Paulin Dvor

location: Paulin Dvor is a village located ten kilometres south of Osijek, to which it belonged administratively until 1991. Two kilometres east of the village lies Ernestinovo, connected to Paulin Dvor by road. In 1991, Paulin Dvor had 168 inhabitants, of whom 147, or 87.5%, identified as Serbs. Twenty years later, according to the 2011 census, the village had 76 residents, less than half of the 1991 population. As it is currently not possible to access the national composition of residents by settlement in the most recent census, only by municipality and city, and given the absence of known resettlement of Croats from Bosnia or Kosovo to this village, it is assumed that the current population is predominantly Serb.

time: 11 December 1991

description of crime: A number of members of the 130th Brigade of the Croatian Army, its 2nd Company in the 1st Battalion , having previously made an agreement in the Bijelo-plavi (White Blue) tavern in the village of Vladislavci and motivated by a desire for revenge after learning that a fellow soldier had died in Osijek hospital from a sniper wound, decided to kill civilians in Paulin Dvor. The village was located on the front line and under the control of Croatian forces. Those who had not already fled during the day remained in their homes or moved about the village tending to livestock, but at night, they were detained in groups in several houses. The largest number of civilians, as many as 19, were held in the house of Andrija Bukvić, located at 52 Glavna Street. On 11 December 1991, members of the Croatian Army arrived in the village. To the guard at the entrance, who attempted to stop them, they effectively announced the crime, saying: “We are going to sort things out, there are Serbs here!” They then entered the aforementioned house and killed all nineteen people inside using automatic weapons, pistols, and hand grenades. The victims were ten men and nine women; all were Serbs except for one man of Hungarian nationality. Although the perpetrators initially left the crime scene, they soon returned to ensure that everyone they had shot was indeed dead. The youngest victim was 41 years old, and the oldest was 82.

victims:

  1. Gavrić, Jovan (Teodor), born 1 January 1936
  2. Grubišić, Boja (Miloš), born 19 March 1917
  3. Jelić, Anđa (Mirko), born 19 November 1950
  4. Jelić, Boško (Bogdan), born 8 July 1944
  5. Katić, Bosiljka (Ilija), born 13 May 1944 / 11 May 1944
  6. Katić, Dmitar (Luka), born 1 January 1909 / 1 January 1908
  7. Katić, Draginja (Blagoja), born 5 March 1922
  8. Katić, Milan (Dmitar), born 7 January 1933
  9. Katić, Petar (Dmitar), born 6 January 1937
  10. Kečkeš, Dragutin (Dragutin), born 6 April 1939 (Hungarian)
  11. Labus, Milan (Luka), born 7 June 1941 / 7 June 1940
  12. Lapčević, Milka (Petar), born 1 January 1910 / 1 January 1909
  13. Medić, Vukašin (Ilija), born 30 January 1923
  14. Milović, Milica (Luka), born 14 April 1934
  15. Milović, Spasoja (Savo), born 25 May 1933
  16. Rodić, Milena (Đuro), born 12 July 1929
  17. Sudžuković, Božidar (Dušan), born 7 March 1913
  18. Sudžuković, Marija (Risto), born 15 July 1914
  19. Vujnović, Darinka (Božo), born 17 December 1934 / 17 December 1937

Information on the exhumation and identification of the victims: Shortly after the crime was committed, only a few hours later, 18 bodies were transported by truck to the Lug barracks near Osijek, where they were buried in a mass grave. The body of Darinka Vujnović was found by soldiers of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and/or members of paramilitary units who took control of Paulin Dvor a few days after the crime, and it was buried in Trpinja. In the autumn of 1996, after investigators from the Hague Tribunal took interest in the case, the intelligence services, in cooperation with the military, organised the relocation of 17 bodies. In mid-January 1997, the remains were placed in plastic barrels and transported by military truck to Rizvanuša, a village near Gospić. The 18th body, that of Milka Lapčević, was not among them and had not been found by the time the indictment was issued or during the trial, which is why she was not included in the list of victims named in the subsequent court proceedings. It is assumed that her body fell out during transport from Paulin Dvor to Lug and was buried at the Central Cemetery in Osijek or somewhere in the vicinity of the barracks. It is also possible that it was later found, although we have no information about that. What is certain is that her name does not appear in the 2015 edition of the “Book of Missing Persons in the Republic of Croatia.” The 17 bodies buried in the village of Rizvanuša were discovered by Hague investigators in February 2002, and that they were indeed victims of this crime was confirmed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Zagreb in September of the same year.

Judicial consequences: Two direct perpetrators were convicted for the crime in Paulin Dvor: Nikola Ivanković, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a final judgment of the Supreme Court in 2005, and Enes Viteškić, the second defendant in the case, who in May 2012 was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a non-final judgment at the County Court in Osijek, after the Supreme Court twice returned the case for retrial following two acquittals. There were more perpetrators, and it is clear that some of them are still at large. Furthermore, although the evidence indicates that this war crime was not ordered from the higher ranks of the command chain, that it was committed independently and without the knowledge of superiors, and that some of the perpetrators were immediately brought before the military police and intelligence officers, the fact remains that, apart from shouting, anger, and sending them to the “front line,” the perpetrators were not adequately punished. In fact, everything was done to cover up the crime, which also raises the question of criminal responsibility of those who were involved in that endeavour.

As far as is known, two of the victims’ families sought and succeeded in obtaining compensation through the courts for the killing of close relatives. In July 2005, the Municipal Court in Osijek ruled that the Republic of Croatia must pay 200,000 Croatian kuna in damages for emotional distress to Nenad Jelić, whose mother Anđa and father Boško were killed in Paulin Dvor.