War crimes against Serbs 1991. — 1995.

location: This war crime occurred in seven villages in Banija, an area in central Croatia within the Sisak — Petrinja — Sunja triangle. They are Blinjski kut, Kinjačka Gornja, Blinjska Greda, Bestrma,Trnjani, Čakale and Brđani.

time: 22 August 1991

description of crime: In the early morning hours of 22 August 1991, members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia (MUP) and members of the Croatian National Guard (ZNG), the unit Gromovi, carried out a military operation from the direction of the villages of Komarevo and Mađari towards several neighbouring Serb villages. The operation was carried out with several modified armoured trucks accompanied by the infantry. As they entered the villages, the ZNG members called out the names of some of the villagers, and as the villagers emerged from their houses, they shot them with firearms. Some of the victims were killed inside their houses. Most of them were civilians, although some were armed and engaged the members of MUP and ZNG, which resulted in the death of five members of Croatian forces and injuries of several others. During this assault, 15 persons were killed and many others were wounded. All victims were Serbs. The youngest victim was Željka Bojinović, who was 21 when she died. ZNG members who had known her called her name, inviting her to come out of the house, and when she did, they killed her.

Victims:

1. Mladen Vranešević
2. Nednad Pajić
3. Petar Crljenica
4. Ljuban Tatišić
5. Lazo Stanić
6. Dragan Biškupović
7. Nedjeljko Čajić
8. Milan Vučinić
9. Ratko Đekić
10. Milan Kladar
11. Radovan Kragulj
12. Ranko Martinović
13. Stevo Simić
14. Dragan Bekić
15. Željka Bojinović

judicial outcome: In 2006, criminal charges were pressed by the County State Attorney of the Republic of Croatia against Ivica Kovačić and others for the criminal act of war crime, but in the same year, the County State Attorney dismissed the charges. To date, no one has been held responsible for this crime. Some of the families sued the Republic of Croatia seeking compensation of damages and realised their rights through first instance court decisions. The case of Željka Bojinović’s parents is well known. The municipal court in Sisak accepted their claim for compensation, established the responsibility of the Republic of Croatia and ruled that Milja and Petar Bojinović should receive material compensation. The court established that the act had the characteristics of a war crime. An appeal procedure is underway.

location: The town of Bjelovar is located in central Croatia, on the southern slopes of mountain Bilogora. It was founded in mid 18^th century as a military center, and over time developed into an administrative center of this part of Croatia. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bjelovar was the regional center for a group of municipalities with key institution, including judiciary, police and military, for a large area from Koprivnica to Pakrac and from Virovitica to Križevci. Today the town has little over forty thousand inhabitants and is the center of Bjelovar – Bilogora County. According to the 1991 census, there were 5 898 Serbs in the former Municipality of Bjelovar, which amounted to 8.9% of the total population, while the town Bjelovar itself had 2590 Serbs or 9.6% of the population. According to the last census from 2011, the town of Bjelovar, which is a territorial unit smaller than the former municipality and larger than the town itself, there are 1877 Serbs, which make up for 4.66 percent of the population. Despite changes in territorial organization, a significant difference can be observed in the national structure of the population, that is a decrease in the number of Serbs.

time: 1991 – 1995

description of the crime: Bjelovar was the location of one of the more severe conflicts aimed at establishing control over army barracks of the Yugoslav National Army. However, there was no fighting in the town itself and its nearest surroundings from October 1991, since all troops left the town for the Pakrac front. Even before the battle for the barracks, since late summer 1991, many citizens of Bjelovar and the surrounding villages received threats asking them to move to Serbia, and offering “house swaps”. Threats were soon carried out by planting explosives under houses, facilities, and agricultural machinery. Since mid 1991 until the end of 1995 several hundred buildings were damaged in some six hundred explosions and drive-by shootings and at least one person died. The property owned by certain citizens was blown up on multiple occasions in the course of several years. Apart from local Serbs, victims of these explosions were also some Croats who asked military and police institutions for these activities to stop.

It was half past 1:00 am and we were all sleeping: my wife, her parents, and our 19 years old daughter. When it exploded, the windows broke, there was glass everywhere. Luckily, no one ran out to see what was happening because shooting started right after the explosion. I later counted 150 hits. At least three men were shooting, I could see them as they loaded their guns. Some ten minutes later something exploded in the garage, under the new Mercedes.

Jovica Brkić, citizen of Bjelovar who had his house planted with explosives

Fifteen days after they blew up my weekend house, I was sleeping with my 7 year old and my 14 year old daughter in the attic, which saved our lives because the explosion that woke us up around 3:30 am destroyed the entire ground floor. It was raining heavily, I ran out of the house and saw a police land rower pass by. Some time later several police officers came to question me. One of the most important questions they had was my nationality. I’m Chinese, that’s what I am! It was truly humiliating.

Duško Zorić, citizen of Bjelovar who had his house planted with explosives

legal action: Given the fact that the aggrieved parties were mainly citizens who decided to remain in Croatia despite the ethic conflict in progress at the time, they believed they could seek damages from the Republic of Croatia in court. However, in an attempt to avoid paying damages to Croatian citizens of Serbian nationality, amendments to the Civil Obligations Act were adopted in 1996 which exempted the state from liability for the damages which incurred before the adoption of a new law. This issue remained unregulated until a new Damage from Terrorist Acts and Public Demonstrations Act was passed in 2003, under international pressure. Despite this new piece of legislation, citizens lost the right to damages due to “unusual” rulings. Furthermore, three individuals received a suspended sentence for one case of planting explosives, but investigative bodies did not think they could be linked to the remaining 600 explosion in the Bjelovar area.

location: Dvor is the main settlement in the municipality of Dvor which is situated in the region of Pounje. Up until 1995 Dvor was called Dvor na Uni. In 1991 there were 14.555 inhabitants in 64 settlements at the Dvor municipality territory. Serbs made up 86,5 percent of this population and Croatians 9,58 percent. The Croat population was mostly concentrated in six settlements along the Una river between Dvor and Kostajnica, where they made the absolute majority, while Serbs were the absolute majority in all of the remaining 58 settlements. According to the 2011 census, the population at the same territory totalled 5570 persons of whom 4005 or 71,9 percent were Serbs, and 1440 or 25,85 percent were Croats.

time: 8 August 1995

description of crime: On 8 August 1995, between 14:30 and 15:00 hours, 12 persons were shot dead at a school building in Dvor na Uni. Of these persons, ten were mentally and physically handicapped, while the other two were a married couple. According to information available, all victims were Serbs. A Danish battalion, then part of the UNCRO forces, which was stationed in Dvor, witnessed this crime. Jan Wellendorf, a member of the Danish battalion, gave an account to the Danish media, after which the case became known to the public abroad and in Croatia. According to this testimony, Danish troops had intended to react, i.e. fire shots and prevent the crime, but they received orders not to intervene and just observe. Civilians killed at the school in Dvor had been brought from Petrinja a few days earlier along with another 40 or so persons -psychiatric patients and inmates of an old people’s home – but the majority subsequently managed to flee to Bosanski Novi. Only persons with gravest disability, i.e. those who nobody wanted or could take along, stayed in Dvor.

potential perpetrators: First reports attributed the blame for the massacre to the Bosnian Army Fifth Corps, which, according to some reports, attacked a refugee column near the village Trgovi, only nine kilometers western of Dvor. It was the Danes themselves who cast doubt on the Fifth Corps. Finally, several Croatian and Serbian officers and civilians confirmed to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) that there were no Bosnian Army soldiers in Dvor on August 8. This is further backed by sources from the Croatian State’s Attorney’s Office and the Serbian Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor.

Croatian Army entered Dvor in the early evening of August 7 by cutting off a refugee column near the roundabout in the vicinity of the bus station on the southwest outskirts of town. Fighting with Serbian soldiers from the column resulted in causalities on both sides and among civilians. The roundabout was of key importance to the Serbian side: the road Glina — Bosanski Novi, used by tens of thousands of refugees, goes through it. The next morning the remainder of the troops from Serbian Krajina launched a counterattack from the west and the south in order to ensure safe passage for the refugee column. Croatian Army retreated to positions in the immediate vicinity of Dvor. Croatian and Serbian versions of events mostly coincide up to this point, however both sides vehemently disagree about who controlled the area around the school in the early hours of the afternoon and whose side committed the killings.

In the Danish documentary general of the Serbian Krajina Army Mile Novaković claims that “the school was of no interest to Serbian forces”. In reality, on August 8 there was no one else in the vicinity except Serbian and Croatian forces.

judicial consequences: It is mostly referred to unidentified perpetrators with no insignia, and at the end of 2012 the Croatian State Prosecution and the Serbian Prosecution for War Crimes reached an agreement about further cooperation to establish and discover the perpetrators and all of the circumstances of this war crime, in order to finally solve the case. Witnesses were jointly questioned in Copenhagen, but for now there is no available information about results of these joint efforts. Thus, almost twenty years after the criminal act, perpetrators not only have not been prosecuted, but it has not been established with certainty which army they belonged to and why they had committed murders.

Although the State Attorney’s office marked the Dvor school murder as one of its priorities, there has been no progress in terms of initiating court proceedings for this crime.  A Danish documentary dedicated to this event stirred a huge public controversy. The film was co-funded by the Croatian Audio Visual Centre (HAVC) and several veterans’ associations and individuals claimed that the film laid the responsibility for this crime on the Croatian Army, although the film actually focuses on questioning the responsibility of the Danish battalion and its commander.

location: Hamlet of the village Plavno near Knin

time: 6 August 1995.

description of crime: Mile Đurić, a Serb from Plavno, testified before the Hague Tribunal that on 6 August 1995 he was having lunch with his parents, sister, and grandmother in their family house in Đurići. After lunch, he went to his nearby cottage and when he was half-way there, he noticed that the family house he had just left was in flames, as well as the adjacent workshop. He decided to return. On the road he noticed some 15 Croatian soldiers. Đurić then hid in the neighbouring yard, and from there saw that one of the soldiers was standing with his grandmother and that in front of the workshop two soldiers wearing black balaclavas were standing with his father, Savo Đurić, who is a disabled person. The one standing with the grandmother told the others: “I am taking grandmother to the end of the village and when she returns everything will be burnt down. Throw him in the fire!” Then one of the soldiers threw his father into the burning workshop and locked the door.

victim: Sava Đurić, (53)

legal consequences: ICTY’s trial chamber concluded that perpetrators were members of the Croatian military forces or special police, but until now no one has been held responsible for this murder.

location: Golubić village is located 5km north of Knin. In 1991 there were 1424 inhabitants there, 1389 were Serbs. In 2011 there were 1029 inhabitants. Although there are no detailed data on ethnic structure of the population, it has been significantly modified since a settlement for Croats from Bosnia was built in Golubić.

time: 5 August 1995

crime description: On 5 August 1995, the Croatian Army entered Golubić as part of Operation Storm. Majority of people joined the refugee colon but some decided to stay in their houses. Many crimes were committed in Golubić after the entrance of The Croatian Army. The case still remains unsolved and there aren’t many details available but at least 18 people were murdered that day in Golubić village. Most victims were elderly, killed near their houses while only one group was killed between Golubić and village Radljevac. All victims were Serbs. This is a testimony from victim’s son:

My mother was killed around 1 pm on 5 August. I was a 100 meters further away. Hiding behind the willow. There were 14 Croatian Army soldiers. I heard two gunshots. I realized I had to leave. My mother was left lying there, dead. She was 82. They killed her and they cut her arm. Her body lied there for 25 days when they came with bags and buried her in Knin cemetery as Jane Doe. I don’t know how much was left of her in the heat surrounded by dogs and pigs.

victims:

1. Nikola (Đurađa) Jerković, born on 21 December 1926 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in his backyard on 5 August 1995, by members of the Croatian Army;
2. Glišo (Gliše) Čučak, born in 1934 in Golubić, residence in Knin, killed on 5 August 1995 in his neighbours house together with Nevenka Grubić, by members of the Croatian Army;
3. Nevenka (Milana) Grubić, born on 27 November 1910 in Velika Popina (Gračac), residence in Golubić, killed with Glišo Čučko in neighbours’ house on 5 August 1995, by members of the Croatian Army;
4. Manda (Ilije) Radujko, born in 1928 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed on 5 August 1995 near her house by members of the Croatian Army;
5. Nikola (Nikole) Radujko, born in 1930 in Bosanski Drenovac, residence in Golubić, killed with his wife Manda on 5 August 1995 near their home, by members of the Croatian Army;
6. Branko (Lazara) Radinović – Lukić, born in 1920 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed on 5 August 1995 on a road near his home, by members of the Croatian Army;
7. Boško (Petra) Vuković, born on 10 October 1938 in Golubić, residence in Knin, killed in Radljevac on 5 August 1995 from Croatian Army vehicle.
8. Marija (Vase) Bjelić, born in 1942 in Strmica (Knin), residence in Golubić, killed in Golubić;
9. Petar (Mile) Bjelić, born in 1931 in Strmica, residence in Golubić, killed in Golubić;
10. Milica (Jovana) Vuković, born in 1929 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in Golubić;
11. Tanasije (Stevana) Vuković, born in 1934 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in Golubić;
12. Dušan (Petra) Damjanović, born on 11 June 1929 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in Golubić;
13. Đuka (Todora) Damjanović, born on 12 November 1931 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in Golubić;
14. Jovan (Jovana) Jerković, born on 1 July 1938 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed on the road near his house on 5 August 1995 by members of the Croatian Army;
15. Milica (Gliše) Šljivar, born in 1936 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in front of her house (in wheelchair) on 5 August of 1995 by members of the Croatian Army;
16. Vasilj (Nikole) Radinović Vasić, born on 12 October 1922 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed in street near his house on 5 August of 1995, by members of the Croatian Army;
17. Jeka (Jovana) Opačić, born in 1921 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed near her house on 5 August of 1995 by members of the Croatian Army;
18. Nikola (Bože) Radinović Lončina, born on 21 November 1927 in Golubić. He was killed or died in Golubić on 5 or 6 August 1995.

There are also victims whose status remain unclear but also died or were killed in Operation Storm.

Victims – status unknown:

1. Nikola (Jovana) Arula, born in 1941 in Golubić, residence in Golubić, killed/died in his village during Operation Storm. He was an active soldier in the Serb Army of Krajina (SVK) but it remain unknown if he changed into civilian clothes and disposed of his weapon considering he was home during the retrieval.
2. Želimir (Čedomir) Marić, born in 1974, died/killed on 4 August 1995. According to his father he was into music; a member of military band who never went to the battlefield. During Operation Storm he was in SVK barracks in Knin;
3. Jovica (Nikole) Plavša, born on 3 January 1968, died/killed on 5 August 1995. Information about his status and death remain unknown;
4. Branko (Lazara) Vuković, born on 5 October 1939, died/killed on 4 or 5 August of 1995. Information about his status and death remain unknown;
5. Todor (Trivuna) Marić, born on 28 January 1929, died/killed on 4 or 5 August 1995. Information about his status and death remain unknown;
6. Dušan (Lazara) Marić, born in 1943 in Golubić, died/killed on 5 or 6 August 1995. Information about his status and death remain unknown;
7. Nikola (Marka) Radinović Panić, born in 1928 in Golubić, died/killed on 5 or 6 August 1995. Information about his status and death remain unknown;

juridical consequences: No one has been held responsible for the crimes committed in Golubić.

location: The town of Gospić is the largest settlement in Lika and it is the demographic, economic, cultural and administrative center of the region. It is situated in the middle of Ličko polje at 562 meters above sea level, at the banks of three rivers: Novčica, Lika and Bogdanica. In 1991, Gospić had a population of 9025, while the town of Gospić administratively included almost 30.000 inhabitants distributed in 82 town and farming settlements. Out of 9025 citizens of Gospić, 35,93 percent or 3243 inhabitants were of Serb ethnicity. Croats represented some 5000 people of this population. Today Gospić administratively does not cover such a large area since several municipalities were created in this area, as well as some town settlements (Karlobag). According to the 2011 census, the town’s territory encompasses 50 settlements with 12.745 inhabitants of whom only 609 are Serbs, making up 4.78 percent of the entire population.

time: 14 — 18 October 1991

description of the crime: In the first half of October 1991, Gospić police made a list of Serbs who continued to live there after the beginning of the war or who returned there after local government’s appeals. A group of people gathered around the so called Operative Headquarters Lika, at the head of which informally was Tihomir Orešković (in this group was also the then commander of the 118 brigade, Mirko Norac), but with great power and influence, and who organized, in mid-October, the illegal and unfounded detentions of civilians from the lists, mostly Serbs, but also some Croats from Gospić and the surrounding area and Karlobag. More than 50 people were taken to the Perušić barracks where they were detained, but four of them were released. On 17 October, during the evening hours, the so called deadly meeting was held in the Operative Headquarters where 15 persons participated and where it was decided that the detained civilians should be executed. Civilians were then led to the Žitnik pine tree plantation where at least 10 persons were executed. Mirko Norac and some other participants of the meeting, who remain unnamed, took part in the executions. The very next morning, on 18 October, in line with the agreement between Orešković and Norac, Stjepan Grandić, as the commander of the Second battalion stationed at the Perušić barracks, organized the transport of the remaining civilians to the Lipova Glavica locality outside Perušić. There he commanded Croatian Army troops to kill, with firearms, persons who were brought there. Along with Orešković, soldiers acted according to orders and within two days more than 50 victims were executed (identity of 47 has been established). Serbs killed in the mentioned period were not the only Serb civilians in Gospić – killings, disappearances, and illegal evictions from houses and flats took place at a smaller scale before and after the crime described, but not necessarily by the same perpetrators or in the same circumstances. To this day 12 victims are considered missing who had disappeared during the described period.

victims – missing:

1. Danica Barać (born in 1923) – went missing on 14 October 1991
2. Mile Čubelić (born in 1941) – went missing on 17 October 1991
3. Gojko Hinić (born in 1949) – went missing on 17 October 1991
4. Borislav Marić (born in 1945) – went missing on 16 October 1991
5. Anđelka Pantelić (born in 1941) – went missing on 17 October 1991
6. Mirjana Pantelić (born in 1963) – went missing on 17 October 1991
7. Dragan Rakić (born in 1960) – went missing on 18 October 1991
8. Nikola Serdar (born in 1903) – went missing on 17 October 1991
9. Milan Smiljanić (born in 1947) – went missing on 16 October
10. Nikola Stojanović (born in 1927) – went missing on 17 October 1991
11. Božidar Tomičić (born in 1953) – went missing on 17 October 1991
12. Nebojša Trešnjić (born in 1953) – went missing on 17 October 1991

information on exhumation and identification of victims: JNA, i.e. members of the 6th Lika brigade found on 25 December 1991, 24 charred bodies in the area of Duge Njive village east of Perušić. Doctor Zoran Stanković from the Belgrade Military Medical Academy carried out external inspections of the dead bodies. Among the identified were: Radmila Stanić, Branko Kuzma Nović, Branko Štulić, Stanko Smiljanić, Radojka Diklić, Mirjana Kalanj, Đorđe Kalanj, Dane Bulj, Milan Pantelić, Mileva Orlović, Miloš Orlović, Radovan Barać, Ljubica Trifunović, Petar Lazić, Borka Vraneš, Bogdan Šuput, Dušanka Vraneš, Nikola Gajić and Željko Mrkić, i.e. 19 of 24 victims. 18 bodies were then buried in a mass grave on Debelo Brdo and six of them in individual graves. On 16 and 17 December 2000, 18 bodies were unearthed at Debelo Brdo and were then examined by experts from the Institute for Forensic Medicine and Criminology Rijeka, and identification through DNA analysis was carried out, which resulted in identification of 15 remains, while three were not identified. Identifications of 13 persons recognized in 1991 were confirmed and more persons were identified: Mićo Pejnović and Sofija Lončar and in July 2014, at the institute for Forensics in Zagreb, the remains of Stanko Smiljanić and Željko Mrkić were identified.

judicial consequences: A County Court Rijeka verdict from March 2003, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court verdict in June 2014, sentenced Tihomir Orešković as the main order issuing authority, to 15 years in prison, Mirko Norac to 12 and Stjepan Grandić to 10 years in prison. Since Mirko Norac was already convicted with a six year sentence for crimes in Medak Pocket, his sentences were merged and totalled 15 years in prison and after two thirds of the prison term he was released from prison. The other two convicted persons were also released. Although numerous other officers and soldiers took part either in planning, organizing, or execution of the crimes, only the mentioned three, certainly the most responsible ones, were criminally charged.

location: Gošić is a village in Dalmatia’s Bukovica region, some 10 km west from Kistanje. According to the 1991 census, Gošić had 107 inhabitants while according to the 2011 census, its population totalled 46. Gošić is populated almost exclusively by Serbs.

time: 27 August 1995, at about 4 p.m.

description of crime: In the village of Gošić, unknown perpetrators shot dead eight civilians on 27 August 1995. All victims were Serbs, mostly elderly persons. They were killed in their houses and courtyards in the village where there had been no war activities, before or during the killings.

Victims:

1. Savo Borak (70)
2. Vasilj Borak (68)
3. Grozdana Borak (75)
4. Marija Borak (81)
5. Kosara Borak (77)
6. Milka Borak (75)
7. Dušan Borak (56)

Information on exhumation and identification of victims: According to data from human rights organisations, members of the police secretly buried the remains of those executed at the Knin cemetery without names and surnames, under the numbers 543 to 550. In 2001, all bodes were exhumed and, following identification, handed over to their families.

judicial outcome: At the County Court in Zadar, six indicted Croatian Army (HV) members were tried for the criminal act of grave murder for profit. All six were acquitted. The Supreme Court overturned the ruling and returned the case for retrial, which began in 2001 before the County Court in Šibenik. However, the court halted the proceedings in 2002, after the County State Attorney in Šibenik announced its decision to discontinue, which returned the investigation back to the beginning. Following criminal proceedings before the Šibenik court, to this day there has not been any information or legal action against perpetrators of those responsible for the crime in Gošić.

location: Grubori are one of the hamlets belonging to the village of Plavno, 15 km away from Knin. According to different sources, between 40 and 70 persons lived there in 1991, while today there are no inhabitants.

time: 25 August 1995

description of crime: At the beginning of the military-police operation Storm, most villagers from Plavno and Grubori abandoned their houses and joined the column of refugees travelling towards Lika and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Grubori, about a dozen mostly elderly villagers stayed behind as they did not want to leave their houses.  Many of them were scared and were not spending nights in their homes but in barns and outside the houses. Croatian army troops first entered Plavno on 8 August 1995 and issued an order for the villagers to come to the local school on 25 August to be registered by UNPROFOR for the purpose of either leaving for the then SR Yugoslavia or staying in Croatia. On that morning, most Plavno and Grubori inhabitants were headed towards the school, but some stayed in their houses out of fear. Seven villagers who were on their way to the school saw members of the Lučko Antiterrorist Unit approach their hamlet. Some half an hour later, they could clearly see smoke and hear shooting. Upon return, they found the entire hamlet up in flames. They found six dead villagers, killed by the members of the Croatian police’s special antiterrorist unit.

victims:

1. Marija Grubor (b. 1905.)
2. Miloš Grubor (b. 1915.)
3. Jovo Grubor (b. 1930.)
4. Milica Grubor (b. 1944.)
5. Đuro Karanović (b. 1950.)
6. Jovan Gurbor (b. 1922

All of the persons killed were Serbs and civilians and Dušanka Grubor, one of the inhabitants testified: I came to the barn because from there one could see the smoke. Livestock was burning alive and I was calling out to my husband Jovo. Next to the dead cows, my husband lay with his throat cut and half of his face missing. I was in shock and sought help. I ran to the house of Miloš Grubor who was on his sick bed. I found him lying on the floor in his pyjamas in a pool of blood and spent shell casings by his side. I called out to my mother-in-law Marija but did not find her. The night fell on Grubori and the next day the UNPROFOR drove us to Knin. One day later we continued the search for survivors. Among the charred ruins of my house, I found my mother-in-law Marija, burnt all over her body, lying on her back on the ground. On the meadow, on 26 August 1995 we found two corpses: Milica Grubor who was stabbed with a knife and sprayed with bullets. A little further away was the corpse of Đuro Koranović, who also had stab wounds on his neck and bullet wounds on his chest. Jovan Koranović burned in his house, we saw the burnt lot. The UNPROFOR photographed and recorded all that, took the victims’ names…

Although the crime in Grubori has been in the media and is known to the wider public, mostly because of the photos taken immediately after the crime, this is not the only crime in Plavno. In the scattered hamlets of Plavno, more than 25 civilians perished during and after the operation Storm.

judicial outcome: The crime in Grubori was included in the final judgment against Gotovina and others before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The Hague judicial coucil  established beyond reasonable doubt that Jovo Grubor, Miloš Grubor, Marija Grubor, Milka Grubor and Đuro Karanović were victims of murders committed within the framework of criminal acts against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war, stipulated by Article 5 and Article 3 of the ICTY Statute, but did not establish criminal responsibility of the defendants. In the trial before the County Court in Zagreb, the indictment also cites the name of the sixth victim, Jovan Grubor, son of late Damjan.

Following a systematic cover-up of crimes that many persons testified about before the ICTY, County State Attorney in Zagreb on 15 December 2010 indicted three Croatian citizens: Frano Drelja (1963), Božo Krajina (1957) and Igor Beneta (1973) – the latter died in 2011 before the trial began – for the act of war crime against civilians form Article 120 paragraph 10 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia. At the end of the trial, which began on 24 November 2011, in his closing statement on 31 May 2014, Robert Petrovečki, the deputy county state prosecutor, said that “it was not disputable that a war crime happened in which members of the ATU Lučko brutally murdered six civilians”. The two defendants, according to prosecution, had unquestioned command function. “The remains of bodies were found and the entirely torched village”, prosecutor said and sought from the court to declare the defendants guilty for crimes in Grubori.

During the evidentiary proceedings, 70 witnesses were questioned, some of them holding high positions in the military and the police. Reconstruction of events from 1995 was carried out twice in the hamlet of Grubori and in the meantime one of the defendants, the third accused Igor Beneta, was found hanged.

The second accused, Frano Drelja, was charged with directly committing a crime against six civilians and with failing to prevent his subordinates from committing a crime, killing civilians and burning their homes, while the second accused, Božo Krajina, was charged exclusively based on his command responsibility. Some witnesses changed the statements given during the investigative proceedings, and the majority of the defendants’ former fellow-fighters neither saw nor heard anything. They did not know who had been in command of the operation and who were their immediate commanders in the field. Former members of this elite unit did not know who had set the direction of their movement, and they did not check houses they came across on the way, although the terrain was being combed with the goal of eliminating the remaining enemy forces.

After the crime in Grubori, investigative proceedings were intentionally obstructed. The Antiterrorist Unit Lučko of the Ministry of Interior of Republic of Croatia was divided into four groups immediately before the action of 25 August 1995. In the action of clearing the terrain, before the Freedom train was about to pass, according to testimony by the operation’s commander Ivan Čelić (13 November 2012, County Court Zagreb), Branko Balunović, Stjepan Žinić and the defendants Frano Drlje and Božo Krajina were appointed commanders of these groups in the field. According to Čelić, all the mentioned group commanders had full command responsibility within their units, which meant that their orders had to be followed unconditionally. As commander Čelić testified, soon after the start of the operation, he had returned to initial positions with a single found civilian and from then on, he lost touch with the other groups’ commanders. With Zdravko Janić, commander in charge of the entire operation, he left in the direction of the operation’s finishing line where the mentioned groups’ commanders reported that they had not encountered any problems during the operation, which is what he conveyed to the headquarters of the Special Police in Gračac in his preliminary report.

Before the procedure in front of the County Court, before the ICTY many more witnesses were questioned about the crime in Grubori than about any other crime from the indictment. Based on the statements of the then police commanders and members of special forces, the ICTY council concluded that after the murders, a story was concocted about a conflict with “Serb terrorists”. Among other, they arrived at such a conclusion based on statements by Josip Čelić, who repeated before the County Court in Zagreb his statements that in the first report on the day of the action he had informed his superiors that there had been no fighting during the action, but was then summoned to Gračac, where the deputy commander Željko Sačić told him that there has been “armed clashes” in Grubori and that they had to write another report which Sačić dictated to him in a separate room. The commander of one of the groups in the field, Balunović, who had also testified both in the Hague and in Zagreb, mentioned that one day after the meeting at the special police headquarters in Gračac, Čelić informed him that “following instructions by Mr Sačić”, the deputy of special units’ commander Mladen Markač, he wrote a new, different, report about the clearing action, saying that the special police in Grubori came into conflict with Serb fighters which may have led to the deaths of elderly people in a crossfire. According to Čelić’s testimony, at the Headquarters in Gračac he also found general Markač, after which Željko Sačić took him to a separate room where, using notes he wrote on the back of his first report, he instructed Čelić to write a new report. At the same time, Sačić informed him that his first report was not accurate and that the new one needed to contain information about “armed conflicts”. During the trial in Zagreb, witness Čelić enclosed his first report about the action, which had Sačić’s handwritten text on the back.

In its first-instance judgment, the judicial council established that crimes were committed by members of the ATU Lučko, but it acquitted the defendants. A retrial for war crimes against civilian population in Grubori, which started on 15 February 2016 before a completely changed Zagreb County Court council, chaired by judge Ivan Turudić, ended with the same outcome, the acquittal of the defendants, with an explanation that crimes were undoubtedly committed by members of the ATU Lučko. The ruling stated that there has been a strong pledge of silence among the witnesses, which was also confirmed by the Supreme Court. The ruling established that the entire chain of command failed to take necessary steps to find out the perpetrators. Instead of uncovering those responsible for murder of civilians “only because they were Serbs” and torching houses “only because Serbs live in them”, there came a disgraceful concoction about an invented Chetnik attack and callous ignorance of a war crime against civilian population. The Supreme Court confirmed the County Court’s ruling in September 2019.

location: Village in Kistanje municipality

time: 18 August 1995, and an undetermined date in the middle of September 1995

description of crime: In the evening hours on 18 August 1995, after Mirko Ognjenović heard someone shouting: “Where are those nine? Get out so that I can kill you!”, two men, one of whom had an automatic rifle, and Uroš Ognjenović walked into his courtyard in Kakanj, where he was standing together with Radoslav Ognjenović. One of the two then called Mirko, Radoslav and Uroš Ognjenović “Chetniks”, hit Radoslav with the butt of his rifle and then fired several bullets, of which one hit Radoslav in the arm. One of the men knocked Miloš Ognjenović to the ground after which he passed out. When he regained consciousness, he found the corpses of Uroš Ognjenović and Uroš Šarić in Uroš Ognjenović’s yard, which is 200-250 meters away from his own.

When all the remaining inhabitants left Kakanj on 26 August 1995, only Vojin Šarić (84) stayed behind. His son found his remains in the well on 26 September. According to a criminal report filed by the Zadar-Knin police administration in October 1995, one or more unknown perpetrators shot him in the  chest and stomach and then threw his body into the well in the courtyard behind his house.

victims: three persons killed –  Uroš Šarić (75), Uroš Ognjenović (67) and Vojin Šarić (84).

legal consequences: On 28 August 1995 Uroš Šarić’s son filed a criminal lawsuit to the military prosecutor in Split because of the murder of his father, in which he stated that he had received information that there were three and not two perpetrators, of whom two were in uniform. He then turned to the Deputy PM, State Attorney, and the Ministry of Interior, and at his insistence, both bodies were exhumed at the Zadar cemetery on 17 April 2000. HV member Nedjeljko Mijić was the suspect, but Mirko and Radoslav Ognjenović were not able to recognize him on the photograph presented to them during police questioning. Thus far, no one has been held responsible for the crimes in Kakanj.

location: Prisoners of war were placed in Konačište, which was the official name for the collection centre located in Kerestinec castle in the village of Sveta Nedelja near Samobor. Since the time of its construction, Kerestinec castle served as a centerf or peasants’ revolts, including the 1936 Kerestinec revolt which ended in much bloodshed. The most horrible part of its history was written during WW2. By 1941 Kerestinec was turned into a predecessor of future concentration camps. Later on, it became the JNA (Yugoslav People’s Army) rocket base, and in 1992 when the military prison in Zagreb’s Gajeva Street became overcrowded, the Croatian Army moved into the Kerestinec barracks.

time: December 1991 — May 1992

description of the crime: When Croatian officials turned a deaf ear to the first Red Cross reports about inappropriate treatment of inmates in the army barracks near Samobor, the collection centre Konačište was open in the beginning of January 1992. Prisoners of war, who were earlier tortured in the Gajeva street prison, today the seat of the State Attorney, were moved here. Mistreatment, torture, injuries, maiming and possible killing of inmates were a constant at Kerestinec, which was under the command of Croatian army captain Stjepan Klarić until April 1992. Kerestinec was under the jurisdiction of the City of Zagreb, i.e. the Zagreb Operative Zone. The prisoners were mostly people who had not participated in military operations of any kind, but who were arrested in Croatian cities, especially in Sisak, on suspicion that they aided and abetted the “enemy army”. Women of Serb nationality, placed in a separate wing of the Kerestinec camp, were exposed to rape. One of the dozen detained women suffered abortion as a consequence of abuse. There were feigned trials in the prison during which prisoners were forced to participate in physical fights against each other.

WUnknown persons in civilian clothes raped me several times in Kerestinec, and the orders came from a person nicknamed the Doctor”, Rajka Majkić from Sisak testified at the trial. Along with her husband, she was arrested in her home, after she arrived from her birth place near Bosanski Novi. At the trial she explained that the “Doctor” was not a real doctor at all, and she described him as a shorter person with glasses wearing a military uniform.

Apart from rape, she was tortured in the so called black room in Kerestinec, in which she was stripped, beaten and tortured with electricity about two dozen times. “I remember that one evening we had to dance in the corridor, women had to strip clothes from the upper body and men from the lower part”, said the witness.

Miloš Crnković recalled a similar event when, on five or six occasions, guards beat him after having forced him to run naked down the corridors in Kerestinec. He claims not to know who had ordered this, but apart from soldiers in uniforms, people in civilian clothes were also involved in the beatings.

“They would line us up in the middle of a big room where we had to take off the bottom part of our clothes and on the opposite side would stand a bare chested woman. Men then had to masturbate, and if someone failed, then in the same evening they were taken to the black room for torture and beatings”, witness said. Prior to torture they put a black sack on their heads so that they would not know who was doing the beating.

One of the witnesses, Dobroslav Gračanin, said at the trial that Josip Perković, Head of the Security Information Service (SIS), participated in the torture. Perković negated the allegations stressing that Kerestinec was not under SIS jurisdiction, but under the military police. Gračanin, a former JNA major of Croatian nationality,who suffered terrible torture in Kerestinec, and was left an invalid, who was later, by the decision of the Court Martial in Zagreb, freed from all responsibility.

“I was hurting from the night before, so the guard told me to sit; I sat on the chair, in a few minutes the door opened and these two men come in, Klarić’s men. The dark one, who looked well in uniform, I later started calling Master. They approached and asked me who told me that I could sit down. I wanted to answer, but he hit me. He took a cassette player from his pocket and hit me again on the chest, while the other hit me from behind. I felt like a ping pong ball. Questions ensued and then the dark one hit me with his leg while turning around, in a Bruce Lee fashion. I briefly lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, on the floor, I saw him above me. He said: ‘Get up!’ I got up and the questioning began…” Gračanin said in an interview for Novosti.

In March of 1992, and with mediation of the Commission for Exchange of Prisoners, a request from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrived at President Franjo Tuđman’s address, asking Tuđman to stop the abuse and humiliation of prisoners of war and other inmates and to immediately shut down Kerestinec.

Some of the detained persons gave statements to the ICRC following the exchange. They stressed abuse of men with daily beatings, raping women, torture with use of special devices such as sailor ladders, wooden and rubber penises, electric batons, forcing persons to perform sexual intercourse and oral sex, both among detainees and involving prison guards, forcing men to masturbate in front of scarcely dressed women, maiming body parts, cutting of fingers of men and nipples off women. In these statements, tortures of prisoners which occurred in the darkened room, painted in black, called the Laboratory, were emphasized. This was a windowless room which was used as a photo lab. In these statements the commander of the Kerestinec camp, major Stjepan Klarić, was particularly singled out as the one inciting and directly participating in beatings, sexual and other ‘games’ with prisoners. For example he forced prisoners to bark like dogs and graze grass. They also mentioned some other employees, guards and supervisors, out of some 30 persons that were part of the Kerestinec staff. In the first half of 1992, there was a constant of between 60 and 100 prisoners in the camp, depending on the intensity of prisoners’ exchanges.

victims (physically and/or sexually abused):

1. Đorđe Jovičić
2. Dobroslav Gračanin
3. Milka Badrić
4. Milena Adamović
5. Danica Vuruna
6. Danica Poznanović
7. Zorka Hrkić
8. Pantelija Zec
9. Slobodan Kukić
10. Tomislav Božović
11. Damir Kalik
12. Branko Zeljak
13. Milorad Đuričić
14. Branimir Skočić
15. Miodrag Nikolić
16. Petra Došen
17. Vid Ninić
18. Slobodan Jasenski
19. Ljuban Grab
20. Dušica Nikolić
21. Borivoj Rogić
22. Nenad Filipović
23. Nebojša Kostadinović
24. Vojkan Živković
25. Nada Grab
26. Nada Miličević
27. Milorad Blagojević
28. Miloš Crnković
29. Rajka Majkić
30. Unidentified person

judicial consequences: In November 2011, the County State Prosecution in Zagreb raised indictments against five Croatian citizens: Stjepan Klarić (commander of the war prisoners’ camp Konačište), Dražen Pavlović, Viktor Ivančin, Željko Živec and Goran Štrukelj (Croatian Army members who supervised work of security guards), on suspicion that they committed war crimes against prisoners of war. They were charged with having abused 26 persons, inflicting upon them great suffering and injuries against both physical integrity and health.

On 31 October 2012, the verdict was published of the County Court Zagreb Council for War Crimes, under which defendants were declared guilty in the first instance and they were convicted to prison terms: first defendant Stjepan Klarić was convicted to three years and six months, second defendant Dražen Pavlović to one year, and third defendant Viktor Ivančin to two the years prison term; while fourth defendant Željko Živec was convicted to one year in prison and fifth defendant Goran Štrukelj to one year in prison. Detention against the first three was abolished and time spent in detention was calculated into the prison terms for all the defendants.

By the decision of the Supreme Court on 16 April 2014, the first instance verdict was abolished and the case was returned to another hearing. Explaining its decision, the Supreme Court made a special remark to the lower court’s statements that the crimes took place during an international conflict, and it stated among other that ‘the lower court had clearly stated why it considered that this was an international conflict, but whether these reasons were valid is another matter.’ Furthermore, in the Supreme Court’s decision that quashed the verdict, it is explained that Croatia on 8 October 1991 broke all state and legal ties with the SFRJ, by which it declared its independence. Another trial began in February 2015.

On March 11, 2016, the prosecution, defence and a lawyer representing the victims made their closing arguments, which concluded the hearings in the repeated trial before a partly changed pannel (judge Petar Šakić had been on the panel at the previous trial) presided by the judge Renata Miličević. According to the indictment, which had been altered in the meantime, the five defendants were charged with two criminal acts: a war crime against civilians and a war crime against prisoners of war. The defence lawyers for the the Kerestinec hostel commander, Stjepan Klarić, and the other defendants, requested acquittal for their clients in the closing argument, claiming that their guilt had not been established, while the prosecution requested that they be found guilty as charged in the altered indictment. The original verdict for the war crime in Kerestinec was passed on March 24, 2014.  Stjepan Klarić was sentenced to eight years in prison (subject to appeal), Ivančan to five years, Pavlović to three, Štrukelj to two and Šivec to a year and a half in prison.

location: The village of Kijani is situated in Lika and territorially it belongs to the Gračac municipality. According to the 1991 census, Kijani had a population of 222, of which 217 or almost 98 % were Serbs. According to the 2011 census, Kijani had 56 inhabitants.

description of crime: At the start of operation Storm, the great majority of inhabitants in Kijani decided to join the column of refugees and leave their village. However, some villagers who did not wish to leave their houses decided to stay. According to some witnesses, one of the important reasons was that they had heard President Tuđman’s message on the radio that those “without blood on their hands” should not leave.

Between the first time Croatian forces had entered Kijani and the end of September 1955, 14 civilians were killed there, including nine women.

victims:

1. Dane Bolta, 90 years old;
2. Sava Bolta, around 70 years old;
3. Branko Jelača, around 67 years old;
4. Marija Jelača, born in 1913;
5. Milica Jelača, born around 1927;
6. Ana Jelača, around 50 years old;
7. Smilja Jelača, around 90 years old;
8. Dušan Kesić, born in 1939;
9. Mileva Kolundžić, around 70 years old;
10. Danica Sovilj, around 70 years old;
11. Mara Sovilj, around 75 years old;
12. Mira Sovilj, around 50 years old;
13. Radomir Sovilj, born around 1947;
14. Vlado Sovilj, born in 1931.

Precise circumstances and the time when individual crimes were committed are difficult to establish because none of the direct witnesses are still alive. At one point, Svetko Bolta and Nikola Jelača who had been hiding in the nearby woods from where they had seen what was happening, publicly testified about the horrible details of crimes including rapes and decapitations. They spent two months hiding in Lika forests before they were discovered by the Croatian police. Jelača remained in Gračac and Bolta moved to Serbia. They both died in the meantime.

judicial outcome: Before the County Court council in Rijeka, chaired by judge Ika Šarić, the main hearing began in the criminal procedure against the defendant Rajko Kričković, member of the  Croatian Army’s 118th Home Guard regiment, for the crime committed against civilians following the military-police operation Storm in the period from 15 to 28 August 1995. According to the indictment by the County State Attorney in Rijeka, of the 4th November 2014, the defendant murdered three civilians in the village of Kijani near Gračac. Kričković killed Radomir and Mira Sovilj, a brother and sister, with shots from the automatic rifle, while he torched their mother Mara Sovilj, along with the livestock locked in the ground floor of the house. Mirko Kričković was convicted in March 2019 to ten years in prison in the first instance ruling for the murder of Radomir, Mira and Mara Sovilj.

location: Atlagića bridge, situated at the very entrance to Knin, and a house in the Cara Lazara street 6 and on Sinjska road.

time: 5 August and an undetermined date close to 6 August 1995.

description of crime: In the early morning hours on 5 August 1995, at the entrance to Knin, a group of HV members stopped a truck with a 36-year-old Serb woman from Drniš and Živko Stojakov, her husband, aged 34, a civilian dressed in a borrowed Canadian UN uniform. “He came out of the car cabin without weapons and with his arms raised and walked towards them. By then I had also jumped from the trailer and followed behind Živko. At that moment, for no reason at all, a Croatian soldier fired a short burst at Živko’s chest. When Živko fell to the ground and was already dead, another soldier who was standing on the side, fired one bullet into his head. I then jumped on the soldier who was the first to shoot and started scratching his face, but others stopped me. I was ordered to take off my clothes so that I remained in a t-shirt and panties. Thus scantily clad, I was forced to walk towards the centre of town,” testified the survivor, who was then taken to the assembly centre in Knin.

Several days after Croatian military forces had entered Knin, looting of the remaining Serb property began. Three soldiers forced Ilija Milivojević to help them load the furniture from his house onto the truck. Milivojević decided to report the theft to the police on the same day and asked a neighbour to keep and eye on his blind father, Mile Milivojević. When the neighbour stopped by to check on the father, she found him dead in the kitchen. She reported the murder to the U.N. observers who came out on 12 August 1995. In the kitchen, they also found Ilija Milivojević’s corpse. One of the men had gunshot wounds to the chest and the other to the back. At the moment of killing, they were both wearing civilian clothes.

victims: three persons killed – Živko Stojakov (34), Mile Milivojević (84) and Ilija Milivojević (57).

legal consequences: Živko Stojakov’s remains were exhumed in April 2001 and those of the father and son Milivojević were exhumed in June of the same year at the Knin cemetery. Their names are included in the indictment which the ICTY prosecution raised against Croatian generals Gotovina, Čermak and Markač. But due to lack of hard evidence about possible perpetrators of this crime, ICTY’s trial chamber did not consider these cases.

location: The village is part of the former Benkovac municipality, today part of town of Benkovac

time: 28 September 1995

description of crime: On 28 September 1995, at 22:00, Gojko Ljutić, Neven Brčić and Mario Dukić, members of the 134 Homeland regiment, came into the house of Petar Bota in Kolarina, which Dukić and Brčić called a “Chetnik place”, with the intention to take his sheep. Bota willingly gave them several sheep, but while they were carrying the sheep into their van, Brčić and LJutić saw Dukić having an argument with Bota. Then they both heard several shots. Pathologist established that Bota had received two gunshot wounds, of which the one to the chest was fatal.

victim: Petar Bota (age unknown)

legal consequences: The Military Court in Split sentenced Mario Dukić to six years in prison on 13 September 1995. But in August 1997, the Supreme Court quashed the first instance ruling and returned the case to the County Court in Zadar for a retrial. This court sentenced him to six years in prison on 21 January 1998. In the same ruling, Dukić was acquitted of charges that on an undetermined date between 1 and 5 September 1995 in Mokro Polje, the hamlet of Babić, he had killed Sava Babić, although a bullet case was found close to her corpse, and it was established that the bullet had been fired from his hand gun.

location: Komić is a village near Udbina, to which it belongs administratively. In 1991 it was a part of the Titova Korenica municipality. According to 2011 census only 20 persons live there and according to the last pre-war census (1991) Komić had 153 inhabitants of whom 152 were Serbs and one Yugoslav. The nearby village of Poljice had 45 inhabitants, all of them Serbs, but now there are only 9 persons in this village. Economic activity consists of several herds of sheep and perhaps individual honey production, and it is practically impossible to come across a person below the age of 50 in this area. Unfortunately, like many other villages in Lika, Komić is on a practically inevitable path of extinction, and the grave crime committed there several days after the operation Storm and all the combat activities, doubtlessly contributed to this.

time of crime: 12 August 1995, between noon and 2 pm

description of crime: Operation Storm formally ended on 7 August 1995, but combat activities continued up to two days past this date in the area of Dvor and for a longer time sporadically in “clearing” actions in the entire area of combat activity. Although the term “clearing” is customary in military jargon and it refers to elimination (by killing or taking prisoner) of remaining broken enemy groups or individuals; in the wars on former Yugoslav territory it almost became a synonym for unhindered killing of civilians who remained living in areas that came under control of the army of the “other side”. Exactly this sort of crime happened in Komić and the neighbouring Poljice when on 12 August 1995 Croatian Army members or – as has also been suggested – Special Police forces, entered with several armoured vehicles (armoured personnel carriers and tanks). They came from the direction of Ondić, randomly shooting, although at that moment in the area of Udbina, including Komić, there were no apparent military reasons for doing so. Upon entering the village, they started setting alight houses and other structures, also wheat and hay, and they killed the cattle. But that was not the end of it. One of the victims of this raid was an immobile elderly woman who was 74 at the moment of death and who was torched in her house’s summer kitchen. Her daughter who was hiding 15 meters away, and had survived, witnessed the event. Although initially nine victims of this crime were mentioned, identity could not be established of two persons listed earlier (married couple Mara and Rade Mirković), i.e. it is not certain that they had lived in Komić/Poljic, and thus seven victims are listed.

victims:

1. Marija Brkljač, born in 1921 who lived in informal marriage with Petar Ugarković at the address Komić 88. She was immobile and was burnt in the summer kitchen of her house; while her daughter Jela managed to hide in the vicinity and Petar earlier fled to thenearby hill
2. Patar Lavrnić, born in 1933 in Komić remained in the village with his mother Sava aged 92 in the house at the number 84. He was killed and left in the house to burn, but his body was found ten meters away from the house, next to the one of his mother’s in March the following year
3. Sava Lavrnić, born in 1903, was found dead next to her son Petar. It is assumed that she was not shot with firearms, but was left with her legs tied and managed to partially free herself, and used her last strength to drag her son out of the burning house, but then died herself. Petar’s body was turned face down and his mother lied by his side doubled over on her right hip.
4. Staka Ćurić, 45 years old, killed with firearms. (Identity of this person was not firmly established. It is beyond doubt that Staka Ćurić lived in Komić, but it is not certain whether she was killed on 12 August 1995 or earlier, during the action. It is also uncertain whether she was 45 or even 20 years older)
5. Rajko (Rade, Raka) Sunajko, born in 1909, lived with wife Milica at the address Poljice 22 and was killed from firearms in his neighbour’s yard
6. Milica (Mika) Sunajko, Rajko’s wife, born in 1920, has not been found to this day and went missing on that day.
7. Mika Pavlica, born in 1904 or 1906, immobile the same as the earlier mentioned Marija Brkljač. She was also burnt in her house

information on exhumation and identification of victims: Milica Sunajko’s body has not been found, five victims were identified and buried, and we are not aware what happened to the body of Staka Ćurić. The daughter recovered Marija Brkljač’s remains three days after the murder and buried them in the plum orchard in a tin box. On 17 September 1995 she reburied her mother’s remains with the other relatives at the local cemetery. The bodies of Petar and Sava Lavrnić were found by Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO) activists on 2 March 1996 and these remains were subsequently identified and buried, while Rajko Sunajko was buried earlier, at the end of August 1995 at the local cemetery in Poljice.

legal consequences: Although the HHO had discovered this crime as early as 1996 and reported it to relevant entities, no one has been held responsible for it yet.

location: Karlovac is a city in central Croatia, 56 km south-west of Zagreb. Once an important industrial centre, because of its location, it is still an important traffic hub of road and railway lines from Zagreb towards Rijeka and Split. According to the 2011 census, Karlovac had 55,705 inhabitants, of whom 8 percent are Serbs. According to the 1991 census, Karlovac had 81,319 inhabitants of which 26.72 percent were Serbs. Although Karlovac no longer covers the same territory it did in 1991, and a simple comparison of data is impossible, a big change in the ethnic make-up of the population is clear and it shows a big decline in the number of Serbs in this area. Korana bridge is close to the very centre of Karlovac and in a way, it represents an entrance to the city from the southern side. During the armed conflict, the bridge had an important strategic role in the defence of Karlovac.

time: 21 September 1991

description of crime: On 21 September 1991, Ministry of Interior (MUP) and the National Guard of the Republic of Croatia (ZNG) in Karlovac, immediately before the bridge across the river Korana  stopped two military trucks carrying JNA troops and reservists. The trucks were transporting soldiers from the Mekušje barracks to the Logorište barracks, situated in Karlovac. After negotiations and Croatian forces’ promise that nothing would happen to them, JNA members laid down their arms and surrendered. Immediately after the surrender, a group of prisoners, mainly active JNA members, was taken to the police premises in Karlovac, while another group of 17 soldiers, mainly reservists from the village of Krnjak, were led on foot across Korana bridge. When they stepped on the Korana bridge, three persons in uniforms, wearing balaclava masks, killed thirteen of them with bullets from automatic weapons. Out of four who had survived, three saved themselves by jumping from the bridge into the Korana river.

 judicial outcome: For the crime against prisoners of war at the Korana bridge, Mihajlo Hrastov, former member of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia, was indicted. The procedure against Hrastov is one of the longest in the history of the Croatian judiciary. The County Court in Karlovac acquitted him three times, claiming that an attack of the disarmed enemy soldiers against Hrastov’s fellow fighters preceded the shooting, because of which they had lost the status of prisoners of war. The Supreme Court quashed all three acquittals, and after the third one was annulled, the case was not returned to the same court. Instead, the Supreme Court itself conducted the second and third instance proceedings and declared Hrastov guilty, sentencing him to seven years in prison. But since the Supreme Court did not make its ruling public, the Constitutional Court dismissed the verdict and in 2010, Hrastov was set free. Although the three survivors mentioned that three persons, and not only Hrastov, had fired at them, the State Attorney’s Office has not shown any interest so far to expand the indictment, nor has it tried to prove who ordered the crime. The Supreme Court in 2015 finally confirmed the second instance ruling, according to which Hrastov was sentenced to four years in prison, which included the time already spent in prison and the sentence served from 6 March 1992 to 2 September 1992 and from 5 May 2009 to 22 December 2010. Mihajlo Hrastov’s trial lasted a total of 23 years.

location: Kuline are the former JNA (Yugoslav People’s Army) barracks situated at the southern part of the town of Šibenik, next to the Mandalina port. The barrack’ premises were also used as a military prison. In the beginning of 2012, the former barracks’ main building was torn down to be replaced by a luxury hotel and a marina which can receive mega yachts and ships at Mandalina port.

time: 1992 — 1993

description of crime: On 2 March 1992, the Croatian army entered Nos Kalik village and captured 21 members of the Serbian Krajina Army, transported them and imprisoned them in the Šibenik military prison Kuline. Physical and psychological abuse was a daily occurrence at the prison. Guards beat prisoners with their legs and arms, they used rubber batons, rifle butts, electric cables and other objects to beat prisoners on the head and all over the body, tortured them with stripped electric wires and used electric shocks. Some prisoners were forced to have sexual intercourse. Apart from prisoners of war at least four civilians were detained in Kuline prison. Detained civilians were physically and mentally tortured every day, one of the women was repeatedly raped and forced to have sexual intercourse with one of the detained civilians. Total number of persons, both prisoners of war and civilians, who passed through Kuline prison, has not been established so far.

judicial consequences: Former Special Police members Tvrtko Pašalić, Željko Maglov, Damir Boršić and Milorad Bajić were charged with war crimes against prisoners of war in Kuline. A panel of judges of the County Court in Split abolished detention for the prisoners. At the Split County Court, proceedings were conducted against the former Kuline military prison commander Damir Boršić and against his colleague from the 72nd Battalion’s second company, Miroslav Periša. They were charged with war crimes against civilians at the Kuline military prison in 1993. The trial chamber considered that evidence was not sufficient and suspended the proceedings. County prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court which overturned this ruling, confirmed the validity of the indictment and retrial is now underway. The trial for the crime against prisoners of war in Kuline started before the County Court in Split. The County Court prosecution has indicted four persons: Tvrtko Pašalić, Željko Maglov, Damir Boršić and Milorad Paić. All of the accused remain out of detention during the trial. Before the same court, a separate trial for war crimes against civilians detained in Kuline is also under way against the third defendant, Damir Boršić. The trial is still under way.

A woman, who was repeatedly raped over the course of 10 days in military prison in Kuline by guards and other unknown people, witnessed through a video link. In February of 2017 Ministry of Croatian Veterans denied the aforementioned victim of her victim status and rights guaranteed by Act on the Protection of Victims of Sexual Violence in War.

The Ministry offered further explanation: “Committee for victims of sexual violence concluded, based on evidence, that the aforementioned wasn’t a victim of sexual violence during the Homeland war.” Although legal process is not a precondition for acquiring the status, in this case not even that was enough.

location: Military-investigative prison Lora used to be a military prison in Split, situated in the eastern part of the naval military base Lora. This is a building fenced off with barbed wire in which there were premises of the Military police and in the northern part of the building there were cells which held military and civilian prisoners.

time: from 1992 to 1997

description of crime: In 1992, in the premisses of the former JNA military-investigative prison in the naval base Lora, a prison camp was formed where a considerable number of civilians, mostly Serbs, were imprisoned without any legal grounds, on suspicion of participating in enemy actions against the Republic of Croatia.

Prisoners were being arrested and captured throughout Croatia, but some of them (captured soldiers from Serbia and Montenegro) were brought from Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Lora, prisoners were exposed to abuse, humiliation, physical and psychological harassment, torture, and corporal punishment – which all led to deaths of some of them.

Here are statements by some of the witnesses:

After about three days of our stay in Lora, a group of some 70 arrested Serbs from Kupres was tied and mounted on a truck which drove us in the direction of Duvno. Somewhere around Drniš, the truck stopped, and one could see s large pit beside which a bulldozer was at work. Some people with chainsaws in their hands were also standing by. Croatian soldiers who brought us there took some 8 — 9 Serbs from our group off the truck: brothers Ratko and Ljubo Milić, Dušan Nikić, Slavko Dragoljević and Čivčić who was deaf-mute. The names of the others I do not remember. They took them to the pit and killed them.

I also remember a young man named Bojan who they used to call White eagle or a Little eagle. He was tortured particularly hard. He was stark naked, incredibly emaciated, real skeleton. They mistreated, beat, and tortured him most of all. One morning when guards brought us breakfast, I noticed him lying on his back on his cell floor. His body was completely yellow. We were immediately returned to our cells. I heard them hammering a coffin and guards were whispering something in the corridor. After that I never saw him again.  

In Split, we were taken to the perimeter of the military’s naval region where the Croatian Military police centre was located. Same as in Gornji Brišnik, we were getting off the truck one by one. Croatian policemen waited there to beat us. Three meters ahead of me was Petar Spremo. One Croatian soldier hit him hard on the head with a pistol handle, he fell from the blow, and hit his head against the curb and remained lying there motionless. I did not see him again then. The same soldier hit me hard with the pistol handle too, which caused my scull to crack in four places, so I ended up all covered in blood.

The number of people who passed through the Lora prison camp has never been precisely established, but some sources mention more thana 1,100 persons who were in Lora at some point. It is the same with the number of those killed in Lora. While the indictments raised by the Croatian judiciary operate with the names of two killed prisoners (Gojko Bulović and Nenad Knežević), some sources mention a much higher number of those killed. Thus the Committee for the collection of data about crimes against humanity and the international law SRY speaks of more than 20 persons killed and some of the witnesses who had survived Lora speak of about 60 persons who vanished without trace in Lora. Tonči Majić from the Dalmatian Committee for Human Rights speaks of several dozen people who lost their lives in Lora. Military-investigative centre Lora was under the authority of the Military police’s 72nd battalion and all the defendants were members of that unit. In December 2016, a monument was revealed in Split to the fallen members of the Military police 72nd battalion.

judicial outcome: County state attorney in Split on March 2002 indicted eight members of the HV Military police 72nd battalion for holding prisoner a considerable number of civilians, mostly of Serb nationality, without any legal grounds and on suspicion that they had participated in enemy activities against the Republic of Croatia. Civilians’ human dignity was offended, they were humiliated, psychologically and physically tortured and some of them were put to death. Indicted were Tomislav Duić, commander of the military-investigative centre Lora, Tonči Vrkić, his deputy, members of the intervention group-platoon Miljenko Bajić, Josip Bikić and Davor Banić, and guards Emilio Bungur, Ante Gudić and Anđelko Botić. The verdict passed in November 2002 acquitted all of them. The Supreme Court quashed the verdict in March 2004 and ordered a retrial before completely changed judicial council.

In March 2006, the County Court in Split declared all eight defendants guilty. Duić was sentenced to ten years in prison, Vrkić to eight, Banić to seven, and all others to six years in prison. In February 2007, the Supreme Court confirmed the first instance verdict. Bikić and Bajić were tried in absentia. Bikić surrendered, procedure against him was renewed and in December 2009, he was convicted to four years in prison. Bajić was arrested in 2010, his trial was renewed and in May 2012 he was convicted to four years and six months in prison. Duić and Bungur were tried in absentia. They were arrested and the procedure against them was renewed at their own request. Another procedure called Lora 2 was initiated against Duić and Bungur and in this procedure, the names of Bojan Vesović, Dušan Jelić and Vlado Savić were given as deceased victims. It was also stated that unregistered prisoners of war were tortured and sustained grave physical and psychological changes. Procedures for Lora and Lora 2 against Duić and Bungur were unified and in January 2017, a joint criminal procedure against the two was initiated.

In the Lora 2 procedure, also tried were Vrkić, Gudić and Botić. Vrkić was sentenced to six years in prison, while Gudić and Botić were sentenced to four years. Since all three had been convicted in the first Lora case, they were given a unified prison sentence – ten years for Vrkić, and eight years for Gudić and Botić.

Judicial proceedings in Lora were from the start marked by various obstructions on part of the judicial bodies. Publicist Darko Petričić and journalist Domagoj Margetić reported the Chief State Attorney Mladen Bajić to the Hague Tribunal for, as they said in their report, co-responsibility for war crimes in the Split Lora in the 1990s, because “prisoners were being arrested and interrogated following his orders”. Tonči Majić from the Dalmatian Committee for Human Rights confirms that Bajić, who was then military prosecutor in Split, participated in interrogations in Lora, and adds that there are indications that Bajić was in Lora at the time when prisoners had been tortured. In addition, as if years of procrastination with bringing the indictment were not enough, the case in the first trial in 2002 was assigned to the Split County Court judge Slavko Lozina, who at that time had the highest number of quashed verdicts and who turned the trial into a sort of circus and in the end freed all the defendants.

location: Marino Selo is situated in western Slavonia in Požeško-Slavonska County and belongs to the town of Lipik. It is important to emphasise that in the crime which is usually referred to as the crime in Marino Selo, the victims were civilians from the neighbouring villages of Klisa and Kip.

time: Members of the Military police 76^th independent Croatian National Guard battalion searched Serb house in the villages of Kip and Klisa in November 1991, looking for hidden weapons. Some civilians were arrested and taken to the improvised prison located in the fisherman’s house in the vicinity of Marino Selo (Ribnjak). In the premises of the fisherman’s house, members of the Croatian National Guard physically and mentally abused imprisoned Serbs who were civilians. In the period between November 1991 and February 1992, at least 24 civilians passed through this prison, and 18 died from consequences of the abuse. Crimes were committed by members of the platoon of Military police 76^th Croatian National Guards independent battalion.

victims:

The village of Kip

1. Pero Novković
2. Mijo Danojević
3. Gojko Gojković
4. Savo Gojković
5. Branko Bunčić
6. Nikola Gojković
7. Mijo Gojković
8. Filip Gojković
9. Jovo Popović
10. Petar Popović
11. Nikola Krajnović
12. Milan Popović

The village of Klisa

1. Jovo Žestić
2. Jovo Popović
3. Slobodan Kukić
4. Rade Gojković
5. Savo Maksimović
6. Josip Cicvara

victims – abused and tortured:

1. Branko Stanković
2. Mijo Krajnović
3. Jovo Krajnović
4. Bunčić Milka
5. Jeka Žestić
6. Nikola Ivanović

judicial outcome: At the County court in Požega on 13 March 2009, a verdict was announced which found defendants Damir Kufner, Davor Šimić, Pavao Vancaš, Tomica Poletto, Željko Tutić and Anton Ivezić, guilty of war crime against civilian population. The Supreme Court quashed the verdict for procedural reasons on 23 March 2010 and the case was delegated to the County Court in Osijek. On 13 June 2011, by the verdict of the County Court in Osijek, Tomica Poletto (44) was sentenced to twelve years in prison for war crime against civilian population. Damir Kufner, Pavao Vancaš and Antun Ivezić were acquitted, while charges were dropped for Davor Šimić. An appeal session at the Supreme Court was held on 22 November and the first instance verdict was fully confirmed.

location: Medak pocket includes villages Divoselo and Lički Čitluk with all of its hamlets and a part of Počitelj. The area is south of Gospić and it covers a territory of about 50 square kilometres. This is rural area, covered mostly in pastures and woods. According to the 1991 census, in these villages lived 780 inhabitants (344 in Divoselo, 129 in Čitluk, and 307 in Počitelj), of which 92 percent were Serbs. According to 2011 census these three villages were inhabited by 12 inhabitants, four in each. According to the 2001 census the described area had a population of 31, but it is hard to establish whether those who returned had left again, or whether the difference was a result of two different methods applied in the two censuses, or it is the case of dying population because people who had returned were mostly elderly. Whatever the case, this is not only about the fact that there are almost no people there, but that it is hard to imagine sustainable life there since most resources were totally destroyed, and then only marginally reconstructed. Houses are demolished and the woods spread out across once cultivated land, trees are growing even straight from the ruins of houses, wells are contaminated and there is general absence of any preconditions for an even bearable life, especially in Divoselo and Počitelj.

time: from 9 to 17 September 1993

 crime description: At 6 a.m. on 9 September 1993, an attack by Croatian forces began, i.e. by the members of the 9^th motorised guard brigade and the associated units (Home Guard battalion Lovinac, Home Guard battalion Gospić and the 11^th Home Guard regiment) and special police for this area which was thus far controlled by the SAO Krajina army and the associate paramilitary units. After two days of fighting, Croatian forces took control of the area and on 11 September, they rejected a counter-attack, which the 15^th Lika corpse of the Serb Military Krajina launched to recapture lost territory. On the first day of action many civilians were killed and/or wounded, the great majority of whom were elderly people, including at least ten women. One woman, blind and aged 84, was killed in her own courtyard. By the end of the operation, i.e. by the time Croatian forces withdrew from the Medak pocket as a consequence of pressure by the international community on the Croatian authorities and an agreement signed on 15 September 1993, at least 28 civilians and 50 soldiers on the Serb side had died. It has to be said that not all soldiers died in combat, but that some were killed after having been taken prisoner and in some cases, grave abuse and torture were proven. At least one civilian victim had their throat cut and there were several undisputed cases where corpses had been burnt. It is certain that almost without exception all victims were Serbs, save for one Croatian woman who was married in Čitluk. After the decision on withdrawal, between 15 and 17 September, Croatian soldiers  mined practically all houses which had survived the operation undamaged, livestock was killed and wells with drinking water were contaminated in order to make a return to these villages  permanently impossible – i.e. the entire area was “ethnically cleansed”.

information about exhumation and identification of victims: After the operation, the Croatian side handed over the bodies of 52 victims, UNPROFOR members who arrived in the area after 17 September 1993 found another 18 — 11 men and 7 women. Eight men were soldiers, two civilians, one body was of undetermined status, while all women found were civilians. In May 2000, 11 bodies were found in a cesspit in Gospić, in Obradovića Varoš, of whom six were identified as victims from the Medak pocket. To this day, families have not received bodies of eight victims.

In the registry of the missing persons or of those whose remains have not been found are:

1. Željko Basara, b. 23 Aug. 1971, father Milan, soldier – went missing on 9 Sept. and 23 Sept. 1993 in Divoselo
2. Bosiljka Bjegović, b. 1909 or 1912, father Stevo, civilian – murdered on 9 Sept. 1993 in her courtyard, registered as missing because her body was not buried
3. Mile Jovančević, b. 1924, father Avram, soldier – went missing in Divoselo on 9 Sept. 1993.
4. Štefica Krajnović, b. 3 March 1931, father Josip, civilian – went missing in Čitluk on 9 Sept. 1993.
5. Stevo Pjevač, b. 14 Nov. 1926, father Dane, civilian – went missing in Čitluk on 10 Sept. 1993.
6. Momčilo Vujnović, b. 1936, father Dmitar, soldier – killed on 9 Sept 1993, body has not been found.
7. Sisters Sara Krčković (b. 1921.) and
8. Ljubica Kričković (b. 1929.), father Trivun, killed in the basement of their house in Čitluk, Sara’s throat was cut. Although during the trial against Mirko Norac and Rahim Ademi it was testified that both persons were recognized and identified among the corpses identified in Medak, in the Book of Missing Persons in the Republic of Croatia their names are registered among those whose remains are still sought, which was stated in Supreme Court’s final verdict.

judicial outcome: Investigation of this crime was initiated by investigators of the Hague Tribunal and in 2002 it led to an indictment against three Croatian Army officers, i.e. retired Staff General Janko Bobetko (who was at the time of the action Chief of the General Staff), retired general Mirko Norac (who at the time of action had a rank of colonel and was commander of the GMTBR within the Gospić operational zone) and general Rahim Ademi (who during the action had a title of a brigadier and was the commander of the Gospić operational zone). On 29 April 2003, Janko Bobetko died in his home and the Hague Tribunal in September 2005 transferred the Ademi-Norac case to the Croatian judiciary. In November of the following year, a “domestic” indictment was raised and eight months later the trial began. On 29 May 2008, Rahim Ademi was in the first instance ruling acquitted of all charges, while Mirko Norac was convicted to seven years in prison. In its final verdict of 18 November 2009, the Supreme Court confirmed the acquittal of Rahim Ademi, who did not have effective command responsibility in that area at the time when the crime was committed, while first instance verdict against Norac was confirmed and the sentence was reduced by one year. From the verdict against Mirko Norac, it transpires that he could not be responsible for the deaths of civilians killed outside the areas captured by troops under his command, i.e. in the area captured by special police forces.In this case the question remains why to this day no one was held accountable for the crimes,  either among direct perpetrators or from the special police chain of command. The process also showed that the case had been systematically covered up, primarily through the work of military-intelligence structures, which should also be the basis for the criminal-legal responsibility of the participants. Further, victims murdered on 9 September 1993, i.e. the majority, were excluded from the verdict with the conclusion that Mirko Norac was convicted for the act of omission (failure to punish and prevent), and hence could not be guilty of the act of commission which he had not ordered and which he could not be aware of before it was committed. The consequence was, among other, that the families of seven civilian victims of 9 September 1993 established as such by court, were unable to seek compensation in a law-suit as victims of war crimes.

The Supreme Court in May 2020 confirmed the verdict which convicted the commander of the 9^th MTBR reconnaissance company, Josip Krmpotić, to three years in prison for war crimes. Krmpotić was convicted for torching and destroying houses in Serb villages during the operation Medak pocket and was acquitted of charges of killing prisoners of war. Krmpotić received a sentence more lenient than the lowest stipulated by law, due to a number of circumstances which the court counted as mitigating. Velibor Šolaja and Josip Mršić, both members of Krmpotić’s unit, were convicted for killing an unidentified woman. By final ruling, Šolaja was convicted to five years in prison, and in a ruling which is not yet final, Mršić was convicted to three years in prison.

location: Medari village is situated on Trnava river some six kilometers west of Nova Gradiška. Medari was a part of the Nova Gradiška municipality until 1991, and today Medari is part of one of the youngest municipalities in Croatia – Dragalić. According to the 1991 census, Medari had 452 inhabitants, of which 367 were Serbs. According to the latest census from 2011, Medari have a population of 211. Detailed information about the ethnic structure of the town is not yet available.

time: 1 May 1995

description of the crime: At 6 a.m on the first day of operation Flash, Croatian Army members entered Medari village and committed war crimes against civilians who were at that time in their homes. 22 persons were murdered cruelly with firearms and cold weapons. The fact that three children and 11 women were among the victims and that most of the men were elderly, speaks about the scale of the crime. The youngest victim was seven and the oldest was 88 years old; also as many as seven members of a single family (family Vuković) were killed. All victims were Serbs. According to testimonies by the families of victims, people in Medaribelieved that UNPROFOR, whose base was in close proximity, would protect them in case that Croatian Army should enter the village.

victims:

1. Ljeposava Burujević (born in 1925)
2. Mile Burujević(born in 1935)
3. Rade Čanak (born in 1907)
4. Draga Čanak (born in 1919)
5. Ruža Dičko (born in 1943)
6. Željko Dičko (born in 1967)
7. Draga Đumić (born in 1919)
8. Jovan Grmuša (born in 1933)
9. Jela Mrkonjić (born in 1945)
10. Anka Niniković (born in 1919)
11. Nikola Popović (born in 1927)
12. Nada Popović (born in 1930)
13. Dragan Romanić(born in 1935)
14. Zorka Tomić (born in 1927)
15. Kata Vlaisavljević (born in 1930)
16. Anđelija Vuković (born in 1959)
17. Ranko Vuković (born in 1955)
18. Goran Vuković (born in 1984)
19. Gordana Vuković (born in 1987)
20. Milutin Vuković (born in 1945)
21. Cvjeta Vuković (born in 1950)
22. Dragana Vuković (born in 1988)

information on exhumation andidentification of victims: On 3 July 2010, exhumation was completed of the remains of 28 persons from the common grave situated in the area of local cemetery in Trnava village. The following persons were identified on 29 March 2011 at the Zagreb Forensics Institute: Cvijeta Vuković, Anđelija Vuković, Ranko Vuković, Milutin Vuković, Gordana VukovićGoran Vuković, Dragana Vuković, Ruža Dičko, Željko Dičko and Jovan Grmuša and in April of 2012 the following persons were identified: Kata Vlaisavljević, Zorka Tomić, Draga Đumić and Anka Ninković.

judicial consequences: Nobody has been held criminally liable yet for the crime in Medari. Procedure is still at the pre-investigation phase and is being conducted against unknown perpetrators. Until the exhumation of the remains of the Medari victims in 2010, the case was with the Osijek county state attorney. However, no indictment has been raised yet for the crimes in Medari. The Vuković sisters, whose parents and younger sister were killed, initiated court proceeding on 4 September 2006 claiming damages before Nova Gradiška municipal court based on the Liability Act of the Republic of Croatia for Damage Caused by Members of Croatian Army and Police Forces During the Homeland War. The same court, on 4 November 2009, turned down their claim as unfounded. Municipal State Attorney’s civil administrative department in Zagreb quashed the request for out of court settlement becuase according to their interpretation this was not a war crime, but instead the civilians who perished were the collateral damage of war. The municipal state attorney in Nova Gradiška initiated enforcement proceedings against property belonging to the Vuković sisters because of court fees they owe, which were incurred by the lawsuit initiated regarding the claim for non-material damages for the deaths of their parents and underage sister.

location: Hamlet of the Strmica village, which is part of the former municipality and now the town of Knin. According to the 1991 census, out of 1,334 inhabitants of Strmica, 1,298 were Serbs.

time: 5 and 8 August 1995

description of crime: Manda Rodić testified to the members of UNCIVPOL that at the beginning of August 1995, an HV convoy stopped in their hamlet. While she was standing at the entrance of her house with her neighbours, Jovanka Mizdrak and Juja Momić, two soldiers in camouflage uniforms approached them and asked them whether “there were Chetniks and arms in the house”. After Manda Rodić said that there were none, the soldiers gave an order to follow them because they were now “under civil protection”. When Jovanka Mizdrak refused to go, one of the soldiers ordered the other soldier to “kill her on the spot”. Several days later, the body of Jovanka’s husband Jovan was found in one of the nearby fields. He was shot dead on 5 August 1995.

victims: two persons killed – Jovanka Mizdrak (50) and Stevan Mizdrak (55)

legal Consequences: The remains of the Mizdrak couple were exhumed in May 2001 at the Knin cemetery. To this day no one has been held responsible for their killing.

location: Mokro Polje is part of Ervenik Municipality. In 1991 there were 803 inhabitants, 801 were Serbs. In 2011, there were 227 inhabitants in Mokro Polje.

period: 5 to 20 August 1995

crime description: A majority of population left the village and joined the refugee colon during Operation Storm. A part of them decided to stay. Since people in surrounding villages decided to leave on the night of 4 August 1995, some of them were also in Mokro Polje when the Croatian Army entered the village. The Croatian troops killed some civilians who were in the village. Since there is no detailed report, various sources claim between 5 and 20 murders. Here are the cases for which we have unambiguous information about the murders. Killing of at least five and according to some data 15 civilians in Mokro Polje (Knin) started during the operation Storm and continued after completion of the military action. Ružica Babić, born in 1926, was killed on 6 August 1995 at the threshold of her house. Stana Popović, born in 1926 and Mirko Popović, born in 1952, (mother and son) were killed on 7 August 1995 in their house by shots from firearms. Stevan Sučević, born in 1934 was killed on 9 August 1995. Jeka Kanazir, born in 1928, was thrown into “Pavlović’s cistern”. She was buried in Knin 40 days later. Sava Babić, born in 1913, was killed by shots from firearms on 24 August 1995 in front of her house.

Jovan Popović from Mokro Polje, born in 1948, lost his mother Stana and brother Mirko on 7 August 1995. That day, after he was severely abused by the soldiers, he went to the top floor of his house to sleep. The shots woke him up:

Then I heard my mother screaming (…) When I heard a member of the Croatian Army saying he already killed one and had to burn him before the observers came (…) I went down to find my brother murdered and my mother suffocating from a throat wound (…) She gave me hand signs to run and asked for some water. Son she was dead. My father was also wounded, a bullet entered through his ear and ended in TV screen (…)

Jovan’s father survived.

victims:

1. Popović Stana (born in 1926)
2. Sučević Stevan (born in 1934)
3. Babić Sava (born in 1913)
4. Kanazir Jeka (born in 1918)
5. Popović Mirko (born in 1953)
6. Babić Ružica (born in 1926)

There were people from other villages in Mokro Polje that day. Their number hasn’t been determined either. Ilija Švonja and Ružica and Stevo Manojlović were killed in a store where they hid in the evening of 6 August 1995. After the massacre they were burned.

Victims from other villages:

1. Švonja Ilija (born in 1926), from Žegara;
2. Manojlović Ružica (born in 1937), from Ivoševci;
3. Manojlović Stevo (born in 1940) from Ivoševci.

juridical consequences: No one was held responsible for the crimes. In commemoration of Mokro Polje victims, killed in August of 1995, the locals from Mokro Polje and Association of Families against Forgetting raised a memorial plaque.

location: Road between Glina and Dvor

time: 7 and 8 August 1995

Description of Crime: On 7 and 8 August 1995 rows of people from the area of Glina, Topusko, Vrginmost and Vojnić were moving along the road from Glina to Dvor. In the vicinity of villages Ravno Rašće, Donji Klasnić and Žirovac the people were attacked and several dozen civilians were killed. According to witness testimonies, two attacks took place, one by the Croatian Army (HV) and another by the Bosnia Herzegovina Army 5th corps. This crime is one of the less researched crimes in Croatia. Even the small number of witness accounts that exist, are largely contradictory. Thus some HV members claim that a great number of military vehicles was retreating along with the civilians and that soldiers in civilian cars were mixed with civilians and were shooting at them (HV), while some claim that civilians died as a consequence of panic among the Serb military. Regardless of the lack of clarity, the fact remains that a larger and still undetermined number of civilians perished during the course of these events.

victims:

1. Aleksa Zorojević (born in 1928) from Donji Klasnić
2. Miloš Vladić (1931) from Buzeta
3. Danica Bulat (1931) from Buzeta
4. Marija Baždar (1928) from Buzeta
5. Milenko Kukulj (born round 1935) from Blatuša
6. Ljubica Kukulj (1952.) from Blatuša
7. Đurđica Kukulj (born round 1967.) from Blatuša
8. Ana Mraović (1905) from Bović
9. Mile Mraović (1931) from Bović
10. Stanko Stanojević (1918) from Bović
11. Stevan Komadina (1930) from Bović
12. Milica Rkman (1915) from Brnjavac
13. Maca Pavlović (1923) from Trepča
14. Danica Radanović (1924) from Šljivovac
15. Radanović Ranka (1932) from Čremušnica
16. Radanović Miljka (1922) from Čremušnica

perpetrators: Unknown members of the Croatian Army and Bosnia Herzegovina Army.

judicial consequences: No one has yet been held criminally responsible for this crime.

location: Novska is a town in westernmost Slavonia, between Kutina and Nova Gradiška. According to the 2011 census, Novska had 13,518 inhabitants, of whom 4.74 percent were Serbs. According to the 1991 census, the Novska municipality had 24,696 citizens, of whom 21.78 percent were Serbs. Although Novska administratively no longer encompasses the same area as in 1991, and has fewer inhabitants, a great change in the ethnic structure of the population is evident from the big decline in the number of Serbs in this area.

description of crime: In the autumn and winter of 1991, Novska was on the frontline during the war in Croatia. On 21 November 1991 at about 10 p.m., several Croatian soldiers broke into the house of Mihajlo Šeatović. They took him to the neighbouring house where his neighbours Ljuban Vujić, and Mišo and Sajka Rašković were already held captive and were then all killed with knives and firearms. These Serb civilians, according to the indictment, were killed in a particularly cruel and brutal manner. The woman was found naked, with her throat and chest cut and riddled with bullets. Men’s fingers, testicles and genitals were cut off, they were stabbed with knives, their joints and bones were crushed, their throats were slit, and they were sprayed with bullets from automatic rifles. On 18 December 1991, members of the Croatian Army entered the house of Petar Mileusnić, where they abused and then shot dead Goranka Mileusnić, Vera Mileusnić and Blaženka Slabak, while gravely wounding Petar Mileusnić, whom they left for dead as they left the house.

judicial outcome: Military prosecution in Zagreb in 1992 indicted Dubravko Leskovar and Damir Raguž Vida for murder, not for a war crime against civilian population. The Court’s panel of judges on 10 November 1992 issued a ruling suspending the proceedings based on the then valid Law on amnesty from criminal prosecution and procedure for criminal acts committed in armed conflicts and in the war against the republic of Croatia. A new procedure was initiated at the County Court in Sisak on 8 March 2010, when the main hearing began in the process against Damir Vida Raguž and Željko Škledar, who were this time accused of having committed a war crime against civilian population on 21 November 1991 in Novska. On 16 April 2010, defendant Damir Vida Raguž was found guilty by a first-instance verdict that sentenced him to 20 years of prison, while defendant Željko Škledar was acquitted. On 10 July 2012, an appeals’ council’s session was held and the first-instance ruling was overturned. On 7 February 2013, the County Court in Zagreb acquitted Damir Vide Raguž and Željko Škledar in the first-instance verdict. For the war crime in the house of Petar Mileusnić in 1992, an investigation was carried out against Željko Belina, Ivan Grgić, Dubravko Leskovar, Dejan Milić and Zdravko Plesec, for criminal acts of murder and attempted murder. The procedure was finalized on 2 November 1992 with a decision to halt criminal proceedings on the basis of the Amnesty Law. The Sisak County initiated proceedings against defendants Željko Belina, Dejan Milić, Ivan Grgić, and Zdravko Plesec, former members of the Croatian Army charged with war crimes against civilian population for killing Goranka and Vera Mileusnić, and Blaženka Slabak, and wounding Petar Mileusnić in Novska in December 1991. On 19 November 2010, the Sisak County Court’s Council for War Crimes ruled to abandon the case, considering the matter as having already been processed in court.

The Supreme Court abolished the first instance verdict of abandonment related to the principal defendant Belina and the second defendant Milić. After a renewed procedure, the Council for War Crimes of the County Court in Zagreb declared the defendants guilty on 8 March 2013. Belina was sentenced to ten and Milić to nine years. In October of the same year, the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict.

Family members of those murdered have not received adequate moral or financial satisfaction. They were additionally victimized because they have an obligation to pay the court fees for the lost law suits in which they sued the Republic of Croatia, holding it responsible for the crime committed by the identified members of Croatian Army (HV). Marica Šeatović, wife of the murdered Mihajlo Šeatović filed for damages from the Republic of Croatia in 2004 because of her husband’s death, which the municipal court in Novska rejected with the explanation that the rifle with which massacre in Rašković’s  house was committed “had been involved in operations of the Homeland War” and that perpetrators had been “drunk and filled with indignation over the fall of Vukovar”. She appealed to the court in Sisak, but her request was turned down and ultimately she had to pay 8,500 kuna court fees. In 2008, she initiated procedure at the Supreme Court which returned the case first to Sisak and then again to Novska, where the judge again ruled against it. Marica was again obliged to pay 10,000 kuna in court fees. From her pension of 1,600 kuna, Marica Šeatović has already paid the state 20,000 kuna, while her husband’s killers are still free and she has not received a single kuna in compensation from the state.

location: “Serb Republic of Krajina” (RSK) covered the territories of Lika, Kordun, northern Dalmatia, Banija, western Slavonia, eastern Slavonia and western Srijem and Baranja. RSK was divided into four UN sectors: western (western Slavonia), Eastern (eastern Slavonia), Northern (Kordun, Banija, northern part of Lika) and southern (Dalmatia, southern part of Lika). Operation Storm was carried out on the territories of the UN sectors South and North.

time: August and September 1995

description of events: In the early morning hours of 4 August 1995, the Croatian Army began an extensive military operation named Storm. The operation started at 5 a.m. with the shelling of all significant points of Serb defence, especially the town of Knin, as the RSK’s central town. The action itself lasted for 84 hours, i.e. its official termination was declared at 6 p.m. on 7 August 1995. Some 200,000 Croatian soldiers participated in the action, but in some parts of the operation, HVO and B-H Army (from Bosnia) also actively participated. With the operation Storm, the constitutional-legal order of the Republic of Croatia was re-established in the large part of the area covered by the RSK, but the operation cannot be regarded without taking into consideration its negative consequences which still have an effect today. Research conducted by the Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO) in August and September 1995 showed that during and after the completion of the military operation, on the affected territory more than 600 civilians were killed and several thousand houses and ancillary facilities were burnt down. The Information-documentation centre Veritas assessed the number of civilians killed during and after Operation Storm at more than 1,200. In fear for their personal safety and because of the insistence of the Krajina authorities, some 200,000 of its inhabitants, mostly Serbs, left Croatia. Their return was prevented by the failure to establish secure conditions and legal order in that part of Croatian territory, belated processing of war crimes, inefficient return program and the state’s slow economic measures to speed up the reconstruction of the destroyed and looted infrastructure. Synergy of the mentioned elements resulted in permanent emigration of the Serb population from one-fifth of Croatian territory to the extent that absolutely has the effect of ethnic cleansing.

victims: Due to different levels at which particular crimes committed during and after the operation Storm have been researched, it is unfortunately not possible to consistently and uniformly describe each individual crime, or to present precise lists of names of the victims of every crime. Hence in the further text we bring details only of some crimes, while those best researched are presented as individual crimes on this map of crime.

On 6 August 1995, in the village of Golubić near Knin at least ten civilians were killed. Vaso Vasić (b. 1920) and Nikola Panić (b. 1935) were killed with firearms – the army brought them in front of their houses and shot them. On that day, also executed were Branko  Radovanović (b. 1920), Maša Radujko (B.1927) and her husband Nikola Radujko (b. 1918), Tode Marić (b. 1929), Milka Grubić (about 60 years old), Zorka Kablar (about 80 years old), Milica Šljivar (b. 1936) and Jeka Opačić (about 80 years old).

On 7 August 1995, at about 10 a.m., in the village of Bravsko in the neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Croatian military air-force’s two supersonic aircraft of the MIG-21 type, flew 30 km inside the B-H territory, shooting at a column of civilians from southern Lika and northern Dalmatia, who fled in fear from their homes during Operation Storm. The column was moving along the so called Petrovačka road between Bosanski Petrovac and Ključ.  Near the town of Kapljuh in the village of Bravsko, two aircraft which arrived from the west, i.e. from Croatia, flew over them. In the second overflight several missiles were fired at the column, instantly killing Darinka Drča (b. 1927) and her grandchildren (Jovica Drča b. 1989) and Mirjana Dubajić (b. 1974), all from Brotinja near Donji Lapac, brother and sister Nevenka Rajić (b. 1984)and Žarko Rajić (b.1986) from Donji Lapac, Krstan Vuković (b. 1951) and his son Darko (b. 1982) form Donji Lapac and Branko Stjelja (b. 1923) and his son Mirko(b. 1961) form Nadin near Benkovac. According to witness statements (local population and surviving refugees), only civilians were in the column and there were no members of any sort of military units in the vicinity. Aircraft flew over the column at a very low altitude and relatively slowly, and the pilots must have been able to see that these were civilian vehicles, women and children. Still, after the first overflight, the aircraft turned around and opened fire on the column before flying away and back to Croatia. This incident happened on the last day of Operation Storm, when no real threat existed for Croatian units and deep within the territory of the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Killings of at least six and according to some records fifteen civilians, in Mokro Polje (Knin) started during the offensive Storm and continued after military activities ended. Ružica Babić (b. 1926) was killed on 6 August 1995 at her doorstep. Stana Popović (b. 1926) and Mirko Popović (b. 1952), mother and son, were killed on 7 August 1995 in their own house, with bullets from firearms. Stevan Sučević (b. 1934) was killed on 9 August 1995. Jeka Kanazir (b. 1928) was thrown into “Pavlovic’s well” She was buried in Knin 40 days later. Sava Babić (b. 1913) was killed with firearms on 24 August 1995 in front of her house. In the village of Kijani (Gračac) during Operation Storm and until the end of 1995, according to HHO, 14 killed civilians were registered, among whom nine women: Dane Bolta (90 years old); Sava Bolta (about 70 years old); Branko Jelača (about 67  years old); Marija Jelača (b. 1913); Milica Jelača (b. 1927); Ana Jelača (about 50 years old); Smilja Jelača (about 90 years old); Dušan Kesić (b. 1939); Mileva Kolundžić (about 70 years old); Mara Sovilj /about 75 years old); Mira Sovilj (about 50 years old); Rade Sovilj (b. around 1947) and Vlado Sovilj (b. 1931) who had returned home from the refugee column.

It is difficult to find a village in the northern Dalmatia and Lika where there has not been a murder of one or more civilians during and immediately after Operation Storm. Well known murders include those in Uzdolje, Žagrović, Plavno, Srmica, Lički Tiškovac, Kosovo, Oćestovo, Ivoševci, Zrmanja etc.

legal outcome: There have been three judicial proceeding for war crimes committed during and immediately after Operation Storm. The only one which ended with a final verdict and a conviction, was the one against Božo Bačelić for a war crime committed in Prokljan and Mandići. In March 2016, Bačelić was convicted to seven years in prison for killing Nikola Damjanić and his wife Milica in Prokljan on 11 August 1995. Bačelić was also convicted because on 9 and 10 August, he and two other members of the platoon he had commanded, captured a member of the RSK Army, Vuk Mandić, took him to an abandoned house in the area of Varivode and killed him.

For killing three civilians – Radomir, Mira and Mara Sovilj – in Kijani in August 1995 – the County Court in Rijeka convicted Rajko Kričković, pending appeal, to 10 years in prison.

A trial was held for the murder of six civilians in Grubori on 25 August 1995, against Frano Drlja and Božo Krajina. County Court in Zagreb acquitted them, and the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court. The County Court concluded that that there was a strong conspiracy of silence among the defendants, that the victims had been killed because they were Serbs, and that their houses were burned because their owners were Serbs.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes committed in the UN sector South, indicted generals Ivan Čermak, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač. All three were acquitted, Čermak in a first instance ruling and Gotovina and Markač in a second instance ruling. The ICTY forwarded the entire file of the Gotovina/Čermak/Markač case to the Croatian authorities, but regardless of all the data, facts and depositions enclosed in that file, this has not led to faster judicial proceedings when it comes to war crimes committed during and after the Storm.

Victims’ families have a moral right to expect that perpetrators should be held responsible for their tragedies and tragedies of many others, regardless of which side they fought for and in whose name crimes were committed. Crimes committed during the Storm were discussed in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague during the pronouncement of verdicts for genocide, which Croatia and Serbia raised against each other. Judges concluded that shelling of towns in RSK was not directed against civilians and that they were not intentionally targeted. The Tribunal said that it was not disputed that the flight of a significant part of Serb population was a direct consequence of the Croatian military operation, especially shelling of towns. It further noticed that the Brijuni transcripts showed that Croatia’s highest political and military authorities were well aware that the Storm would result in a mass exodus of Serbs and that they “to a certain extent even predicted military planning related to this exodus, which they considered probable and even desirable.”

The ICC concluded that the Croatian forces had committed murders of members of a protected group and caused them grave physical and psychological traumas by establishing their responsibility for killings and attacks against refugee columns, as well as responsibility for killing Serb civilians during and after the military operations. Judges confirmed the ICTY’s findings about the abuse of Serb civilians, systematic looting, and destruction of Serb houses. But as regards genocide, the ICC concluded that if there had been a policy of expelling Serbs, it does not mean that there had been a policy aimed at physical destruction of the Serb population and that this is far from a specific intention which characterises the crime of genocide. The number of witnesses of crimes which happened after Operation Strom is diminishing, and the institutions of the Croatian state are not showing any initiative to process these crimes, moreover, in almost all processes related to these crimes there has been sloppiness in preparing indictments and in conducting proceedings, which in most cases led to acquittals.

location: Oton hamlet in the municipality of Ervenik, from which the majority of its 200 inhabitants fled between 4 and 5 August 1995, and only four or five elderly men and 13 women stayed behind.

time: Unestablished date close to 18 August 1995.

description of crime: Jovan Vujnović said in his testimony to the Hague investigators that in the morning hours of 18 August 1995 or close to that date, a group of Croatian soldiers took him to the  village railway station building for questioning. One of the soldiers then advised him to hide because “things were happening”. On the same day around 15:00, Vujinović went home and found his house torched and some 80 meters further he found his dead mother Marta Vujinović (85) with three bullet wounds to her face. On 21 and 22 August, he also found the corpse of Stevo Vujnović (56) in front of Vujnović’s house. Stevo Vujnović was in his underwear, lying with his face to the ground in a pool of blood. On an undetermined date following Operation Storm,  Stevo’s immobile mother Marija (85) was also killed. Her corpse was found a year later by her other son, Momčilo Vujnović. According to the report by the UN civilian police (UNCIVPOL) made on 24 August 1995, in the first days of “Storm”, the following civilians were killed in Oton: Ilija (73) and Branko Sudar (58) and Đuka Žunić (85). The villagers found the latter drowned in the well.

victims: six killed –  Marta Vujnović (85), Stevo Vujnović (56), Marija Vujnović (85), Ilija Sudar (73), Branko Sudar (58) and Đuka Žunić (85).

legal consequences: Names of Marta, Stevo and Marija Vujnović were included in the indictment which the ICTY prosecutors raised in 2001 against Croatian generals Gotovina, Čermak and Markač. But due to the lack of evidence about possible perpetrators of the crime, the ICTY’s trial chamber did not consider the case.

location: The crime was committed in Poljana, a small town 25 kilometers by road between Pakrac and Kutina. Poljana was part of Pakrac under the previous administrative structure, which was valid in 1991 and today it is a part of Lipik. The settlement is better known to the wider audience under the name of Pakračka Poljana, which defines its approximate location. Another reason for this is probably that its official name until 1981 used to be Poljana Pakračka. In 1991 the population was 669, of which the majority were Croats who made 60,69 percent, and there was a considerable number of Czechs who represented 22,7 percent of the population. There were 27 persons of Serb ethnicity. Today Poljana has 547 inhabitants. Ethnic structures of population for settlements that do not have status of municipality or town are still not available.

time: 8 October 1991 to mid December 1991

description of crime: In the fall of 1991, the Croatian Ministry of Interior’s reserve unit was stationed in Pakračka Poljana. During the mentioned period of time, members of this unit brought illegally arrested Serb civilians and a smaller number of Croats to Društveni dom (community centre) which was turned into an improvised prison. These civilians were interrogated there, procedures were accompanied by frequent beatings, torture and a number of murders. People were most often taken from their homes, almost as a rule they were asked for and stripped of money and other valuables, including cars, in one case, they even took a vacuum cleaner and an iron. Some of the prisoners were tortured with electric shocks, their wounds were sprinkled with salt or vinegar and torture often included blows with hard objects, knives were also used, several women were raped, prisoners were forced to greet their torturers with “Za dom spremni” (For homeland ready), and they were tortured in many other ways. This briefly described torture is only a smaller part of the crime because several dozen persons in Pakračka Poljana were killed with firearms or died as a consequence of beatings. Serb civilians were brought to the prison camp mostly from villages in Pakrac, Kutina and Daruvar area, but at least three were brought from Zagreb. The camp was situated at the then fair grounds, where the same unit was also stationed. Victims were most often executed by firearms at close range, bullets to the head, after which they were buried in shallow graves, mostly in close vicinity of Poljane. The bodies of at least six victims have yet to be found.

persons who are still registered as missing in Pakračka Poljana:

1. Pero Novković, born in 1940 – disappeared on 16 November 1991
2. Milan Popović, born in 1929 – disappeared on 10 November 1991
3. Milan Gunjević, born in 1952 – went missing on 10 October 1991
4. Konstantin Radić Kojo from Kričke village – went missing in mid October 1991
5. Pero Rajčević form Kutina – went missing after 11 October 1991
6. Milan Radonić, from Kutina area – taken to Pakračka Poljana on 26 October 1991 where he was tortured and humiliated, after which he disappeared without trace.

information on exhumation and identification of victims: Victims of the previously described crime have been exhumed in different locations and then identified at the Zagreb Institute for Forensic Medicine as follows:

1. Ljuban Harambašić
2. Pavle Ignjatović
3. Mirko Cicvara
4. Tejkan Kutić
5. Mihajlo Vučković
6. Ljubica Vučković
7. Ostoja Subanović
8. Božo Velebit
9. Stoja Ignjatović
10. Miloš Ivošević
11. Rade Pajić

Bodies were found in Kukunjevac, Bujavci and at the locations Veliki Jarak and Mali Gaj.

judicial outcome: According to the verdict by the Zagreb County Court from September 2005, the following persons were sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison for illegal detention, torture, looting and murders: the main defendant Munib Suljić (ten years), Siniša Rimac (eight years), Igor Mikola (five years), Miroslav Bajramović (four years) and Branko Šarić (three years). In May 2006, the Supreme Court increased Suljić’s term to 12 years, Igor Mikola was on the run since the first instance ruling was handed down, and was extradited from Peru in 2015. Tomislav Merčep as the (in)formal commander of this group, was arrested in December 2010, and six months later – in June 2011 – was indicted by the County Court in Zagreb. He was charged based on command responsibility for crimes in Pakračka Poljana and, on the same grounds, for the murder of the Zec family.

location: Hamlets of Mirkovići and Crnogorci, the village Polača near Knin

time: 12 and 29 August 1995

description of crime: On 12 August 1995, three Croatian soldiers participating in mopping up operations came to the house of Đurđija MIrković. Her neighbour Smiljana Mirković, who was with her at that moment, testified that soldiers cursed their Serb mother, after which one of them killed Đurđija.

According to testimony by Đurđija Crnogorac, on 29 August 1995, three Croatian soldiers in uniforms came to a neighbour’s house where there was also Ilinka Crnogorac and ordered her to accompany them to her own house. As neighbours had testified, the soldiers threatened to burn down her house and she was begging them not to do it. Several hours later Đurđija found Ilinka dead in a pool of blood, and a flowerpot lying close to her head. In the Knin district police administration’s event log from 1995, it was stated that Ilinka Crnogorac died of natural causes. Following exhumation at the Knin cemetery in 2001 and the autopsy, it was established that she was killed by shots to the chest and head.

victims: two persons killed – Ilinka Crnogorac (67) and Đurđija Mirković (70).

legal consequences: Due to lack of evidence about possible perpetrators of the crime, ICTY’s trial chamber did not consider this case. To this day no one has been held responsible for the murders of Đurđija Mirković and Ilinka Crnogorac.

location: On 29 October 1991, members of the Požega civil protection and police began to carry out orders about the evacuation of all citizens from 26 villages that had either exclusively or a majority of Serb population living in the Požega valley at the foot of the Papuk and Psunj mountains. One day earlier, Slavonska Požega Crisis Headquarters issued an order about evacuation, which had to be carried out within 48 hours. The order included the following villages: Oblakovac, Vučjak, Čečavski, Jeminovac, Šnjegavić, Čečavac, Koprivna, Rasna, Pasikovci, Kujnik, Orljavac, Crljenci, Sloboština, Milivojevci, Podsreće, Vranić, Nježić, Požeški Markovac, Klisa, Ozdakovci, Poljanska, Kantrovci, Gornji Vrhovci, Lučinci and Oljasi. Later, Smoljanovci and Ruševac were added to this list. According to the 1991 census, these villages had a population of 2120 inhabitants. Of all of them, only Poljanska, Orljavac and Lučinci were ethnically mixed, while the rest of them were populated only by Serbs. Evacuation did not encompass the Croatian villages of Ivandol, Deževci, Perenci, Toranj and Biškupci which bordered with the Serb villages. These villages were marked as ‘collecting districts’ for the population.

time: October — December 1991

description of crimes: Written order on evacuation displayed in public places on 28 October 1991 stated that “Chetnik terrorist forces and JNA units are recently increasingly endangering civilian population in the western part of the Slavonska Požega municipality” and that evacuation is undertaken “with the goal to protect their lives and to enable a more successful defence of Croatian forces’ positions in this area”. Some of the people from the 26 villages that the evacuation order referred to did as requested by the Crisis Headquarters, but some decided to stay in their houses. Although people were promised that upon return, they would find everything as they left it, soon after evacuation, looting, torching, and mining of Serb houses began. According to some data, in the next several months, more than 600 houses and farm buildings were torched or mined. Most inhabitants of the villages Vučjak Čečavski and Šnjegvić refused to evacuate, and part of those evacuated from other villages found refuge there. On 10 December 1991, units of the 121 brigade from Nova Gradiška and the 123 brigade from Slavonska Požega began and extensive operation of clearing the terrain in the areas of Vučjak Čečavski, Šnjegavić, Jeminovac and Ruševac. During the “clearing”, Croatian forces killed at least 41 persons in these villages. The majority of villagers killed were Serbs, civilians, mostly elderly women. In Šnjegavić, a mass grave was unearthed on 11 December 2000, in which the remains of thirteen persons were found. The identification of bodies is still pending. The remains of most persons killed, have not been found yet.

victims (missing and killed)

Šnjegavić

1. Draga Protić
2. Bosiljka Protić
3. Ljubomir Protić
4. Milan Protić
5. Stanko Protić
6. Ana Radmilović
7. Ilija Radmilović
8. Anka Radmilović
9. Milan Radmilović
10. Janko Živković
11. Anđa Stanković
12. Mileva Milošević
13. Jula Radmilović

Čečavački Vučjak

1. Milka Šimić
2. Mile Dulić
3. Rajko Starčević
4. Ljubica Carević
5. Milka Starčević
6. Mileva Ivanović
7. Ljubica Carević
8. Branko Ivanović
9. Nikola Živković
10. Jagoda Dulić
11. Jagoda Starčević
12. Mara Trkulja
13. Anđa Starčević
14. Dulić Radojka
15. Carević Milan

Ruševac

1. Stevo Ranosavljević
2. Ana Ranosavljević
3. Mijo Ranosavljević
4. Anđa Trlajić
5. Ljuba Trlajić
6. Jagoda Miličić
7. Đuro Vasić
8. Kata Čičković

Čečavac

1. Mila Radić
2. Jovo Radić
3. Mile Mijatović

Oljasi

1. Nikola Davidović

Ozdakovci

1. Marija Milinković

judicial consequences: On 17 March 2000, the first criminal charges related to this crime were raised against unknown persons, but no one has, to date, been held responsible for these crimes.

location: Village in Biskupija municipality

time: Undetermined date in August or September 1995

description of crime: Acting on a tip in mid September 1995, UNCIVPOL arrived in Riđane, a village with majority Croatian population which was under the UN protection before Operation Storm. With the help of two elderly women from the village, they found the body of the killed Serb Milan Balić who was lying face to the ground and was covered with a carpet.  Upon turning the corpse, they saw a bullet hole on the chest.  The two women recounted that a group pf HV soldiers with a lightning patch on the shoulders of their uniforms had turned up in the village and asked Balić to give them two of his pigs. When Balić refused, one of the soldiers killed him.

victims: Milan Balić (76)

legal onsequences: Due to lack of evidence about possible perpetrators of the crime, the ICTY’s trial chamber did not consider this case. To this day no one has been held responsible for the death of Milan Balić.

location: The town of Sisak is situated at the meeting of the Kupa river with the Sava and of the Odra river meeting the Kupa. In the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), Sisak saw great industrialisation and population growth and it became one of the strongest industrial centers in the former state. Today, with the closing down of the largest industrial plants and a huge percentage of unemployed, it represents one of the most obvious examples of collapse of industrial production in Croatia. According to the 1991 census, Sisak had 45.792 inhabitants of which 10.829 or 23,64 percent Serbs. According to the 2011 census population of Sisak is 69.281 of which only 5897 or 7,46 percent are Serbs. Although the administrative area of Sisak town no longer covers the same area that it did in 1991 and is therefore difficult to do a precise comparative analysis, it is completely clear that there was a drastic decrease of number of Serbs in this area.

time: 1991 — 1995

description of crime: In the fall of 1991 Sisak was practically on the first frontline. Many Croatians from Petrinja and its environs arrived here and a smaller part of Serbs had left, but the position of those who remined was especially difficult. Several different groups of armed persons, members of Croatian military units and Ministry of Interior units intimidated, harassed, tortured and killed Sisak Serbs. Their apartments were searched for weapons, they received threatening phone calls, they were taken away from their houses and from their workplaces and many were afterwards found dead or are still registered as missing. Executions of Serbs in Sisak were frequently accompanied by the previous torture of victims. Beatings, breaking of limbs, stabbing with knives, even decapitations, all of which were confirmed in findings at the Sisak General Hospital’s pathology department. At request of the then District Court in Sisak, autopsy or external examination of 64 bodies of those killed was performed and these findings now testify to the brutality of the crimes that occurred. Imprisonment, torture and killing of Serbs took place at the following locations: Barutana, ORA and Jodno. Two notorious units which were active in Sisak during the war: Vukovi (Wolves) and Handzar divizija (Handzar Division) are responsible for a great number of these crimes. Activity of these units has not been fully clarified to this day. However, it is known that Ekrem Mandal, originally from Novi Pazar, who used to work as a miner in Labin, was at the helm of the Handzar Division, the unit had some 80 members, a majority of whom were Muslims. Vukovi were a smaller unit of about 20 to 30 members. Both units were a part of the Ministry of Interior’s reserve forces.

victims: A full list of names or even the number of all victims who were killed or suffered some form of maltreatment in the Sisak area during war events, has still not been established and extensive debates about this continue. Estimates range between several dozen and more than 600 persons killed. What can be said with certainty is that several dozen Serbs were killed in Sisak area in different ways. Below, we provide two lists of victims, one from the indictment against Vladimir Milanković and Drago Bošnjak, and another, much more extensive list put together by the association Forum for Human Rights from Sisak.

list of victims form the indictment against vladimir milanković and drago bošnjak

killed/missing:

1. Vlado Božić
2. Zoran Vranešević
3. Branko Oljača
4. Željko Vila
5. Evica Vila
6. Marko Vila
7. Dušan Vila
8. Mlađo Vila
9. Nikola Trivkanović
10. Zoran Trivkanović
11. Berislav Trivkanović
12. Jovan Crnobrnja
13. Rade Španović
14. Stevo Ratković
15. Ljubica Solar
16. Milan Cvetojević
17. Petar Pajagić
18. Vojislav Trbulin
19. Stanko Martinović
20. Stevo Borojević
21. Miloš Čalić
22. Vaso Jelić
23. Nikola Drobnjak
24. Miloš Brkić
25. Dragan Miočinović

illegaly arrested and/or mistreated:

1. Stevo Brajenović
2. Dmitar Brajenović
3. Milan Slavulj
4. Miodrag Stojaković
5. Sveto Mijić
6. Gojko Lađević
7. Nenad Tintor
8. Živko Živanović
9. Obrad Štrbac
10. Milan Davorija
11. Stevo Miodrag
12. Mićo Mitrović
13. Pero Dragojević
14. Ivica Bišćan
15. Dobrila Crnobrnja
16. Milorad Ratković
17. Blažana Ratković
18. Danica Ratković
19. Dragica Subanović
20. Branko Subanović
21. Lazo Ostojić
22. Danica Ostojić
23. Dragan Ostojić
24. Mirko Drageljević
25. Neđeljka Drageljević
26. Nikola Batula
27. Milica Batula
28. Đuro Cvetojević
29. Dragomir Cvetojević
30. Mihajlo Mrkonja
31. Živko Goga
32. Milan Vasiljević
33. Nikola Arnautović
34. ŽivkoVujanić
35. Ranko Davidović
36. Ratko Miljević
37. Miloš Gojić
38. Blagoje Savić
39. Radivoj Crevar
40. Ljuban Vukšić
41. Boško Subotić
42. Unknown civilian approximately 45 years old

List of names of 107 killed Serbs from Sisak area issued by the non government organization Forum za ljudska prava iz Siska (Human Rights Forum from Sisak):

1. Nikola Arbutina
2. Stanko Arbutina
3. Damir Begić
4. Dragan Bekić
5. Marko Banjac
6. Dragan Biškupić
7. Željka Boinović
8. Stevo Borojević
9. Vladimir Božić
10. Miloš Brkić
11. Branko Cetinski
12. Pero Crljenica
13. Jovo Crnobrnja
14. Milan Cvetojević
15. Nedeljko-Neđo Čajić
16. Milan Čakalo
17. Miloš Čalić
18. Veljko Čosić
19. Stojan Čorić
20. Ljuban Čenić
21. Branko Dabić
22. Nenad Denić
23. Jovo Didulica
24. Mika Draić
25. Nikola Drobnjak
26. Damir Dukić
27. Miljenko Đapa
28. Ratko Đekić
29. Ljuban Erak
30. Miloš Grubić
31. Nikola Grubić
32. Vaso Jelić
33. Petar Kičić
34. Dragica Kičić
35. Milan Kladar
36. Dušan Komosar
37. Stanko Končar
38. Kuzman Kovačević
39. Radovan Kragulj
40. Nedeljko Kušić
41. Petar Kušić
42. Ljuban Lovrić
43. Branko Lukač
44. Đuro Lukač
45. Stanko Lukić
46. Ilija Martić
47. Ranko Martinović
48. Đorđe Mitrović
49. Gradoljub Nikolić
50. Vaso Novaković
51. Stojan Miodrag
52. Pero Obradović
53. Milja Obradović
54. Dejan Obradović
55. Jovanka Obradović
56. Vaso Obradović
57. Branko Oljača
58. Petar Pajagić
59. Pero Palija
60. Đuro Pandurić
61. Miljenko Pavić
62. Igor Pavičić
63. Nenad Pajić
64. Nikola Pavljanić
65. Dragan Rajšić
66. Stevo Simić
67. Ljubica Solar
68. Dragan Sundać
69. Lazo Stanić
70. Slavko Slijepčević
71. Rade Ostojić
72. Milovan Stevanović
73. Vera Stevanović
74. Željko Škrebac
75. Rade Španović
76. Miloš Špoljar
77. Đuro Šušnjar
78. Ljuban Tatišić
79. Nikola Trivkanović
80. Zoran Trivkanović
81. Berislav Trivkanović
82. Milorad Vasiljević
83. Nedeljko Vejnović
84. Vatroslav Vergaš
85. Marko Vila
86. Evica Vila
87. Željko Vila
88. Mladen Vila
89. Dušan Vila
90. Ljuban Vujnović
91. ĐuroVujnović
92. Ivan Vojnović
93. Mladen Vranešević
94. Zoran Vranešević
95. Milan-MišoVučinić
96. Dragan Vujačić
97. Draga Vujačić
98. Bogdan Vukotić
99. Simo Zlokapa
100. Damjan Žilić
101. Stana Živković
102. Slavko Ivanjek
103. Ivica Đukić
104. Đorđe Letić
105. Dragan Rapajić
106. Vukašin Zdjelar
107. Vlado Svetić

judicial consequences: In 2011, the Osijek County State Prosecution raised indictments against Vladimir Milanković, former deputy head of the Sisak Police Department and Drago Bošnjak, member of the Police Department Sisak reserve forces, for the criminal act of war crimes against civilian population. On 9 December 2013, County Court Osijek’s Council for War Crimes issued a verdict sentencing Vladimir Milanković to seven years in prison for the criminal act of war crimes against civilian population. He also received a two year prison sentence for war crimes against prisoners of war, so that he was finally sentenced to eight years in prison. Drago Bošnjak was acquitted of charges. On 10 June 2014, the Supreme Court confirmed the County Court Osijek first instance ruling, but his sentence was altered to 10 years in prison. Another indictment for the criminal act of war crime against civilian population based on chain of command, was raised against Đuro Brodarac, but these proceedings were terminated by his death in 2011. None of the direct perpetrators of crimes against Serbs in Sisak was held criminaly responsible.

The commander of the police unit from Novo Selo near Sisak, Ivica Mirić, was sentenced in 2010 to nine years in prison for killing his fellow villager  Miloš Čalić, whom Mirić and several other people took from the Zagreb Rebro hospital, where Čalić went for his daily therapies, and executed him near Sisak.

location: Hamlet in the former Benkovac municipality, today part of town of Benkovac

time: 21 August 1995

description of crime: According to Mile Stegnajić, on 21 August 1995, at about 15:00, two armed men with long hair, wearing civilian clothes, walked into the village, and threatened to kill him and his wife Ljubica unless they left their house. Mile Stegnajić left immediately and hid in the village, but his wife, who was ailing, remained at home. At about 18:00 on the same day, Stegnajić heard shots from the direction of his house, and when he later returned, he could not find his wife. He then set off on foot towards the U.N. military observers’ base (UNMO) in the nearby Raštević. The following day, along with the UNMO, he returned home where they found his wife dead in the well. In front of the well they found her apron, stick and a log. There were no visible signs of violence on Ljubica’s body.

victim: Ljubica Stegnajić (age unknown)

legal consequences: Ljubica Stegnajić’s name is included in the indictment which the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2001 raised against Croatian generals Gotovina, Čermak and Markač. But due to lack of evidence about possible perpetrators of crimes, the ICTY’s trial chamber did not consider this case.

location:  Hamlet of the Rudele village in Kistanje municipality

time: An undetermined day in the first half of August 1995

description of crime: According to the ruling by the County Court in Šibenik, Željko Šunjerga, Ranko Čadek and Milenko Hristić, members of the HV 15^th Guard Brigade, went on a patrol to the village of Rudele. They stopped the vehicle close to Manda Tišma , with whom Šunjerga spoke while his fellow soldiers were searching the nearby houses. Šunjerga asked her who she was rooting for, and she said that her sons were in Belgrade and that she rooted for Krajina. Šunjerga started walking back to the vehicle, but before entering he fired a short burst at Tišma from a four meter distance. While presenting his defence, Šunjegra admitted having fired, but claimed he had done it in self-defence because he saw Tišma reaching under her apron, making him think that she was about to throw a hand grenade. The court rejected Šunjerga’s defence and commented that according to the minutes from the exhumation the deceased was not wearing an apron.

victim: Manda Tišma (age undetermined)

legal consequences: On 29 November 2002, the County Court in Šibenik convicted Željko Šunjerga for the murder and sentenced him to four years in prison.

location: Uzdolje village is located right next to Knin, on a road towards Drniš. In 1991 there were 767 inhabitants, 765 were Serbs. In 2011 there were 226 inhabitants with number deteriorating until present.

time: 6 August 1995

Crime description: In the morning of 6 August 1995, three men in white civilian vehicle with automatic rifles came to Šare, a small village near Uzdolje, in Orlić Municipality. They all had black hair; two were wearing camouflage uniforms, and the third black bandana around the neck, the camouflage trousers, and the black T-shirt with a black ribbon reading “For home – ready”. All three had dark blue caps with chessboard. There they found Krsto Šare, who was in front of his house with Jandrija Šare, Stevo Berić, Janja Berić, Milica Šare, Đurđija Berić, Bosiljko Berić and one more person, all of them in civilian clothes. One of the three armed men saw witness 67 and, hit her in her arm with a gunstock and ordered her to join the others. The armed men ordered the group to move towards the paved road Knin-Drniš, and one of them pushed Stevo Berić to the ground and tore his documents, saying he would no longer need them. Shortly after, one of the armed men said, “Let’s finish them, our lamb is getting cold.” The group was standing about 30 meters from the road at a place where nobody could see them from the vehicles. Two armed men then left with two women, they were taken to Knin in separate vehicles. The third armed man, one who hit one of the witness, stayed with the rest of the group and ordered them to return from the main road back to the village, cursing their mothers and threatening them to pay for what they did in Vukovar. After a while the group ran into Miloš Ćosić, who was ordered to join the others. Eventually the armed man shot at the group from an automatic rifle and killed Milica Saric, born on 22 January 1922, Stevo Berić, born on 24 June 1933, Janja Berić, born on 11 April 1932, Đurđija Berić, born on 1 January 1916, Krsto Šare, born on 15 October 1931, Miloš Ćosić, born on 1 March 1923, and Jandrija Šare, born 30 July 1932, while Witness 67 escaped to the forest and survived. According to autopsies, the causes of death were gunshots.

That same day Sava Šare, born in 1922, was also murdered in her house as well as other about 10 civilians in surrounding villages (Orlić, Markovac, Biskupija and Vrbnik) in days after Operation Storm.

judicial consequences: Given that no one was held responsible for this crime, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past filed a complaint to the CSP for crimes committed in Uzdolje on 4 August 2017. Šibenik County State Attorney stated the following: “After the exhumation on the city cemetery in Knin in 2001, Šibenik County State Attorney formed objects related murders in Uzdolje and Vrbnik between 6 and 9 August 1995, with suspicion of war crimes. A warrant was issued to Šibenik-Knin County Police Department in order to conduct investigations and determine the circumstances of the crime and find possible perpetrators.

location: Varivode is situated ten kilometers southeast from Kistanje in Bukovica. Today it belongs to the Kistanje municipality, but until 1991 it was a part of the Knin municipality. According to the 1991 census, Varivode had 477 inhabitants, all of them Serbs. According to 2011 census Varivode have a population of 124 and although data about the ethnic structure are not yet available, it can be said that Serbs still make great majority of today’s population.

time: 28 September 1995

description of crime: On 28 September 1995, almost two months after the end of the military operation Storm, several Croatian troops and police forces arrived during the night, to the Varivode village and killed nine civilians using firearms. All of the killings took place in the victims’ yards and houses, at spots where they happened to be at that moment. They were all elderly Serbs.

victims:

1. Dušan Dukić (59)
2. Špiro Berić (55)
3. Jovo Berić (75)
4. Jovan Berić (56)
5. Radivoj Berić (69)
6. Marija Berić (69)
7. Milka Berić (67)
8. Marko Berić (82)
9. Mirko Pokrajac (84)

information about exhumation and identification of victims: All bodies of the killed persons were buried in a mass grave in Knin, and apart from external inspection, autopsies was never performed. In 2001 all bodies buried at the Knin town cemetery were exhumed and handed over to their families after identification.

judicial consequences: Six members of Croatian police forces were suspected of this crime, but after proceedings before County Court in Zadar and a repeated trial before the County Court in Šibenik, defendants were acquitted, which returned the investigation to the beginning and this time against unknown perpetrators. Ten years after the completed criminal procedure before Šibenik court, there is no new information or prosecution of perpetrators responsible for the crime in Varivode. Jovan Berić and his sisters initiated court proceedings seeking compensation on behalf of their killed parents. On 18 January 2012, the Supreme Court issued a ruling stating that the plaintiff’s appeal was accepted, and on this basis, Šibenik and Knin courts’ decisions were annulled and the case was returned for retrial. In the mentioned ruling, the Supreme Court maintained that the deaths of Radivoje and Marija Berić were caused by a terrorist act, i.e. act of violence committed for political reasons and with the goal to incite fear, horror and a feeling of personal insecurity among citizens. On this basis, the Republic of Croatia is responsible per the principle of social solidarity, bearing of public burden and a just and speedy compensation. In this precedential ruling by the Supreme Court, the victims’ families were given the right to compensation; regardless of the fact that perpetrators were not identified, criminally charged or declared guilty. At the municipal court in Knin, on 23 January 2013, Judge Ana Jelač – Pecirep, president of the Municipal Court, issued a ruling in the civil lawsuit of plaintiff Jovan Berić and others versus Republic of Croatia in a repeated trial based on the Supreme Court’s ruling from January 2012. Based on this judgment, Croatia must pay 540.000 kuna in compensation to the children of Radivoje and Marija Berić killed in the village of Varivode.

location: Crime was committed in Virovitica, town in the north-western part of Slavonia by the river Drava, close to the Hungarian border. In 1991 the town had 16.167 inhabitants, of which 11,76 percent were Serbs, and in town’s administrative area population totalled 46.661 inhabitants of whom 7271 or 15,58 percent were of Serb ethnicity. Out of the total of 71 settlements including the town, Serbs made absolute majority in 19 settlements and in two they made relative majority. The area which used to be administratively covered by Virovitica in 1991 is today divided among municipalities of Gradina, Lukač, Suhopolje and Špišić Bukovica with the adjoining villages. In this entire territory comparable with the Virovitica area before the war, according to 2011 census there are 2035 Serbs, which is one third of their pre-war share; while in today’s town of Virovitica there are 734 Serbs and they make 3,45 percent of the population.

time: summer of 1991 — spring 1992

description of crime: Although there have been no mass crimes, i.e. murders and disappearances comparable to those that took place in Gospić and Sisak against Serbs, either in Virovitica town or its wider area, we are aware of several cases of crimes which members of Croatian forces committed against civilians and they will be discussed here. Further, in some smaller villages around Virovitica night shootings, threatening telephone calls and hand grenades thrown into courtyards were occurrences not so rare that they could be called isolated incidents. Those killed were mostly prominent, noted people, which certainly contributed to fear and emigration of Serb population from this area. Although it is clear that a part of younger people, men, had joined military and paramilitary units at the outset of war; this cannot explain both such big disparity in absolute numbers and a relative share of Serbs in total population in these parts. Among well documented cases there is one of Bogdan Mudrinić, civilian who is still reported missing. Without any (court) order he was taken from his house in Virovitica for questioning from which he had never returned. According to information available, he was beaten to death in a military prison at the Virovitica army barracks, and his body was then transported outside prison and has never been seen again. Doctor Ranko Mitrić met similar faith. He was arrested at his workplace at the hospital where, according to criminal charges brought against him, he had attacked one Croatian soldier with a knife. Although it was civilian police that had filed charges on the day of the incident, military police arrested him. After questioning which was done with participation of intelligence services’ members, he was handed over to the police and then again to Croatian soldiers. The very next day doctor Mitrić was killed and his body was thrown into a manhole which was then mined. Ranko Starović disappeared in Virovitica in July 1991 and at the beginning of August of the same year so did the 76 years old Slobodan Poplašen, while Mićo Petrović who disappeared on 5 September has also not been found to this day. In December of 1991 in the settlement of Pćelić which belongs to Virovitica, Milenko Momčilović born in 1928 was killed and his remains are still sought after. Duško Šaponja was taken from his house in Jasenaš on 11 January 1992. He was tortured and killed, and his body, thrown in a canal by the road, had been found a morning after the crime. After the murder one of the perpetrators came back into Duško’s house and there raped his wife. Persons who declared themselves as Military police took in April of 1992 Vladimir Grubor from his house in Majkovac Podravski – which was attached to the nearby Žlebina in 2001 – and 22 years later he is still registered as a missing person. These are not all of the cases of killing or disappearances of Serb civilians in Virovitica area. Not all of them took place under the same circumstances and it is not clear that the perpetrators were the same, but there is visible continuity of civilians who perished between the summer of 1991 and spring of 1992. In this context one should consider fear of people who witnessed these events even indirectly and their decisions to leave their homes.

information on exhumation and identification of victims: Apart from Ranko Mitrić’s and Duško Šaponja’s found bodies, all other civilians mentioned by name went missing and their families do not know their whereabouts to this day.

judicial consequences: In a legal procedure against four persons charged with the death of Doctor Ranko Mitrić, County Court in Bjelovar issued an acquittal which the Supreme Court confirmed three years later. Darko Pil and Ivica Majetić, Croatian Army (HV) members were sentenced by the Military Court in Bjelovar in April of 1992 to 15 and 12 years in prison respectively for the crime against Duško Šaponja and his wife. The other cases have not been processed yet. The wife of the missing Bogdan Mudrinić filed a claim for compensation of non pecuniary damage which was turned down because of the statute of limitations and she was liable to pay along with her co-plaintiffs 10,087.50 kuna in litigation expenses. We are not aware whether higher court instances are currently processing the claim. Since perpetrators had been known and were convicted, Duško Šaponja’s wife had an apparently easier task in obtaining compensation, but after the positive second instance ruling, Supreme Court quashed the claim also on basis of statute of limitation which had occurred. The case is now before the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. The other cases have not been processed by courts as yet.

location: Voćin is situated at the foot of the Papuk Mountain, 20 kilometers away from (Podravska) Slatina. Today it is the seat of the Voćin municipality which according to the 2011 census has 2832 inhabitants of which 211 Serbs.

time: December 1991

description of events: Between August and September of 1991, the area of Voćin and the surrounding villages were controlled by Serb forces, including volunteer paramilitary units called “Šešeljevci” and “Beli Orlovi” (White Eagles). At that time, numerous crimes occurred against the Croatian population in Voćin and the surrounding villages (Lager Sekulinci, Prevenda and Kometnik). However, the withdrawal of Serb forces and the entrance of the Croatian Army into the Voćin area and that of the surrounding villages, did not bring a stop to crimes against civilian population. On 13 December 1991 and during the next several days, murders and disappearances of Serbs who remained in their villages took place. The majority of killed and missing were Serb civilians, mostly above the age of 60. Many have not been found to this day.

vicitms:

Sekulinci

1. Bojčić, Lazo 1933 – 13 December 1991
2. Dobrić, Anka 1930 – December 91
3. Kovačić, Danka 1934 – 13 December 1991
4. Kovačić, Joco 1929 – 13 December 1991
5. Kovačić, Jovan oko 1947 – 13 December 1991
6. Radulović, Petar 1932 – 13 December 1991
7. Vasiljević, Rajko 1934 – 13 December 1991

Gornji Meljani

1. Bolić, Božo 1931 – 13 December 1991
2. Bolić, Uroš 1914 – 13 December 1991
3. Ivković, Božica 1906 – 13 December 1991
4. Radmilović, Radomir 1960 – 14 December 1991
5. Smoljanić, Gavro 1950 – 14 December 1991

Voćin

1. Dobrić, Zdravko 1930 – 15 December 1991
2. Dragojević, Milka, around 1910 – 13 December 1991
3. Ojkić, Lazo1936 – December 1991
4. Vuković, Krista, around 1925 – 13 December 1991

Đuričići

1. Kokić, Slavko, around 1928 – 13 December 1991
2. Vučković, Pantelija, 1915 – 13 December 1991

Bokane

1. Nenadović, Stojan 1929 – around 15 December 1991
2. Matić, Jovan 1935 – 13 December 1991

Hum Pustara

1. Jorgić, Pero 1924 – 13 December 1991
2. Lukić, Branko 1934 – around 15 December 1991
3. Radojević, Smilja 1924 – 13 December 1991

Macute

1. Grabić, Milorad (time of birth unknown) – around 15 December 1991

judicial consequences: No one has been held responsible for the crimes committed in Voćin in 1991.

location: Village in the Biskupija municipality

time: 6 August 1995

description of crime: In the early morning hours on 6 August 1995, Vesela Damjanić was sitting in her courtyard with her husband Lazo, son Rajko and her sister-in-law Anđelija.  At about half past eight, after her husband went to the basement, two armed men in camouflage uniforms walked into the yard. They asked Vesela whether someone was hiding in the house, to which she replied no. They  then fired three shots at the house. After that, her husband, who suffered from epilepsy, came out of the basement. The soldiers led him to the street and when they noticed that his head was uncontrollably shaking because of previous epileptic attacks, one of the soldiers told him that he was “not going to shake his head much longer”. Vesela Damjanić pleaded with the soldiers to let her husband go, but they threatened to shoot her unless she stepped aside. Two days later, the same soldiers drove by her house and told her that she would not see her husband alive again. On the same day, Vesela found his body 500 meters away from the house. On 26 August 1995, persons in military uniforms came to collect his corpse and loaded it on a truck. When Vesela asked if she could bury him at the village cemetery, one soldier knocked her to the ground and called her a Serb whore.

victims: Lazo Damjanić (62)

legal onsequences: Lazo Damjanić was buried at the new cemetery in Knin. In 2002, his remains were moved to the village graveyard in Vrbnik. So far no one has been held responsible for his killing.

location: Vukovar is the city at the north-east of Croatia, situated at the mouth of the Vuka in the Danube River and it is Croatia’s biggest port on Danube. The eastern, older part of the city is situated on the right riverbank on the slopes of the Vukovar plateau and the tall Danube riverbank. Western part of the city, New Vukovar and Borovo naselje lie at the lowland of the left bank of the Vuka River. According to 1991 census, ethnic breakdown of Vukovar was mixed and almost equally divided between two main groups: 31.445 (37,35 percent) of Serbs and 36.910 (43,8 percent) of Croatians. In city’s central part proportion was 47 percent of Croatians and 32 percent of Serbs. It is worth noting that according to census there were 35 percent of mixed marriages. According to 2011 census Vukovar had 27.683 inhabitants of which 57,37 percent were Croatians and 37,87 percent were Serbs. Since the city no longer encompasses the same territorial-administrative area as it did in 1991, direct comparison of data is impossible, but it is clear that in the relative sense there was no decline of the number of Serbs who live in the city, which is primarily result of the peaceful reintegration of the Danube region.

time of crime: June — November 1991

description of crime: Vukovar rightfully occupies special place in the public debate about the war in Croatia. But what is constantly and unjustly omitted are facts about killings, abductions, looting and expelling Serbs from this city which started in June of 1991, i.e. in the period when there had been no real war events in the city. These happenings are being connected with Tomisalv Merčep who between 10 June and 13 August held a position of the Secretary of the Municipal Secretariat for National Defence in Vukovar, and with the units that he had led. Even before flare-up of conflicts, during the spring of 1991, fear and mutual distrust reigned in Vukovar because of what has been happening elsewhere in Croatia. The situation was further aggravated after conflict and killing of 12 Croatian policemen in Borovo selo on 2 May 1991. Numerous citizens of Vukovar then left the city in fear for their safety. One witness gave her account about of situation in Vukovar at that time:

Already around 3 p.m., as soon as people were back from work, the city turned into a ghost town. As darkness fell, people would go their basements. There has been no night without sounding of an explosive or a sound of gunfire. When you heard a sound of car breaks near your house, you could be certain that in a few moments there would be an explosion. There was shooting at houses and constant telephone threats which caused many to leave Vukovar. These departures became mass occurrences when the word spread out about nightly arrests and disappearances of people.

First victim of war in Vukovar was Jovan Jakovljević (51) whose house was visited by a group of armed men on 29 June at about 11 p.m. They introduced themselves as policemen and invited Jakovljević to come out of the house. When he refused, asking them to return at daytime, they threatened to blow up his house. Jakovljević then came out and unknown men killed him with shots from firearms at the very entrance of his family home.

Uniformed Croatian National Guard (ZNG) members came to collect Savo Damjanović at his workplace on 25 July 1991 and took him “to an unknown destination”. Since that day Damjanovic disappeared without trace. Mladen Mrkić on 31 July 1991 presented report about the completed harvest at the Worker’s Council session as he has done every year. After the session, he started for home but never arrived there. Witnesses claim that six men in uniforms had forced him to follow them. In two vehicles without licence plates they drove to the Territorial Defence headquarters. Since that day Mrkić disappeared without trace. Željko Paić met similar destiny as ZNG members intercepted him on 10 August 1991 when he was on his way to town. These examples are certainly not the only ones, but serve as a good illustration of crimes committed in Vukovar in 1991.

Information about events reached the then Government Commissioner for the city of Vukovar, Marin Vidić, who in August 1991 wrote to the president Franjo Tuđman, prime minister Franjo Gregorić and the opposition leaders, warning them that Tomislav Merčep “surrounded by persons of dubious integrity and professional qualities, former criminals, absolutely took over control of everything in the Vukovar municipality, not shrinking form violent and repressive measures over citizens of Vukovar (illegal breaking into private flats, directing with verbal or written notes persons who sought accommodation to move into deserted flats, looting apartments, confiscating private vehicles, forced arrests for questioning and even executions)”.

In the interview for Feral Tribune in 1997 Vidić states that he was in a mined house of one of the Serb councillors, SDP members, and in the flat of one female employee from the municipality where armed persons broke into the house and looted it. Vidić also says that in the spring of 1991 “people would disappear never to reappear again”. Merčep’s activity, as is evident from the letter by Marin Bilić Bili, completely blocked the work of police, Croatian National Guard and administrative bodies, which had crated “general confusion”. At Josip Manolić’s intervention, in mid August, Merčep was brought to Zagreb by helicopter and then appointed as assistant to the minister at the Ministry of Interior. In an interview that he gave just after the fall of Vukovar, asked if during his stay in Vukovar (before his still unclear arrest and relocation to Zagreb at the beginning of August 1991, after which he becomes Minister Ivan Vekić’s adviser), he has done everything possible to defend that city, he said: “I have done as much as I could, but not as much as I had intended. We ought to have cleared Petrova Gora of people who have gotten arms; we should have put under control and stabilized territory between Bogdanovci and Sajmište. I had that on my mind, but did not have the time to do it. Everything else has been cleared.” In the same interview Merćep admits that there have been cases when people “lost heads” during actions that he had conducted, and asked about numerous corpses which had floated down the Danube he said: “I do not say that no corpse ever floated down the Danube. In such a big area, in such situation, everybody could have done whatever they wanted. But in Vukovar we had everything under control so that here such things were not happenings on a significant scale.”

victims: List of names, or the number of all Serb victims who were killed or have endured some form of harassment in the Vukovar area during the war events, has never been completely established, and big discussions are still led about it. Assessments range from several dozens to more than 120 persons killed. Here we list only some of the names of Serb victims in Vukovar:

1. Zoran Filipović
2. Vlado Skeledžija
3. Savo Damjanović
4. Branko Mirjanić
5. Mladen Mrkić
6. Slavo Dragašić
7. Bogdan Bogdanović
8. Željko Pajić
9. Obrad Drača
10. Miodrag Nađ
11. Ljuban Vučinić
12. Slavko Miodrag
13. Slobodan Vučković
14. Milenko Đuričić
15. Bogdan Stupar…

judicial consequences: ICTY investigators came to Vukovar on four occasions in 1996 and in 1997 and dealt with war crimes committed against Serbs in the city and its environs. Their interest was directed at Tomislav Merčep’s activity and that of his group, which was addressing him as “Dad”, about which some 100 witnesses testified to The Hague court investigators. Some of these testimonies were collected in the book Crime Without Punishment which was published in Vukovar in 1997 and where precise data exist about 86 persons who went missing in Vukovar in that period. But Merčep never answered before the Hague court. In 2000, when Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) lost elections, Croatian state leadership received an anonymous letter from the “concerned citizens of Vukovar” which described in detail executions of Serb civilians. After that, informative talks were held with Stipe Polo and Zvonimir Radoš, head and deputy head of the Vukovar police in 1991, who claimed that police documentation about executions and disappearances of Serb civilians in Vukovar were lost after the city’s fall. However this documentation has not been found even after years of city’s occupation which was ended by peaceful reintegration of the Danube region on 15 January 1998, and investigation was discontinued. Only on 10 February 2012, after six months-long investigation, Zagreb County prosecution raised an indictment against Tomislav Merčep. But in the court process which is still ongoing, Merčep is not charged with crimes committed in Vukovar, but with those which his unit had committed in the second half of 1991 in the area of Zagreb, Pakrac and Kutina. No indictment has been raised yet for crimes committed against Serbs in Vukovar in 1991, nor has anyone been held responsible for these crimes.

location: Zagreb is the capital of Croatia and its largest city. It is situated in the north-west of the country along the Sava River on the southern slopes of the Medvednica Mountain. In 1991 Zagreb had a population of 933.914 inhabitants. According to the 2011 census, city of Zagreb had 790.017 inhabitants, of which 17.526 Serbs.

time: 1991 and 1992

description of crime: A great number of Serbs, who had lived in Zagreb, fled in the first days of the war. Simultaneously with forced evictions from flats which used to belong to the JNA housing fund that were then transferred to the Croatian Ministry of Defence fund; Serbs, under suspicion of being sharpshooters, members of the fifth column, enemies or simply persona non grata’s as they were branded by media at that time, at the beginning of the war were also victims of harassment and physical attacks. In the middle of 1991 arrests began and in addition to the prison in Gajeva Street, Serbs were taken to the Kerestinec castle in Sveta Nedelja and to the Pavilion 22 at the Zagreb Fair. Pavilion 22 was the collection centre through which certain, yet still unestablished number of citizens, had passed between September 1991 and January 1992. Many of them were arrested by reserve police force, i.e. the so called Merčep people. According to statements by witnesses, victims, mostly persons who were better off, were apprehended in complete secrecy and taken to the container within the Pavilion 22, and then transported to Pakračka Poljana where, following torture, they were executed.

Members of the Croatian Ministry of Interior, the so called Merčep group, barged into the house of the Serb family Zec in Poljanička street on 7 December 1991 in the Zagreb quarter of Trešnjevka. Soon after that, Mihajlo Zec, the father, was murdered in front of the house of a witness, while his spouse Marija Zec, the mother, and daughter, 12 year old Aleksandra Zec, were taken to Sljeme. During the night between 7 and 8 December 1991, eight bullets were fired into the head and chest of Marija Zec and seven into the head and one into the upper arm of Aleksandra Zec. Their bodies were thrown and buried in a pit close to the Adolfovac mountain cabin. Between 12 and 16 December 1991, the following persons were arrested one after another: Nebojša Hodak, Munib Suljić, Siniša Rimac, Igor Mikola and Snježana Živanović, all members of the Croatian Ministry of Interior units. Soon these suspects were questioned and they confessed to having committed the murders. Their statements only differed in parts referring to the level of responsibility for the crime – Mikola and Živanović, as a couple, protected each other, Suljić insisted that Rimac had ordered him to kill the girl and the woman, Hodak confirmed that Mikola shot at the dead bodies and Rimac admitted that he had ordered that “just one bullet” should be fired at the girl.

judicial outcome: Although the suspects admitted during interrogation the responsibility for the murder of members of the Zec family, minutes from questioning of the defendants were redacted from the file upon request from their attorneys and were not admitted as evidence at the trial. As the investigative judge Božidar Jovanović explained, the Zagreb District Court upheld the arguments of the defence that the evidence had not been gathered in a lawful way. The defendants had been questioned by judges of the Zagreb District Court without their attorneys present, which is contrary to the legal practice that defendants must have defence counsel already at the first questioning if proceedings are conducted for a criminal act for which the law envisages prison terms of up to 20 years, which was the case in this procedure.

After half a year which  Rimac, Suljić, Hodak, Mikola and Živanović spent in the district prison, on 16 June 1992, the main hearing in this court procedure began. During the presentation of the defence,  the five defended themselves with silence. Although they had admitted to the murders, which was later removed from the minutes, and although the weapons with which Aleksandra, Marija and Mihajlo Zec were murdered had been found, District Court In Zagreb acquitted the five defendants. The verdict said that it was indisputably established that Mihajlo, Marija and Aleksandra Zec had died a violent death caused by injuries inflicted by handguns. “This court established that the fragment of the shell casing found beneath the body of Mihajlo Zec originates from an automatic gun of the brand Heckler & Koch, factory number S 07759, which is the automatic gun later found in the attic of the Adolfovac mountain hut. Further, five shells found near the place where the bodies of Marija and Aleksandra Zec were found were also fired from the Heckler & Koch automatic gun, factory number S 07861, which was found in the van owned by Manđarelo Stjepan (…) on the gun’s canvas strap there was an inscription written with ball point pen in big vertically arranged letters which read MIGOR (…) But this court determined that in the special unit of the Ministry of Interior (MUP) at the time when its members were defendants, there was no record of individual assignments of weapons, but only that the unit was issued with a certain amount and type of weapons.” Although the State Attorney’s Office had the right to file an appeal, this was not done. The next year, the Supreme Court rejected the State Attorney’s request for protection of lawfulness pertaining to the Zagreb District Court decision from 26 March 1992 to redact minutes from the questioning of the defendants containing their confession to the murders.

Since a coalition government led by Ivica Račan rejected the out-of-court settlement with the surviving members of the Zec family, attorney Anto Nobilo, representing Dušan and Gordana Zec and their grandmother Bosa, with whom the children have been living in Banja Luka, filed a lawsuit on 31 October seeking compensation for damages from the Republic of Croatia. The lawsuit was filed due to the fact that “ it was undisputable that damaging events were caused by members of Croatian armed forces based on the Law of responsibility of the Republic of Croatia for damages caused by members of Croatian armed and police forces during the Homeland War”.

In the closed part of session, the Croatian government reached a decision on 29 April 2004 to pay out one-off monetary assistance to the Zec family members in the amount of 1.5 million kuna. The government thus directly admitted that it would probably lose that lawsuit, which would have created a precedent that could have affected court practice in proceedings where families were trying to get compensations.

The Zagreb County State Attorney on 10 February 2012 indicted Tomislav Merčep, charging him based on command responsibility for the crimes in Pakračka Poljana and, on the same basis, for the murder of the Zec family. During the trial, Siniša Rimac who had been pardoned by President Stjepan Mesić after seven years in prison for the crimes in Pakračka Poljana, appeared as a witness, as well as Snježana Živanović and Nebojša Hodak. They denied involvement in the murder of the three members of the Zec family, and invoked the legally binding acquittal from the early 1990s. Since 14 September 2005, when the first instance judgement for crimes committed in Pakračka Poljana was pronounced, Mikola and Suljić were on the run. Munib Suljić died in 2006 in the prison hospital in the Hague, and Mikola was arrested in Peru only in July 2014 and he was extradited to Croatia in 2015.

In July 2015, the Zagreb County State Attorney changed the factual and legal description of the indictment against Merčep. Instead of the command responsibility he was now charged for having failed to prevent members of his unit from committing war crimes against civilian population.  In comparison with the first indictment, which charged him for being personally responsible for the arrests of 52 and torture of 43 persons, the new indictment was reduced to his failure to take measures to prevent his staff from committing war crimes against civilian population. The Zagreb County Court State Attorney explained the changed indictment by stating that “legal qualification of the criminal act remained the same, that defendant was still charged with having committed the same criminal act – war crime against civilian population from Article 120 of the Penal Code related to Article 28 of the same Law”. But since, as the State Attorney explained, “factual description of the act has been adjusted to the state of facts established during the court hearing, defendant T.M. is now charged as the real commander of the MUP reserve unit for having failed to prevent members of the unit from committing war crime against civilian population.”

The Zagreb County Court convicted Merčep in 2016 to five and a half years in prison, but after the State Attorney’s appeal, the Supreme Court increased his sentence to seven years in prison. Merčep died in 2020.

location: Hamlet of the Orlić village near Knin

time: 6 August 1995

description of crime: On that day, witness Stevan Zarić was in the field tending cattle. At about 14:00 he heard a tank approaching from the direction of Knin. He immediately hid behind the hedge from where he saw several soldiers in camouflage uniforms. From the direction of the house of Predrag Simić, a young man who had been dodging military service and was arrested by the RSK army several times because of that, he heard machine-gun fire and shouting. The next day he found Predrag’s body on the road near his house. He was wearing civilian clothes and was shot several times in the head and chest.

victim: Predrag Simić (28)

legal consequences: The ICTY’s trial chamber established that the perpetrators were members of Croatian military forces, but to this day no one has been held responsible for this crime.

location: Zrmanja village hamlets of Potokom and Gudura, in the Gračac municipality

time: middle of August and 29 September 1995

description of crime: according to testimony by Pero Perković, member of the HV’s 15^th Homeland  Regiment, after the operation “Storm”, his group participated in mopping up operations around the Zrmanja river. In the middle of August in the hamlet of Potkom, they found Đurađ Čanak, an elderly man in a jacket with the sign “police”, which later turned out to have been part of an old uniform that belonged to his son from the times of former Yugoslavia. Nikola Rašić, member of the HV, tied Čanak to a fence, placed rags around him and set them on fire. When Čanak admitted that he was hiding two hunting rifles, he was taken to the woods where he handed them the weapons. Perković claims that on their way back from the woods they ran into soldiers Milenko Hrstić and Ivica Petrić. The latter apparently went mad upon hearing that Čanak had handed them over the weapons.  According to Petrić’s testimony before the Zadar County court, Čanak had claimed that he did not have any other hidden weapons, and since Petrić was convinced that this was a lie, he fired two bullets in front of the elderly man’s legs, one in his lower leg and one in his left shoulder. When they left, Petrić said, Hristić returned with the words that he would “finish off the old man”. He fired a couple of bullets, but nobody saw if he had indeed hit the old man. In his testimony, Hristic claimed that he fired three shots “without aiming” only to prove to the other soldiers that he was not a coward.

Maria Teresa Mauro, UN officer for civil affairs and member of the action team for human rights (HRAT) in the former Sector South, visited on 9 October 1995 the valley of Zrmanja where the locals told her that on 29 October 1995 a group of six men in uniforms shot dead two men: Milan Marčetić (47) and Dušan Šuica (68). Milan’s mother Smiljka Marčetić said that around 16:00, three armed men in uniforms asked him to show his Croatian documents and then dragged him away from her house. Ten minutes later, shots were heard at the distance of several hundred meters from the house. Smiljka Marčetić told HRAT that one neighbour then walked in the direction from which the shots were heard, and found Milan’s corpse.

victims: two persons killed –  Đurađ Čanak (80), Milan Marčetić (47) and Dušan Šuica (68)

legal consequences: The County Court in Zadar, in its ruling of 15 July 1996, convicted Ivica Petrić for the criminal act of killing civilian Đurađ Čanak and sentenced him to six years of prison, while Milenko Hristić was acquitted.

On 5 October 1995, the Zadar-Knin Police Administration filed criminal charges to the Zadar County Prosecution against unknown perpetrators for the murders of Marčetić and Šuica, but to this day perpetrators have not been found.

mjesto: Selo kraj Knina

location: Village outside Knin

time: 5 August 1995

description of crime: Protected witness of the Hague Tribunal testified that on 5 August 1995, between 16:00 and 18:00, shooting was heard in the village and from a 30 meter distance, the witness saw a soldier with Croatian insignia taking civilian Dmitar (Mile) Rašua out of his house by force. After that he/she heard bursts from an automatic rifle. On 13 August 1995, Rašua’s corpse was identified by Đuja Nonković from Žagrović. Escorted by the UNPROFOR in the yard of the same house she found bodies of Đorđe Rašua, Ilija Petko and Milica Petko, who had gunshot wounds on their chests.

On the same day in Dmitrovići, also a hamlet in Žagrović village, civilian Jovan Dmitrović was killed while in the Bradaš hamlet, two women, Ika and Vera Dondur, were also killed. According to testimony from HRAT’s report of 21 November 1995, these women refused to come out of their house as ordered by the HV, after which soldiers opened fire and killed them both. On 16 August, HRAT’s team in Žagrović also found corpses of Stevo Dmitrović and two more unidentified men. They were all dressed in civilian clothes.

victims: ten persons killed – Dmitar (Mile) Rašuo (81), Milica Petko (72), Ilija Petko (40), Đuro Rašuo (50), Jovan Dmitrović (55), Stevo Dmitrović (40), Ika Dondur (65), Vera Dondur (56) and two unidentified persons.

legal consequences: The names of the persons killed in Žagrović were included in the indictment which the ICTY’s prosecution raised in 2001 against generals Gotovina, Čermak and Markač. But due to lack of hard evidence about possible perpetrators of the crime, the ICTY’s Trial Chamber did not consider this case.