Varivode is a village located around ten kilometres southwest of Kistanje in the Bukovica region. Today it is part of the Municipality of Kistanje, while before 1991, it was part of the Municipality of Knin. According to the 1991 census, Varivode had 477 inhabitants, all of whom were Serbs. As per the 2011 census, the village had 124 inhabitants, and although data on the ethnic composition is not yet available, it can be assumed that the majority of current residents are also Serbs.

Date: 28 September 1995

Description of the crime: On 28 September 1995, nearly two months after the end of the Operation Storm, several members of Croatian military and police forces entered the village of Varivode during the night and killed nine civilians with firearms. All the killings took place in the yards and homes of the victims, wherever they happened to be. All victims were elderly Serbs.

Information on the exhumation and identification of the victims: All the bodies of those killed were collected and buried in a mass grave in Knin. No autopsies were ever conducted, only external examinations. In 2001, all bodies buried in the city cemetery in Knin were exhumed and, after identification, returned to their families.

Victims:

  1. Berić, Jovan (Vasilije), born 1 January 1920
  2. Berić, Jovan (Jandrija), born 17 October 1939
  3. Berić, Mara/Marija (Božo), born 17 January 1926 / 18 February 1926
  4. Berić, Marko (Golub), born 21 October 1913
  5. Berić, Milka (Špiro/Golub), born 1 January 1924
  6. Berić, Radivoj (Jovan), born 28 July 1926
  7. Berić, Špiro (Milan), born 22 February 1940
  8. Dukić, Dušan (Mirko), born 1 March 1937
  9. Ilijašević, Uglješa (Dušan), born 1 January 1944 / 1 January 1950. The person died between 1 and 27 September 1995. The circumstances of their death have not been fully established.
  10. Pokrajac, Mirko (Jovo), born 1 January 1911

Judicial consequences: Six members of the Croatian police forces were suspected of having committed this crime, but after proceedings before the County Court in Zadar and a retrial before the County Court in Šibenik, the defendants were acquitted, and the investigation was returned to its initial stage, now against unknown perpetrators. Even ten years after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings before the Šibenik court, no new information or perpetrators responsible for the crime in Varivode have emerged. Jovan Berić and his sisters initiated legal proceedings seeking compensation for the killing of their parents. On 18 January 2012, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia issued a ruling stating that the plaintiffs’ revision request was accepted, thereby overturning the decisions of the courts in Šibenik and Zadar, and returning the case for a new trial. The ruling clearly indicates that the Supreme Court considers the deaths of Radivoje and Marija Berić to have been caused by a terrorist act, namely, an act of violence committed out of political motives with the aim of instilling fear, terror, and a sense of personal insecurity among the population. Based on this, the Republic of Croatia is deemed responsible under the principles of social solidarity, equitable burden-sharing, and fair and prompt compensation. In this precedent-setting ruling, the Supreme Court granted the victims’ family the right to compensation, regardless of the fact that the perpetrator of the crime had not been identified, criminally prosecuted, or found guilty. On 23 January 2013, at the Municipal Court in Knin, Judge Ana Jelač-Pecirep, President of the Municipal Court, delivered a verdict in the civil case brought by Jovan Berić and others against the Republic of Croatia, in a retrial based on the 2012 decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia. According to this judgment, the Republic of Croatia is ordered to pay damages in the amount of 540,000 Croatian kuna to the children of Radivoje and Marija Berić, who were killed in the village of Varivode.