The area known as the Medak Pocket includes the villages of Divoselo and Lički Čitluk with all their hamlets, as well as part of the village of Počitelj. This area lies south of Gospić and covers around 50 square kilometres. It is a rural region, mostly covered by pastures and forests. According to the 1991 census, there were 780 inhabitants in these villages (344 in Divoselo, 129 in Čitluk, and 307 in Počitelj), of whom 92% were ethnic Serbs. According to the 2011 census, there are now just 12 inhabitants across the three villages, four in each. The 2001 census recorded 31 residents in the described area, but it is difficult to determine whether this reflects a renewed departure of returnees, differences arising from the use of varying methodologies in the two censuses, or the death of returnees, given that mostly elderly people returned to these depopulated villages. Regardless, the issue is not just that very few people live there; it is hard to imagine a sustainable life given the completely destroyed and only minimally restored resources: houses have been demolished, forests have spread over what used to be cultivated land and now even grow through the ruins, wells are polluted, and in general, there are no conditions for even a minimally tolerable life, especially in Divoselo and Počitelj.

Period: From 9 to 17 September 1993

Description of the crime: At 6 a.m. on 9 September 1993, Croatian forces launched an attack on the area. These forces included members of the 9th Motorised Brigade, associated units (the Home Guard Battalion Lovinac, Home Guard Battalion Gospić, and the 111th Home Guard Regiment), as well as Special Police. Prior to this, the area had been under the control of the SAO Krajina army and affiliated paramilitary and volunteer units. After two days of fighting, Croatian forces took control of the area and on 11 September repelled a counterattack by the 15th Lika Corps of the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (ARSK), which attempted to retake the lost territory. On the very first day of the operation, numerous civilians were killed, the vast majority of whom were elderly. Among them were at least ten women, including a blind 84-year-old woman who was killed in her own yard. By the end of the operation, or by the withdrawal of Croatian forces from the Medak Pocket, a result of international pressure on the Croatian authorities and the agreement signed on 15 September 1993, about thirty civilians and more than 50 soldiers on the Serbian side had died. It is important to note that not all soldiers were killed in combat; some were executed after being captured, and in several cases, serious abuse, torture, and humiliation were documented. At least one civilian victim had their throat cut, and there are indisputable cases of bodies being set on fire. It is almost certain that all victims were ethnic Serbs except for one Croatian woman married in Čitluk. After the decision to withdraw, between 15 and 17 September, Croatian soldiers mined virtually every house that had remained undamaged during the operation, killed livestock, and polluted wells with drinking water to permanently prevent the return of residents. In other words, the entire area was ethnically “cleansed.”

Information on the exhumation and identification of the victims: After the operation, the Croatian side handed over 52 bodies of victims, and UNPROFOR forces arriving after 17 September 1993 found another 18 bodies, including 11 men and seven women. Eight men were soldiers, two were civilians, and one body’s status remains undetermined; all the women found were civilians. In May 2000, 11 bodies were found in a septic pit in Gospić, in the Obradovića Varoš area. Six of these were identified as victims from the Medak Pocket. To this day, the families of eight victims from the described operation have not received their bodies. The missing persons register, or the list of those whose remains are still sought, includes: Željko Basara, born 23 August 1971, son of Milan, soldier — went missing between 9 and 23 September 1993 in Divoselo; Bosiljka Bjegović, born 1909 or 1912, daughter of Stevo, civilian — killed on 9 September 1993 in her own yard but listed as missing as her body was not buried; Mile Jovančević, born 1924, son of Avram, soldier — went missing in Divoselo on 9 September 1993; Štefica Krajnović, born 3 March 1931, daughter of Josip, civilian — went missing in Čitluk on 9 September 1993; Stevo Pjevač, born 14 November 1926, son of Dane, civilian — went missing in Čitluk on 10 September 1993; Momčilo Vujnović, born 1936, son of Dmitar, soldier — killed on 9 September 1993, but his body has not been found; sisters Sara (born 1921) and Ljubica Kričković (born 1929), daughters of Trivun — killed in the cellar of their house in Čitluk, with Sara having her throat cut. Although it was testified during the trial of Mirko Norac and Rahim Ademović that both individuals were recognised and identified among bodies examined in Metković, their names remain listed in the “Book of Missing Persons in the Republic of Croatia” (2015) among those whose remains are still sought, as stated in the final verdict of the Supreme Court.

Victims — civilians:

  1. Bjegović, Bosiljka (Stevo/Stevan), born 27 December 1909
  2. Bjegović, Milka (Đuro), born 22 May 1947
  3. Jelača, Ljiljana (Mićan), born 3 July 1956*
  4. Jerković, Nikola (Ilija), born 1 January 1961
  5. Jović, Anđelija (Dobroslava), born 6 May 1933
  6. Jović, Dmitar (Mile), born 19 April 1937 / 19 March 1937
  7. Jović, Marinka (Branko), born 4 August 1939
  8. Jović, Milan (Janko), born 4 April 1949
  9. Krajnović, Đuro (Toma), born 1 May 1911
  10. Krajnović, Neđeljka (Samojlo), born 2 September 1921
  11. Krajnović, Pera (Đuro), born 1 January 1907
  12. Krajnović Stana (Jovo), born 1 January 1926
  13. Krajnović, Štefica (Josip), born 4 February 1931 / 8 February 1931
  14. Kričković, Sara (Trivun), born 30 December 1921
  15. Kričković-Živić, Ljubica (Trivun), born 30 September 1929
  16. Matić, Milan (Mile), born 1 January 1949*
  17. Pejnović, Mile (Luka), born 1 January 1935
  18. Pjevač, Boja (Dane), born 14 January 1925
  19. Potkonjak, Janko (Stevan), born 1 January 1931
  20. Potkonjak, Marko (Milan), born 11 May 1934 / 11 May 1939*
  21. Rajčević, Milan (Nikola), born 24 April 1962
  22. Rajčević, Sava (Milan), born 1 January 1930 / 1 January 1931
  23. Vujnović, Ankica/Ana (Tomo), born 19 March 1934
  24. Vujnović, Branko (Stevo/Stevan), born 8 February 1948
  25. Vujnović, Đuro (Nikola), born 20 July 1927*
  26. Vujinović/Vujnović, Stevan/Stevo (Dmitar), born 15 October 1922
  27. Vujnović, Momčilo (Dimitar/Dmitar), born 27 November 1936 / 19 November 1936*
  28. Vujnović, Nikola (Jovan), born 13 March 1946 / 1 January 1947
  29. Vujnović, Boja (Đuro), born 1. January 1909
  30. Vujnović, Nikola (Đuro), born 21 June 1954*

* The status of armed civilians, that is, members of the village guard

Judicial consequences: The investigation of this crime was initiated by investigators from the Hague Tribunal, which in 2002 led to indictments against three Croatian Army officers: retired Lieutenant General Janko Bobetko (Chief of the General Staff at the time of the operation), retired General Mirko Norac (Colonel at the time of the operation and commander of the 9th Motorised Brigade within the Gospić Corps Area), and General Rahim Ademi (Brigadier at the time of the operation and commander of the Gospić Military District). On April 29, 2003, Janko Bobetko died at his home, and in September 2005, the Hague Tribunal transferred the Ademi-Norac case to Croatian jurisdiction. In November of the following year, a “domestic” indictment was filed, and eight months later, the trial began. On May 29, 2008, Rahim Ademi was acquitted of charges in a non-final judgment, while Mirko Norac was sentenced to seven years in prison. The Supreme Court of Croatia confirmed the acquittal for Rahim Ademi in its final verdict of November 18, 2009, ruling that he did not have effective command control over the area at the time the crimes were committed. Norac’s first-instance sentence was confirmed but reduced by one year. The verdict concerning Mirko Norac also states that he cannot be held responsible for the deaths of civilians killed outside the territory occupied by the units under his command — that is, in areas occupied by Special Police forces. However, this raises the question of why no direct perpetrators or commanders from the Special Police chain of command have been held accountable for those crimes to this day. Furthermore, the trial revealed that the case was systematically covered up, primarily through the activities of military intelligence structures, which should also result in criminal liability for those involved. Moreover, most of the victims killed on 9 September 1993, were excluded from the verdict, with the conclusion that Norac was sentenced for acts of omission (failure to punish and prevent) and therefore cannot be held responsible for acts of commission that he neither ordered nor could have known about before they were committed. One consequence of this is that the families of seven civil victims judicially established to have died on 9 September 1993, are unable to seek compensation as victims of a war crime through civil litigation.