Uzdolje killings

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Uzdolje killings
Location Uzdolje, Knin, Croatia
Date6 August 1995
TargetElderly Croatian Serb villagers
Attack type
 Mass killing
Deaths10 [1]
Perpetrators Croatian Army (HV)

The Uzdolje killings was the mass murder of at least ten Croatian Serb civilians from the village of Uzdolje, near Knin on 6 August 1995 by members of the Croatian Army (HV) in the aftermath of Operation Storm.

Contents

Background

By March 1991, tensions between Croats and Serbs escalated into the Croatian War of Independence. [2] Following a referendum on independence that was largely boycotted by Croatian Serbs, [3] the Croatian parliament officially adopted independence on 25 June. [4] The Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) declared its intention to secede from Croatia and join the Republic of Serbia while the Government of the Republic of Croatia declared it a rebellion. [5] Between August 1991 and February 1992, the RSK initiated an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive out the Croat and non-Serb population from RSK-held territory, [6] eventually expelling as many as 250,000 people according to Human Rights Watch. [7] Croatian forces also engaged in ethnic cleansing against Serbs in Eastern and Western Slavonia and parts of the Krajina on a more limited scale. [8] On 4 August 1995, the Croatian Army (HV) launched Operation Storm to retake the Krajina region which was completed successfully by 7 August. [9] The Operation resulted in the exodus of approximately 200,000 Serbs from Krajina while those Serbs who were unable or unwilling to leave their homes, primarily the elderly, were subjected to various crimes. [10] The ICTY puts the number of Serb civilians killed at 324. [11]

Killings

On the morning of 6 August 1995, three men with automatic rifles drove to the hamlet of Šare and into the village of Uzdolje, finding eight people, the oldest of whom was Djudjija Beric, 79 years old. [12] Seven of them were killed near the Knin - Drniš road, while the surviving witness, who was injured, managed to escape into the forest. [12] The other victims were Milica Sare, Stevo Beric, Janja Beric, Krsto Sare, Milos Cosic, Jandrija Sara and 73-year-old Sava Sare, who was killed on her porch afterwards. [1]

In the nearby hamlet of Vrbnik, unknown Croatian soldiers also killed 61- or 62-year-old Lazo Damjanic and 28-year-old Predrag Zaric. [1] Days after Operation Storm, ten other civilians were also killed in surrounding villages. [12]

The killings in the village were included in the ICTY's indictment of former Croatian general Ante Gotovina. [13] In the appeal of the trial of Gotovina et al which acquitted Gotovina and Mladen Markač, the ICTY ruled that there was insufficient evidence to conclude the existence of a joint criminal enterprise to remove Serb civilians by force. [14] The Appeals Chamber further stated that the Croatian Army and Special Police committed crimes after the artillery assault, but the state and military leadership had no role in their planning and creation. [14]

Though no one has been held responsible for these crimes, the Zagreb-based NGO Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past filed a criminal complaint to the Croatian state attorney’s office in 2017. [1]

Related Research Articles

Operation Storm Military offensive and the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence

Operation Storm was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a 630-kilometre (390 mi) front against the self-declared proto-state Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), and a strategic victory for the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). The HV was supported by the Croatian special police advancing from the Velebit Mountain, and the ARBiH located in the Bihać pocket, in the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina's (ARSK) rear. The battle, launched to restore Croatian control of 10,400 square kilometres of territory, representing 18.4% of the territory it claimed, and Bosnian control of Western Bosnia, was the largest European land battle since the Second World War. Operation Storm commenced at dawn on 4 August 1995 and was declared complete on the evening of 7 August, despite significant mopping-up operations against pockets of resistance lasting until 14 August.

Ante Gotovina

Ante Gotovina is a Croatian retired lieutenant general and former French senior corporal who served in the Croatian War for Independence. He is noted for his primary role in the 1995 Operation Storm. In 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted him on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges in connection with that operation and its aftermath. After spending four years in hiding, he was captured in the Canary Islands in December 2005.

Republic of Serbian Krajina Proto-state in Croatia (1991–1995)

The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina, known as the Serbian Krajina or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, a territory within the newly independent Republic of Croatia, which it defied, and which was active during the Croatian War of Independence (1991–95). It was not recognized internationally. The name Krajina ("Frontier") was adopted from the historical Military Frontier of the Habsburg monarchy and Austria-Hungary, which had a substantial Serb population and existed up to the late 19th century. The RSK government waged a war for ethnic Serb independence from Croatia and unification with FR Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska.

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Croatian War of Independence War of independence during the breakup of Yugoslavia

The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat operations in Croatia by 1992. In Croatia, the war is primarily referred to as the "Homeland War" and also as the "Greater-Serbian Aggression". In Serbian sources, "War in Croatia" and (rarely) "War in Krajina" are used.

The Battle of the Miljevci Plateau was a clash of the Croatian Army and forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), fought on 21–23 June 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. The battle represented the culmination of a series of skirmishes between the HV and the RSK forces in Northern Dalmatia, after the implementation of the Vance plan and deployment of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) began. The skirmishes occurred in the pink zones—areas under control of the RSK, but outside the UN Protected Areas established by the Vance plan.

The Z-4 Plan was a proposed basis for negotiations to end the Croatian War of Independence with a political settlement. It was drafted by Peter W. Galbraith, Leonid Kerestedjiants and Geert-Hinrich Ahrens on behalf of a mini-Contact Group comprising United Nations envoys and diplomats from the United States, Russia and the European Union. The co-chairs of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, David Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg, were closely involved in the political process surrounding the plan. The document was prepared in the final months of 1994 and early 1995 before being presented to Croatian President Franjo Tuđman and the leaders of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) on 30 January 1995. Tuđman was displeased with the proposal, but accepted it as a basis for further negotiations. However, the RSK authorities even refused to receive the document before UNPROFOR mandate status was resolved. According to later reactions, RSK leadership was not satisfied with the plan.

Milan Martić

Milan Martić is a Croatian Serb politician who served as the president of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina between 1994 and 1995, during the Croatian War of Independence.

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Operation Summer '95 was a joint military offensive of the Croatian Army (HV) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) that took place north-west of the Livanjsko Polje, and around Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoč in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. The operation was carried out between 25 and 29 July 1995, during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. The attacking force of 8,500 troops commanded by HV's Lieutenant General Ante Gotovina initially encountered strong resistance from the 5,500-strong Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) 2nd Krajina Corps. The HV/HVO pushed the VRS back, capturing about 1,600 square kilometres of territory and consequently intercepting the Knin—Drvar road—a critical supply route of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). The operation failed to achieve its declared primary goal of drawing VRS units away from the besieged city of Bihać, but it placed the HV in position to capture the RSK's capital Knin in Operation Storm days later.

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.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Milekic, Sven (4 August 2017). "Croatia's Operation Storm: Crimes Unpunished 22 Years On". BalkanInsight. BIRN.
  2. ↑ Lucien, Ellington (2005). Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 437. ISBN   978-1-57607-800-6.
  3. ↑ Chuck Sudetic (20 May 1991). "Croatia Votes for Sovereignty and Confederation". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ Raič, David (2002). Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 350. ISBN   978-9-04111-890-5.
  5. ↑ Sudetic, Chuck (2 April 1991). "Rebel Serbs Complicate Rift on Yugoslav Unity". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ Bartrop, Paul R. (2012). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good. ABC-CLIO. p. 28. ISBN   978-0-31338-679-4.
  7. ↑ "Milosevic: Important New Charges on Croatia". Human Rights Watch. 21 October 2001. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010.
  8. ↑ Bassiouni, Mahmoud Cherif; Manikas, Peter (1996). The Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Transnational Publishers. p. 86. ISBN   978-1-57105-004-5.
  9. ↑ Blank, Laurie R.; Noone, Gregory P. (2018). International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. p. 517. ISBN   978-1-54380-122-4.
  10. ↑ Clark, Janine Natalya (2014). International Trials and Reconciliation: Assessing the Impact of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN   978-1-31797-474-1.
  11. ↑ Razsa, Maple (2015). Bastards of Utopia: Living Radical Politics after Socialism. Indiana University Press. pp. 239–240. ISBN   978-0-25301-588-4.
  12. 1 2 3 Bajto, Nikola; Opačić, Tamara; Jovanović, Nenad (15 October 2018). "Dossier: Zločini nad Srbima". Novosti.
  13. ↑ "Gotovina - Indictment". ICTY.org. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 21 May 2001.
  14. 1 2 "Gotovina and Markac, IT-06-90-A" (PDF). ICTY.org. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 16 November 2012. pp. 30–34.
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