for retrial. In November 2011, the president of the War Crimes Council of the County Court in Zagreb issued a verdict acquitting the accused, which was not appealed.