Petrinja killings | |
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Part of the Croatian War of Independence | |
Location | Petrinja, Croatia |
Coordinates | 45°26′24″N16°16′44″E / 45.440128°N 16.279020°E |
Date | September 1991 - June 1992 |
Target | Croats |
Attack type | Mass murder, ethnic cleansing |
Deaths | 250+ (according to Croatian sources) [1] [2] |
Perpetrators | JNA, Serb rebels, Serb paramilitaries |
The Petrinja Killings refers to a series of mass murders and other crimes that were committed by various Serb forces against Croat POWs and civilians, from September 1991 until June 1992, in the town of Petrinja and in surrounding areas.
Croats were killed over several months, both during the battle to control the town and later during the occupation; in indiscriminate artillery attacks against civilian areas and in instances of wilful killings against civilians and POWs. Croatian sources state that over 250 people were killed (including at least 120 civilians) during these crimes. [3] [4]
In 1990, ethnic tensions between Serbs and Croats worsened after the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by the Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian : Hrvatska demokratska zajednica – HDZ). The Yugoslav People's Army (Serbian : Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated Croatia's Territorial Defence (Croatian: Teritorijalna obrana – TO) weapons to minimize resistance. [5] On 17 August, the tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs, [6] centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin (approximately 60 kilometres (37 miles) north-east of Split), [7] parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia. [8] In January 1991, Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, unsuccessfully tried to obtain the Yugoslav Presidency's approval for a JNA operation to disarm Croatian security forces. [9] The request was denied and a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March [10] prompted the JNA itself to ask the Federal Presidency to give it wartime authority and declare a state of emergency. Even though it was backed by Serbia and its allies, the JNA request was refused on 15 March. Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than to preserve Yugoslavia with Croatia as a federal unit, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the federal Presidency. The threat caused the JNA to abandon plans to preserve Yugoslavia in favour of expansion of Serbia as the JNA came under Milošević's control. [11] By the end of March, the conflict had escalated with the first fatalities. [12] In early April, leaders of the Serb revolt in Croatia declared their intention to amalgamate the areas under their control with Serbia. These were viewed by the Government of Croatia as breakaway regions. [13]
At the beginning of 1991, Croatia had no regular army. To bolster its defence, Croatia doubled its police numbers to about 20,000. The most effective part of the Croatian police force was 3,000-strong special police comprising twelve battalions organised along military lines. There were also 9,000–10,000 regionally organised reserve police in 16 battalions and 10 companies, but they lacked weapons. [14] In response to the deteriorating situation, the Croatian government established the Croatian National Guard (Croatian: Zbor narodne garde – ZNG) in May by expanding the special police battalions into four all-professional guards brigades. Under Ministry of Defence control and commanded by retired JNA General Martin Špegelj, the four guards brigades comprised approximately 8,000 troops. [15] The reserve police, also expanded to 40,000, was attached to the ZNG and reorganised into 19 brigades and 14 independent battalions. The guards brigades were the only units of the ZNG that were fully equipped with small arms; throughout the ZNG there was a lack of heavier weapons and there was poor command and control structure above the brigade level. [14] The shortage of heavy weapons was so severe that the ZNG resorted to using World War II weapons taken from museums and film studios. [16] At the time, the Croatian weapon stockpile consisted of 30,000 small arms purchased abroad and 15,000 previously owned by the police. To replace the personnel lost to the guards brigades, a new 10,000-strong special police was established. [14]
JNA and other Serb forces led an attack against Petrinja and surrounding areas from 2 September until the town fell on 21 September 1991.
On the 2, 16 and 21 September 1991, JNA commander, Slobodan Tarbuk, ordered the indiscriminate shelling of civilian populated areas of Petrinja, in order to deter HV forces from approaching the "Vasilj Gaćeša" military barracks. These attacks caused heavy damage to private homes, businesses and two churches and caused civilian casualties. The deadliest attack occurred on 16 September 1991, when Tarbuk ordered a mortar attack on civilians in Petrinja, causing five civilian deaths and 13 injuries. [17]
Tarbuk was alleged to have said "I swear on their Ustaša mothers that I will flatten Petrinja to the ground". [18]
Mass killings were perpetrated against Croat civilians and POWs during the Battle of Petrinja and during the occupation. On 16 September, a group of 25 Croatian soldiers and MUP police officers attempted to surrender to members of the Serb Territorial Defence and SAO Krajina police forces at Vila Gavrilović, a pre-war catering facility. Once disarmed, the 25 POWs were executed. Four of the prisoners survived with serious injuries while the remainder were killed. A mass grave with the remains of 19 victims was exhumed by Croatian authorities on 14 September 1995. [19]
Executions of POWs were also alleged to have taken place at the Vasilj Gaćeša barracks. On 16 September 1991, a group of 23 Croatian soldiers were interrogated and tortured by JNA troops and Serb paramilitaries for several hours before being executed by firing squad. [20]
Petrinja fell to Serb forces on 21 September 1991. In occupied Petrinja and surrounding villages, Serb forces committed numerous crimes against Croatian civilians who did not want to leave their homes, but also some Serb civilians who did not agree with such a policy. The highest number of murders committed against the remaining Croatian civilians in this area was recorded in the period from September to December 1991, and even until June 1992, when several entire families were killed in their homes, in the streets or disappeared, in addition to numerous individual killings and abductions of civilians. [21] The highest number of casualties in the city of Petrinja, occurred in September 1991, when 98 people were killed, and in just three days of that same month, 53 people were killed or disappeared. [22]
On 6 October 1991, Serb paramilitaries burned down the nearby village of Nova Drenčina, killing at least two Croats; a civilian and a ZNG POW. [23]
On the 5 November 1991, four members of the Kozbašić family (including two young children, 8 and 13 years of age) were murdered by SAO Krajina forces. [24]
On 22 or 23 December 1991, Serb paramilitaries murdered three members of the Križević family. [25]
Members of the Serb unit that murdered the Križević family also abducted and killed Stjepan and Paula Cindrić, both local dentists, on 6 January 1992. [26]
On 16 July 1993, Serb forces fired on a group of young Croats sunbathing on the bank of the Kupa River during a ceasefire. Zrinka Gmaz (aged 19) was killed, while her younger brother (aged 16) and cousin (aged 17) were both wounded in the shooting. [27]
After the liberation of Petrinja and surrounding areas during Operation Storm, Croatian authorities have found and exhumed 45 mass graves. [28] In 1995, Croatian authorities found four mass graves with the remains of 46 Croat civilians (38 male and 8 female). [29]
The remains of 21 elderly civilians were also found in a grave in the vicinity of a JNA barracks, outside of Petrinja. [30]
On 16 March 2012, eight bodies (believed to be Croats killed in 1991) were discovered in the city's rubbish dump. [31]
Several Serbs have been indicted by Croatian authorities for crimes committed in Petrinja. Jovo Begović was arrested in 2006 in Germany, on the basis of an Interpol warrant, and was extradited to Croatia. On 25 April 2007, Begović was found guilty of conducting deadly and indiscriminate mortar attacks against civilians in September 1991. He was sentenced by a district court in Sisak to five years in prison. [32]
In February 2018, Slobodan Mutić was extradited from the United States, accused of involvement in the murder of Stjepan and Paula Cindrić in 1992. He was acquitted in December 2019. However, another Serb fighter, Dragan Perenčević, was found guilty and sent to 15 years imprisonment in absentia. [33]
In July 2015, the Croatian Justice Ministry confirmed plans to seek the extradition of Predrag Japranin from Australia, accused of murdering three Croat civilians from Petrinja in November 1991. [34]
On 31 October 2017, three former-Krajina Serb fighters were given sentences of between 5+1⁄2 and 7+1⁄2 years for burning down the Croatian village of Nova Drenčina. All three were tried and sentenced in absentia. [35]
The Lovas killings involved the killing of 70 Croat civilian residents of the village of Lovas between 10 and 18 October 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The killings took place during and in the immediate aftermath of the occupation of the village by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) supported by Croatian Serb forces and Dušan the Mighty Forces. on 10 October, two days after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia. The occupation occurred during the Battle of Vukovar, as the JNA sought to consolidate its control over the area surrounding the city of Vukovar. The killings and abuse of the civilian population continued until 18 October, when troops guarding a group of civilians forced them to walk into a minefield at gunpoint and then opened fire upon them.
The Škabrnja massacre was the killing of 62 Croatian civilians and five prisoners of war by Serbian Autonomous Oblast Krajina Territorial Defence troops and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in the villages of Škabrnja and Nadin east of Zadar on 18–19 November 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The massacre occurred shortly after an agreement to evacuate Zadar's JNA garrison following an increase in fighting between the Croatian National Guard and the JNA. Most of the killings were committed by SAO Krajina troops which followed the leading armoured JNA units fighting their way into Škabrnja on 18 November. During the initial attack, the attacking force employed a human shield of captured civilians forced to walk in front of armoured vehicles. Most of the civilian population fled the village and about 120–130 were captured by the JNA and detained in the village school and kindergarten. However, others who took shelter in basements were killed in or just outside their homes. A portion of those killed in the massacre were buried in a mass grave in Škabrnja, while dozens of bodies were turned over to Croatian authorities.
The Baćin massacre was the killing of 83 civilians just outside the village of Baćin, near Hrvatska Dubica, committed by Croatian Serb paramilitaries. The killings took place on 21 October 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. Most of the civilians were Croats, but they also included two ethnic Serbs, taken from Hrvatska Dubica, Baćin and the nearby village of Cerovljani. The civilians were killed in the area of Krečane, at the very bank of the Una River, and their bodies were left unburied for two weeks. Most of them were subsequently bulldozed into a shallow mass grave, while a number of the bodies were thrown into the river. Further killings of Croat civilians continued in Baćin and surrounding areas until February 1992.
The Battle of the Barracks was a series of engagements that occurred in mid-to-late 1991 between the Croatian National Guard and the Croatian police on one side and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) on the other. The battle took place around numerous JNA posts in Croatia, starting when Croatian forces blockaded the JNA barracks, weapons storage depots and other facilities. It formally began on 14 September; its objective was to neutralise the JNA positions in ZNG-held territory and to secure arms and ammunition supplies for the poorly equipped ZNG.
The Battle of Zadar was a military engagement between the Yugoslav People's Army, supported by the Croatian Serb Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina, and the Croatian National Guard, supported by the Croatian Police. The battle was fought north and east of the city of Zadar, Croatia, in the second half of September and early October 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. Although the JNA's initial orders were to lift the Croatian siege of the JNA's barracks in the city and isolate the region of Dalmatia from the rest of Croatia, the orders were amended during the battle to include capturing the Port of Zadar in the city centre. The JNA's advance was supported by the Yugoslav Air Force and Navy.
The Saborsko massacre was the killing of 29 Croat residents of the village of Saborsko on 12 November 1991, following the seizure of the village in a Yugoslav People's Army and Croatian Serb offensive during the Croatian War of Independence. The fall of the town occurred as part of a JNA and Croatian Serb operation to capture a Croatian-held pocket centered on the town of Slunj, southeast of Karlovac. While the bulk of the civilian population fled with the surviving Croatian forces, those who remained in Saborsko were rounded up and either killed or expelled. The bodies of the victims were retrieved from two mass graves and several individual graves in 1995.
The Velepromet camp was a detention facility established in the final days of the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence. The camp was set up by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which shared control of the facility with Croatian Serb rebels. The facility, originally an industrial storage site, was located on the southern outskirts of the city of Vukovar, in close proximity to the JNA barracks. It consisted of eight warehouses surrounded by a wire fence, and was established on 16 November 1991, when the first detainees were brought there.
The Dalj massacre was the killing of Croats in Dalj, Croatia from 1 August 1991 until June 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. In addition to civilian victims, the figure includes 20 Croatian policemen, 15 Croatian National Guard troops and four civil defencemen who had been defending the police station and water supply building in the village on 1 August 1991. While some of the policemen and the ZNG troops died in combat, those who surrendered were killed after they became prisoners of war. They tried to fight off an attack by the Croatian Serb SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia Territorial Defence Forces, supported by the Yugoslav People's Army and the Serb Volunteer Guard paramilitaries. The SAO SBWS was declared an autonomous territory in eastern Croatia following the Battle of Borovo Selo just to the south of Dalj.
Operation Whirlwind was a failed Croatian Army (HV) offensive in the Banovina region of Croatia, fought from 11–13 December 1991, during the early stages of the Croatian War of Independence. The offensive employed a single infantry brigade as the main attacking force, supported by a bridging unit and a handful of tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Although the offensive met hardly any resistance in its initial stage, achieving tactical surprise, the operation was poorly planned, supported and executed as a result of limited training and combat experience. The offensive established a short-lived bridgehead, evacuated in panic two days after the operation commenced, under tank and mortar fire from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) deployed north of Glina.
The Battle of Šibenik, also known as the September War, was an armed conflict fought between the Yugoslav People's Army, supported by the Croatian Serb-established Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina, and the Croatian National Guard, supported by the Croatian Police. The battle was fought to the north and west of the city of Šibenik, Croatia on 16–22 September 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The JNA's initial orders were to relieve Croatian siege of their barracks in the city and isolate the region of Dalmatia from the rest of Croatia. The JNA's advance was supported by the Yugoslav Air Force and the Yugoslav Navy.
The Varivode massacre was a mass killing that occurred on 28 September 1995 in the village of Varivode, Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence. According to United Nations officials, soldiers of the Croatian Army (HV) and Croatian police killed nine Serb villagers, all of whom were between the ages of 60 and 85. After the war, six former Croatian soldiers were tried for committing crimes in the village, but were all eventually released due to lack of evidence. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Croatia ruled that the Republic of Croatia was responsible for the killings, dubbing the massacre an "act of terrorism," and the following year the municipal court in Knin announced that the Government of Croatia must provide compensation to the children of a couple who were murdered.
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The siege of Bjelovar Barracks, also known by the codename Operation Bilogora, was the blockade and capture of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) barracks and other facilities in and around the city of Bjelovar, a part of the JNA 32nd (Varaždin) Corps, during the Croatian War of Independence. A general blockade of the JNA facilities in Croatia was ordered on 14 September 1991, and it continued until 29 September when the JNA garrison was captured by Croatian forces. Its capture occurred one week after the bulk of the 32nd Corps surrendered. It was part of the Battle of the Barracks—an effort by Croatian armed forces to isolate JNA units based at barracks in Croatia, or capture the barracks to provide arms for Croatia's nascent army.
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The Fall of Hrvatska Kostajnica was a military engagement fought between SAO Krajina and Croatian forces. Fought between Late July, 1991 to Early September of 1991. Croatian forces had successfully defended the town for months, briefly abandoning it. Since Croatian president Franjo Tuđman was inspecting troops in Hrvatska Kostajnica, SAO Krajina forces led by Branko Dmitrovic committed to occupying Hrvatska Kostajnica.
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