According to the 2011 census, Novska has 13,518 inhabitants, of whom 4.74% are Serbs. According to the 1991 census, the Municipality of Novska had 24,696 inhabitants, with 21.78% being Serbs. Although Novska no longer administratively covers the same area as in 1991 and has fewer residents today, there has been a significant change in the ethnic composition of the population, most notably seen in the sharp decline in the number of Serbs living in this area over the years.

Period: November and December 1991

Description of crimes: In the autumn and winter of 1991, Novska was on the front line of the war in Croatia. On 21 November 1991, around 10 p.m., several Croatian soldiers broke into the house of Mihajlo Šeatović. They took him to a neighbouring house where his neighbours Ljuban Vujić and Mišo and Sajka Rašković were already held captive. All four were then killed with cold weapons and firearms. According to descriptions in the indictment, the victims were killed in an especially cruel and brutal manner. The woman was found naked, with her throat and chest slit, and riddled with gunfire. The men had their fingers, testicles, and genitals cut with knives; they were stabbed, their joints and bones crushed, their throats cut, and they were riddled with automatic rifle fire. On 18 December 1991, Croatian Army members entered the house of Petar Mileusnić in Novska and, after initial mistreatment, shot and killed Goranka Mileusnić, Vera Mileusnić, and Blaženka Slabak, while seriously wounding Petar Mileusnić. They left the house believing Petar Mileusnić was dead.

Victims:

  1. Rašković, Mišo (Nikola), born January 1942
  2. Rašković, Sajka/Saveta (Dragan), born 4 March 1950
  3. Šeatović, Mihajlo (Jovan), born 27 June 1944
  4. Vujić, Ljubomir (Stanko), born 4 May 1936
  5. Mileusnić, Goranka (Petar), born 4 April 1970
  6. Mileusnić, Vera (Viktor), born 12 May 1940
  7. Slabak, Blaženka (Josip), born 17 February 1941

Judicial consequences: In 1992, the Military Prosecutor’s Office in Zagreb filed charges against Dubravko Leskovar and Damir Vid Raguž for the crime of murder, not for war crimes against the civilian population. On 10 November 1992, the court panel issued a decision to suspend the criminal proceedings based on the then applicable Law on Amnesty from Criminal Prosecution and Proceedings for Crimes Committed in Armed Conflicts and the War against the Republic of Croatia. A new trial began at the County Court in Sisak on 8 March 2010, when the main hearing started against Damir Vid Raguž and Željko Škledar, accused of committing war crimes against the civilian population in Novska on 21 November 1991. On 16 April 2010, Damir Vid Raguž was found guilty in a first-instance verdict and sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Željko Škledar was acquitted. On 10 July 2012, the Appeals Panel session was held, and the first-instance verdict was overturned. On 7 February 2013, Damir Vid Raguž and Željko Škledar were acquitted in a first-instance ruling by the County Court in Zagreb. In 1992, an investigation was conducted into war crimes committed in the house of Petar Mileusnić, targeting Željko Belina, Ivan Grgić, Dubravko Leskovar, Dejan Milić, and Zdravko Plesec, for the crimes of murder and attempted murder. The proceedings concluded on 2 November 1992 with a decision to discontinue the criminal case under the Law on Amnesty. On 23 September 2010, the County Court in Sisak initiated proceedings against the accused Željko Belina, Dejan Milić, Ivan Grgić, and Zdravko Plesec, former Croatian Army members, charged with committing war crimes against the civilian population by killing Goranka and Vera Mileusnić, Blaženka Slabak, and wounding Petar Mileusnić in Novska in December 1991. On 19 November 2010, the War Crimes Panel of the County Court in Sisak issued a dismissal ruling, considering the matter res judicata. The Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia annulled the first-instance dismissal ruling regarding the first accused Belina and the second accused Milić. Following a retrial, the War Crimes Panel of the County Court in Zagreb found the accused guilty on 8 March 2013. Belina was sentenced to ten years in prison, and Milić to nine years. The families of the victims did not receive appropriate satisfaction, neither moral nor financial. They were further victimised because they were required to pay court costs for lost lawsuits in which they sued the Republic of Croatia, holding it responsible for crimes committed by identified members of the Croatian Army. In 2004, Marica Šeatović, wife of the murdered Mihajlo Šeatović, initiated a claim for compensation from the Republic of Croatia due to her husband’s death. The Municipal Court in Novska rejected it, reasoning that the rifle used in the massacre at the Rašković family home “was involved in actions during the Homeland War” and that the perpetrators “were drunk and outraged by the fall of Vukovar.” She appealed to the court in Sisak, but her claim was also rejected, and she was ordered to pay court costs amounting to 8,500 Croatian kuna. In 2008, she brought the case to the Supreme Court, which returned it to Sisak and then again to Novska, where the judge once again ruled against her. Marica was again ordered to pay court costs, this time amounting to 10,000 Croatian kuna. From her pension of 1,600 Croatian kuna, Marica Šeatović paid the state almost 20,000 Croatian kuna while the killers of her husband remained free. The situation regarding the collection of court costs was only resolved by the Croatian Government’s decision to write off claims in December 2023.