dimitrije
03-17-2006, 07:55 PM
GENOCIDE AGAINST THE CIVILIAN POPULATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA KRAJINA IN AUGUST 1995
On August 4, 1995, members of the Croatian army launched an attack from a number of directions, including from Croatia and areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina occupied earlier - Grahovo and Glamoc - on the Republic of Serbian Krajina in which Serbs lived, and in addition to military operations also systematically destroyed civilian buildings and property and killed many civilians, primarily old men, women and children.
With an overwhelmingly superior military & police force, constantly shelling the entire territory of Krajina, they forced those civilians who had not been killed right away to leave their homes and flee as refugees.
Although refugees proceeding aboard tractors, animal-drawn carts, motor vehicles and even on foot were in plain sight, the Croatian forces kept shelling them from artillery weapons or bombing them from aircraft, launching even infantry attacks at some places.
The consequences of the military attacks on the column of refugees were particularly in evidence in the area around Glina, on the Glina - Dvor road and during their movement through the Republic of Srpska. The sites of attacks were strewn with bodies, destroyed vehicles, various objects lying around, and these were all removed by members of the Croatian police and army after they had prohibited international observers and UN force members any access to such places, and for which they obviously had teams prepared in advance.
A part of the column which trudged on along the highway through Croatia was systematically attacked also by the Croatian population although the Croatian authorities had given assurances, through the UN representative, for their unhindered passage. The attacks were the worst in Sisak, where people pulled Serbs out of the column, beat them up and even killed some of them. They stoned their vehicles and looted their property, all this in the presence of members of the Croatian police and army who, instead of ensuring safe passage for the column, as had been guaranteed, stood by and looked on.
So, having lost their homes, the people of Krajina were also stripped of what little belongings they had managed to bring along in haste.
As a consequence of these actions between 230,000 and 250,000 Serbs were banished from the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Immediately after completing the military campaign, the Croatian military and police embarked on a series of measures to "sweep the terrain " in Serbian places throughout Krajina, as the final stage of the genocide over the Serbian people of Krajina, which consisted of the physical liquidation of those who had remained. As a rule these were elderly people who had stayed behind to look after their property and the homes of their birth, or because they could not move on account of old age and infirmity. They were killed en masse most often on their very doorsteps, all their property was looted and what remained was set to fire. Looting, arson, the demolition of houses and the killing of the remaining civilians were carried out (and are still being carried out) in systematic fashion, with the removal of all traces of the act.
Members of international humanitarian organizations and international observers very often saw the consequences of these actions for themselves.
The witnesses who have been heard stated, inter alia, that members of the Croatian military and police killed even Serbs over the age of 70, as well as women. Most of these persons were killed in a brutal way and their disfigured bodies were left to lie in the fields where they had been working the land, on their doorsteps, or were burned in the houses which were set on fire. Among the reported cases are those of a ninety-year old woman who was slaughtered in her house, of a group of people who were tied up, killed and set on fire, of a blind old woman who was shot dead in the back of the head, of the killing of people by chopping their heads and arms off, the killing of people with axes, the placing of a sheep gut over the head of people before killing them, etc.
After taking Krajina, the Croatian authorities arrested a large number of people and confined them to camps where they were subjected to extremely brutal treatment, for which purposes they had in fact adapted schools and sports halls. The number of the remaining Serbs who were arrested is not known. Larger detention centres were in Zadar, Sibenik, Split, Knin, Sisak, Karlovac, Kutina, Gospic, Novska, Ivanic Grad and Sinj. The prisoners in those camps were tortured and inhumanely treated and exposed to all sorts of pressures. Representatives of international humanitarian or other organizations were not allowed access to some of these camps.
The looting, the destruction of their homes and households during and after the Croatian military campaign forced the Serbs to leave an area in which they had lived for centuries (written records about the Serbs in these parts are dated to 822; the regions of Lika, Kordun, Banija and Slavonija were settled by the Serbs in larger numbers in the 16th and 17th centuries - at the invitation of the Austrian emperors), and nurtured a specific culture on the crossroads between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Serbian people was compelled to also leave its shrines - its churches and monasteries,museums, its historic monuments and rich repositories of their cultural and artistic heritage, as well as the graves of their ancestors. They also left behind about 950 cultural monuments, 80 libraries and over 122 schools.
Observed in conjunction with the data provided in the previous reports of the Committee, this clearly attests to a continuous pattern of persecution of Serbs since the time of the creation of the independent Croatia. The establishment of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ - CDU) party, the referendum, and other actions of the Croatian political leaders before the o utbreak of civil war were attended by a menacing and aggressive political propaganda against the Serbs. On their electoral victory and assumption of power, the CDU set out to implement a programme designed to cleanse Croatia of Serbs, everywhere and barring none. Serbs became the object of verbal abuse and physical assault: in the street, in the stores, at their places of work, in their homes and flats; graffiti were written, arms were looked for, snipers were fabricated, threats were levelled by telephone, messages were sent to them demanding that they leave Croatia, the flats of Serbs were marked, their telephones were bugged and disconnected, statements of allegiance were demanded from them, their apartments were searched with no legal grounds, individuals were viciously beaten up, dismissed from work, all this followed by a second stage involving arrests and killings.
In some areas the Serbs were in fact liquidated en masse, for instance in Pakracka Poljana, Marino Selo, in Western Slavonia, in Vukovar, Osijek, Gospic, Sisak, Zadar, Brod, Zagreb, Split and other places. The property of the Serbs - their apartments, houses, vacationing cottages, shops, as well as their cultural and historical monuments were blown up and demolished in many places, in pursuit of the ultimate objective of eliminating Serbs from Croatia altogether. In some communities (Dubrovnik and Zagreb) there were also actions to convert the Serbs to Catholicism.
All actions directed at the Serbs were coordinated by the top state authorities of Croatia with the intention of completely eliminating the Serbs as a national, ethnic and religious group in Croatia or reducing their number to a negligible one. The remaining Serbs in Croatia were put in such living conditions which could only lead to their extermination as a national, ethnic or religious group.
All this clearly indicates that a systematic and deliberate campaign was and is being waged in Croatia to completely extirpate the Serbs from Croatia, orchestrated by the party in power in Croatia.
As a result of the genocidal campaign of the Croatian authorities, from a constituent element of Croatian statehood, the Serbs have become a minority, having been reduced from 12% to at maximum 3 % of the population of Croatia.
The data presented here are primarily based on the statements of eyewitnesses. They can be supplemented by evidence gathered by United Nations members as well as by representatives of other international organizations.
1
The column of refugees fleeing from Krajina through Glina was intercepted and attacked and many civilians were killed. After that a part of them, on the basis of an agreement UNPROFOR had brokered with the Croatian authorities in respect of their route, continued on their way to Petrinja, Sisak and further on through Croatia, along the Zagreb-Belgrade highway. The witnesses, people who were among these refugees described what they had gone through:
1.1. The witness 276/96-1 stated:
My unit found itself surrounded near Topusko. Then, UNPROFOR brokered negotiations between colonel Cedo Bulat and the Croatian general Stipetic who set the condition that we were to surrender all heavy and light armaments or the Croatian army would attack the column of civilian refugees which was on the road leading from Vrginmost to Glina and Zirovac and Dvor na Uni.
Cedo Bulat decided that we should surrender our weapons, which we did, and I reached Glina with a column of tanks where we handed over the ordnance. The negotiations lasted for three days, August 7,8 and 9, 1995. However, the Croats did not abide by the agreement and their army massacred the civilians in the column, as I found out later.
After we had surrendered our tanks in Glina some of us changed into civilian clothes and some remained in uniforms, and we set off via Glina-Petrinja-Moscenica and to the Zagreb - Belgrade highway.
When we arrived at Moscenica we had to run a gauntlet of Croatian soldiers and civilians who hurled stones at us. They smashed the windows of my car, even though they had told us that the passage would be safe. They pulled out some people from the cars and beat them. For instance, they pulled C.B. from the village C. near Vrginmost out of the column and the Croatian soldiers lynched him.
1.2. The witness 300/96-5 stated:
In August 1995 when Krajina was attacked by the Croatian armed forces, I fled. My family was in the column of refugees aboard a tractor with trailer. Near Glina they cut off part of the column and a number of refugees, including my family, turned back.
Between Glina and Topusko the Croatian army had laid contact mines to prevent the column from moving. But that was not the only woe which befell the refugees in the column. Members of the Croatian army in camouflage uniforms attacked the civilians, robbed them and took whatever they felt like from the tractor trailers, and then pushed the trailers to the side of the road, smashed them, turned them over, burned them. Then with heavy-duty machinery they rammed them into the ground and buried them under a thick layer of earth.
Such was the fate of my family also. We lost our tractor, trailer and all our belongings that we had taken along.
Two women from the refugee column who were a bit more composed and courageous, were bold enough to ask the commander of the Croatian unit to return the tractors. He was very displeased. He ordered that they both be taken prisoner and it was done. They were M. and Lj., between 40 and 50 years of age. They ended up in the camp in Karlovac.
The column was held there for a full three days.
Then my family joined M.L. who had miraculously managed to keep his tractor, so that we rode on it a bit, but we walked most of the way beside the tractor and that is how we got to Sisak. There they stoned us. They hurled stones at us all the time.
1.3. The witness 62/96-5, a farmer from the vicinity of Vrginmost, born in 1930, testified:
With the other peasants we set out in a convoy, riding on tractors. There were also carts and cars in the convoy. Very few of the refugees were young people. When we got to Glina uniformed Moslems and Croats cut the column apart. They started shooting. I and the rest of my family leaped off the tractor. Two buses came along. In the general mess and commotion I managed to shove my granddaughter and wife into a bus. The bus was full of dead bodies because we came under fire from all directions. The buses left in the direction of Topusko.
A day later UNPROFOR troops appeared making it possible for the column to pass through from Topusko to Glina. As we passed by the very spot where the night before Croats and Moslems had jointly attacked us, I saw both of my tractors smashed by bulldozer and lying in a heap by the road as well as all our things. Everything was destroyed and scattered about, not only my two tractors, but also the carts and the automobiles, everything which had been in the column.
I got aboard a bus and we set off for Belgrade via Sisak. A large group of people beside the highway attacked our convoy. They hurled stones at us. People in the cars and on the tractors were injured and the windshield of our bus was broken. The driver and several other people on the bus were hurt.
That night I saw many wounded and killed women, old men and children near Glina. I cannot say how many of them there were. It was dark. They shot at us from all directions and all hell broke loose in the column. I was lucky to survive as I managed to get on one of the two buses that had come along.
1.4. The witness 116/96 stated:
We reached Topusko with the column and on August 9 we set off from there for Glina. In Glina Croatian soldiers awaited us, who threatened us, spat on us, reviled us.
Continuing our journey we passed through Petrinja and on the same day, August 9, we came near Sisak, where a crowd of young people awaited us, hurled stones at us breaking all the windows on our car, make "Yugo". We had to duck to avoid being hit.
At a certain point my daughter started screaming and I saw that my mother had been hit above the right eye and that she was bleeding but we had nothing to stanch the gushing blood with except for a towel. We were surrounded by members of the Croatian army who would not let us get out of the car but forced us to drive on.
Approaching Sisak, we came across UNPROFOR troops standing with Croatian army soldiers who were shouting threats at us, and the UNPROFOR men just stood there laughing, so that we did not dare ask them for help.
My mother, Desanka Komadina from Donje Budacke near Karlovac, born in 1924, was injured by a stone on August 9 around 7 p.m., and she died the next morning about 6 a.m. in Zupanja. She was a healthy woman. Two stones which hit her were found in the car next to her seat: one the size of an egg and the other larger than a fist, with sharp edges.
When we reached Sid we buried my mother there.
1.5. The witness 300/96-8, a 17-year old pupil, stated:
Due to an injury I was at the Topusko spa for rehabilitation. It was August 1995. There was shooting from every conceivable quarter. At a certain point I decided to go home. I set off through Glina. I did not know that the town had fallen. They caught me right away. They placed a knife to my throat, fired shots above my head, beat me, hitting me mostly in the head, and also in the body and legs. They threatened me and dragged me hither and thither through the town from noon till midnight. Then they let me go but they told me that they would certainly get me and that I would be executed. They were Croatian soldiers in camouflage suits.
I managed to pull out of Glina and rerntu to Topusko. Five days passed. It was horrible, there was no water, no food, no lights. We were encircled, and so I joined a convoy of refugees moving on the highway bound for Zagreb and Belgrade.
In Sisak the Croats stoned us so that we barely managed to save our necks.
My condition in consequence of all this is very grave. I no longer can sleep. Sometimes during the day I am so high-strung that I could roll on the floor. I am on a number of medicaments prescribed to me by my doctor. I regularly see a psychiatrist, but the anxiety persists. I do not know if and when I will recover. Six months have passed and still there is no improvement. In Petrinja I was a very good pupil and now I am barely managing.
1.6. The witness 300/96-10, a worker, born in 1958 in Vojnic, testified:
On August 6, 1995, I was in a position near Topusko with my unit. We could hear women and children crying and the sound of tractor engines all day long.
Three days passed. On August 9 we were given the order to surrender our weapons and to set off for Yugoslavia. I joined the column of refugees.
I did not know anything about the fate of my family.
Near Glina the column was broken in upon and later I saw tractor trailers and various objects scattered about on the left and right sides of the road. They were all damaged.
After we passed through Petrinja we came across a military vehicle with several Croatian soldiers in camouflage suits on it. When they neared us they stopped and said to us: "Serbs, we want to cut your throats". I was petrified with fear. In front of us they started discussing the way in which they would slay us. Fortunately a police car came by and they defended us.
1.7. The witness 300/96-11 stated:
With my wife and three children I set out in a "Yugo" with the refugee convoy.
They held us outside Topusko for three days and four nights. A column of refugees formed there and then we set out towards Glina. My car broke down and I, my wife and our three children had to board a trailer. It took us three days to cover a distance of 250 kilometers through Croatia. Although we were escorted by international forces all the time there were numerous incidents on the way. The Croats stoned our column all along the route.
1.8. The witness 257/96-1, a pensioner, born in 1925, testified:
I lived in Utinja, the commune of Karlovac. On August 5, 1995,
our village came under shellfire and my neighbours started leaving. My neighbour asked me: "What are you waiting for?" So, aboard a tractor, I and my wife joined the column of Serbian refugees.
>From Utinja the column made its way to Vrginmost and en route the train of civilians came under cannon fire, but I did not see whether anyone was wounded or killed then.
>From Vrginmost we continued towards Topusko, where we were held for three days and then proceeded along the Glina-Petrinja-Sisak road.
When we arrived at Glina a Croatian soldier armed with an automatic rifle came up to me saying to one of his fellow- soldiers, pointing at me , "let us do away with the old man", but his comrade prevented him from killing me.
The train of Serbian civilians came under an avalanche of stones as it was passing through Sisak. I was exposed to it a number of times and two or three stones hit me causing injuries. My wife was also hit and her glasses were broken.
As we were passing through Kutina we were also hurled stones at and the crowd shouted at us disparagingly "Gypsies! Gypsies!"
1.9. The witness 680/95-18 stated:
Along the way many tractors and other vehicles broke down but the soldiers and military police allowed no repairs or delays, but forced the Serbs to move on by hook or by crook. So those whose vehicles had broken down had to board other vehicles, leaving their own behind by the road with all their belongings.
As we were passing through Sisak on October 10,1995 , civilians threw stones at us.
The driver and the passengers of a truck belonging to the Agricultural Cooperative in Vrgin Most were pulled out, the truck was plundered, and they had to find other transportation in the train of tractors.
We travelled through Croatia for two days and two nights around the clock with no rest.
1.10. The witness 221/96 who was withdrawing with a tractor train from Topusko, testified:
I was on a tractor with another four or five people, and when the column reached Sisak, at a certain moment a Croatian policeman whacked me from the back in the nape of the neck with a stick, cursing my Chetnik mother. The wound I sustained bled for two hours after that.
In Sisak some women from the column were hurt.
1.11. The witness 138/96 stated:
We set off in a column and were intercepted first in Glina, on August 6, 1995 where we were held for four days and were then told that we could proceed in the direction of Sisak escorted by UNPROFOR.
At Sisak the column came under a hailstorm of stones, my car windows were shattered and I was hit in the head by a stone. Many people in the column were injured. Others were injured much worse than I was.
On our route I saw many overturned tractors and cars.
1.12. The witness 336/96 stated:
The column was broken in upon in front of Glina. The people were panic-stricken. Shooting and explosions reverberated from Glina. We stayed there for three days and three nights during which time negotiations were being conducted between the Croatian authorities, UNPROFOR and our own representatives. Later we found out that passage across Croatian territory would be allowed.
I returned then to Topusko which had been raided by Croatian forces which terrorized the population.
A number of our soldiers had kept their weapons and were to secure the column. They were captured, some of them were later released, and others remained imprisoned. I have no idea what became of them.
Simo Krnjic from Slunj was killed then. When the train of refugees set off from Topusko for Glina, it took us a full 24 hours to cover a distance of 12 kilometers. Then we proceeded to Petrinja. En route the Croats subjected us to various psychological pressures. There was an UNPROFOR checkpoint at the exit from Petrinja, but only the Croatian police maintained contact with them. It was then that we observed that they were on intimate terms with the Croatian police.
Once in Sisak they led us through the iron works in Sisak, and from there we set out for Popovaca where we were stopped.
At Popovaca they offered us mineral water and food. I only had some mineral water and felt nauseated right away, I remember that it tasted foul. I hallucinated on the way. I believe that the water had been adulterated.
En route the column of Serbs was maltreated by the Croats. Their tractors were seized. For instance they seized the tractor of Stevo Gusic from Vojnic.
They maltreated us as a rule at night and the police turned on flashing rotating lights to distract attention from the ordeal of the Serbs in the column as much as possible.
1.13. The witness 303/96-1, 32 years old, stated:
I set out from Vojnici with a column of refugees on August 6, 1995 with my husband and two children. When we reached Glina the column was broken in upon. I heard that a number of persons at the head of the column had been killed. For two days we waited in the forests for negotiations to take place and then they let us move on through Petrinja towards Sisak and on to Serbia.
As our convoy was approaching Sisak we came under a hailstorm of stones hurled at us by the Croatian population. The first stone hit my child in the head and and tore her flesh at the temple. The child of B. M. was also hurt.
All the vehicles in our convoy were damaged by the stones.
1.14. The witness 62/96-1, a peasant woman from the vicinity of Vrgin Most, testified:
Until August 4, 1995 I lived in the village of Stipan, the commune of Vrgin Most, with my husband and two children.
In the afternoon of August 4, we set out aboard our tractor driven by my 16-year old son. With other refugees from Krajina we started in the direction of Glina. At Glina the Ustashi attacked us. First aircraft flew over the column and bombs landed. Then they shelled the column from the flanks.
It was about 8.30 p.m. when we reached the centre of Glina. There they cut the column. The crying and screams of old people and women could be heard. My brother-in-law shouted: "Run for your life, they will kill us all". Many people were killed then.
I took my 9-year old son and my brother's child aged 10 and we started running, jumping over a woman lying on the ground. We ran across a bus with no lights on. The driver told us that he was going back to Topusko. We got on the bus and it took us through a forest from Glina to Topusko. It was night. The bus was packed with women, children and old people. We arrived at Topusko about 4 a.m. People asked UNPROFOR for help, but were told that UNPROFOR was waiting for authorization. Then we set off, aboard the bus, in the direction of a forest.
There we came across Moslems who shelled the column from all sides. The driver made a U-turn and drove us back to Topusko and we stayed there for two days and on the third day we set out in the direction of Glina on the highway leading from Zagreb to Belgrade.
The Croatian population and army, soldiers and civilians alike, threw stones at us as we were passing. Many of us sustained injuries, but we all took it silently. Once an armed Croatian soldier got into the bus, cocked his rifle and asked us where we were headed. No one replied.
The windows of the bus were smashed. When we arrived in Belgrade not a single window was whole.
We had to put the children beneath our legs and under the baggage to protect them from the stones. There were infants 5-6 months old among the children.
One woman buried a one-year old infant under a pile of diapers and it suffocated.
1.15. The witness 271/96, who lived in Kupljensk, the commune of Vojnic, stated:
I was forced to flee to Serbia, and on August 4, I set out in my "Zastava 101" car. Through Croatia we moved in a convoy consisting of a large number of passenger and freight vehicles and tractors. Each convoy was led by a Croatian police vehicle. We travelled for three or four days and nights through Croatia to Lipovac. The Croats gave us drinking water, and those who took it would be "sleepy" afterwards, so that we concluded that some stupefying agent had been added to it.
As I was approaching Lipovac, three or four men brandishing some poles ran out of the dark and to my car and started whacking it, smashing all my windows and denting the body of the car.
1.16. The witness 141/96 stated:
I lived with my wife in a village near Vojnic and engaged in farming.
When on August 6, 1995 they started shelling Vojnic we set out aboard a tractor with a convoy of refugees, bound for Glina and on for Sisak.
When we got to Staklenik the Croats attacked us, and my wife, who was on the tractor, started running away.
She was hurt on that occasion. Through UNPROFOR she returned back home to the village and is probably there now.
In the commotion I was separated from her and I continued the journey on somebody else's trailer for I had had to leave mine behind in Staklenik. We continued our journey via Sisak towards Belgrade.
En route we came under a hailstorm of stones. Croatian civilians as well as uniformed members of the Croatian army and police hurled stones at the column. Many were hurt, having been hit in the head.
They stoned us the worst in Sisak.
1.17. The witness 505/96-3, a woman refugee from Vojnic, 44 years old, testified:
I packed what I could in a hurry, started the tractor and with my little son set out for Glina, where we were taken prisoner and to a camp.
Before we were captured, we came across Croatian soldiers and police and took to our heels back towards Topusko. They shot at the column from various weapons, many were killed and wounded.
1.18. The witness 228/96, a driver from the vicinity of Vojnic, born in 1953, stated:
On August 6, I set out towards Glina aboard my tractor. Croatian aircraft bombed us on the way. UNPROFOR had promised that they would protect us and escort us to the border. They, however, failed to show up so that we were left at the mercy of the Croatian army.
On August 7, 1995, I was taken prisoner by Croatian soldiers about one kilometer from Glina. Those Serbian soldiers who had managed to take off their uniforms and put on civilian clothes were fortunate, because all those in uniforms were beaten with rifle butts, kicked and hit with whatever they could lay their hands on.
They sat us on the ground with our hands behind our necks. They gave us neither food nor water.
Then Croatian military police came and locked us up in a shed and interrogated us there. They beat everyone whom they interrogated.
They would handcuff us in pairs, and when they ran out of handcuffs they used wire or a rope. Bound up like that we sat in the shed. There were some 50 of us.
>From there we were taken to Sisak.
1.19. The witness 339/96-2, a refugee from Kordun, testified:
I, my wife and our son set off in our automobile on August 6, 1995 in the direction of Banja Luka and caught up with a refugee convoy near Vrginmost. There were many refugees there, aboard animal-drawn carts, tractors and many walked.
As we were approaching Glina the Croatian army shelled the column and I saw two girls killed in a "Golf" automobile, which was in front of us and had Glina license plates.
We heard that the Croats had blown up the bridge near Dvor na Uni and that they were capturing Serbs, massively looting their property, seizing their cars, money and other valuables.
1.20. The witness 451/96, from the vicinity of Slunj, born in 1939, testified:
>From Topusko we went back wending our way through the "Vranusa" forest. Then we heard that the head of the column had been broken in upon by the Fifth Moslem corps. Then Croatian troops surrounded our column and held us there for two days. I know that buses came to drive refugees away, whereas we who had tractors remained.
I saw the Ustashi single out a Serb from the column and take him away, I do not know his name, only that he never came back.
After that we set out for Glina. Behind a fence I saw a hanged man, and another one who had been decapitated.
Eventually we reached Glina escorted by Croatian police and moved on to Petrinja. In Petrinja I saw piles of stones heaped along both sides of the road. Standing by them were Croatian civilians hurling stones at the refugee column and swearing at them. I saw many damaged vehicles, with shattered windows, and I saw many people with head injuries.
On the highway leading through Croatia, whenever a tractor broke down, police would come with a tow truck and pull the tractors away in an unknown direction.
1.21. The witness 303/96-8, a pensioner from the vicinity of Krnjak, 57 years old, testified:
Everyone fled as best as they could and every which way.
As I am disabled, I waited for two days to leave on a bus from Topovsko for Serbia. Some 300 people had gathered. There we were robbed by members of the Croatian army. They surrounded us and held us at rifle point for over an hour. They said all sorts of things to us.
Then the new mayor of Topovsko arrived. First he asked whether there were any Croats among us. No one answered in the affirmative. Then he asked before whom we were fleeing. The Croatian soldiers had dispersed by then.
This mayor told us that transportation had been secured for us to take us from Topovsko to Serbia and, during the day, eight buses of the "Cazmatrans" transport enterprise from Bjelovar really came and took us to Serbia.
I saw many overturned tractors along the road.
1.22. The witness 328/96-15, a farmer from the area of Vrgin Most, now living in Zrenjanin as a refugee, testified:
We set out from the village of Cremusnica aboard a tractor. The convoy was long and there were many people with their families, both from my own and the nearby villages. We progressed normally until we were a few kilometers off Glina, on August 6 around 7.30 p.m., Croatian armed forces broke in upon the column and then a tractor with people on it was hit by a wasp some 50 meters in front of me. I could not see whose tractor it was, whether anyone had been killed, for the people were panic-stricken and running. I got off the tractor then, and, being disabled, laboriously made my way to another tractor where my wife was. I saw Croatian soldiers approaching us and shooting at the fleeing people or those who were around the tractors.
Then I saw one Croatian soldier coming towards me. I was sitting. He approached me and directed his automatic rifle at my face. He was about 6 meters away. He opened fire. I was hit in the mouth and the bullet pierced my mouth from the right side and exited at the left side of my face, above my left eye. I felt a burning sensation and dizziness and then that soldier opened fire again and a bullet hit me in the shoulder. I lost consciousness and I do not remember what happened afterwards. I woke up sometime in the night. I was unable to get up. I was gravely wounded. The left side of my face was paralyzed. Somehow I managed to prop myself up against a tractor wheel. Then I heard voices calling me. Seriously wounded as I was I was unable to respond. I learned from P.M. that Ranka Radanovic, Milka Radanovic and Stevan Komadina had been hit standing by the tractor and that they no longer showed signs of life and that many people had been injured.
I then looked around for my wife. I somehow managed to drag myself to the end of the trailer but she was not there. Two Croatian soldiers approached me and I asked them to kill me, for it was better to put an end to all that misery. They said nothing. They walked away and brought a stretcher and I soon found myself in an ambulance. They took me to hospital in Sisak and placed me on a table and took my clothes off. My clothes were all bloodstained. There were Croatian policemen there who started questioning me about who had organized the columns and other things. I was unable to answer.
The next day they transferred me in an ambulance to the Rebro Hospital in Zagreb, and then the Dubrava hospital, where they operated on me twice, the second time on December 16, 1995. Croatian police came there again. They told me I had been declared a war criminal. I said to them that I was an invalid and therefore exempted from military service and that I had not been in action.
Finally they let me leave Croatia in late December 1995.
I lost my house which was 120 sq.m. in area, 12 acres of land, my farming machinery implements, 6 cows, 18 pigs.
I never saw my wife again. I heard that she is buried somewhere in Glina, but I do not know where.
1.23. The witness 284/96-4, a refugee from Vrgin Most, born in 1950, testified:
When the people started running away I had no means of transportation and I had to carry my husband on my back because he had had a stroke and some people admitted me to their tractor trailer.
During the night the column stopped as we were approaching Glina. Then the shooting started. The convoy was attacked by Croats. As the convoy stopped, all the people scrambled every which way getting out of their cars and leaping off the tractors and lorries to the right and left of the road to find shelter. I stayed beside the tractor trailer all night for I could not leave my immobile husband.
As I spent the whole night on the road I could see Croatian soldiers killing and slaughtering our people who had taken cover by the road. They mostly used knives. That night many people were killed or injured. Children screamed. Hearing them cry out for help I was totally lost and practically driven out of my mind.
We stayed in Topusko for two or three days and then set out through Croatia on a bus. En route Croatian civilians hurled stones at the bus. They aimed through the windows. A large number of people were injured.
An elderly woman who was sitting behind me in the bus was hit in the head with a stone and died from the injuries.
1.24. The witness 328/96-1, a refugee from Topusko, testified:
We started our journey with a refugee convoy on August 6,1995. There were a total of 13 persons aboard the tractor I was driving.
As we were approaching Glina I heard that the column had been cut apart and surrounded by the Croatian army. The people from the column ran for their lives, leaving the tractors behind. Several days later we were told that we could proceed to Serbia on the Glina-Petrinja-Sisak road. I was in the second group which included about 500 vehicles. In front of Petrinja the convoy was stopped.
There three Croat civilians pulled me out, cursing my Chetnik mother and saying: "now you will see who the Ustashi are, when we slit your throat". They sent me flying down on the ground and started kicking me, shouting "slaughter the Chetnik". I somehow managed to shield myself and I grabbed hold of the automobile door, but these three Croats tugged at my trousers and tore off one trouser leg which remained in their hands while I managed to jump into a car.
In front of me in the convoy was a truck with trailer which was stopped at Lipovaca. On that occasion I saw an elderly woman being taken out of the truck, she was dead. The driver told me that she had been killed by a concrete block which the Croats had thrown on the tarpaulin as the truck was passing under a bridge and it hit her in the head. The women was about 60 years old.
En route the Croats hurled all sorts of objects at us, stones, bricks, tiles. All the vehicles in our convoy were damaged. The windows of the van belonging to my neighbour B.D. were all smashed and he himself sustained head injuries.
1.25. The witness 524/96-2, a refugee from Vojnic now living in Serbia, testified:
I and my family were in two separate convoys. My wife and children and my mother were in one moving in the Vojnic - Glina - Dvor na Uni direction.
I was in a convoy which the Croats had allowed to pass through Sisak and Croatia on the way to Yugoslavia. Croats standing by the roadside hurled stones at the column. It was the most dramatic near Sisak. In Sisak itself the Croatian police did not intervene at all. I saw five people die in the column, either owing to injuries or other reasons. I do not know their identities. I saw their bodies being carried away.
As for property, all I had remained in Croatia - my old house and the new one which was under construction, as well as 13 acres of land. I came to Yugoslavia even without my personal papers
On August 4, 1995, members of the Croatian army launched an attack from a number of directions, including from Croatia and areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina occupied earlier - Grahovo and Glamoc - on the Republic of Serbian Krajina in which Serbs lived, and in addition to military operations also systematically destroyed civilian buildings and property and killed many civilians, primarily old men, women and children.
With an overwhelmingly superior military & police force, constantly shelling the entire territory of Krajina, they forced those civilians who had not been killed right away to leave their homes and flee as refugees.
Although refugees proceeding aboard tractors, animal-drawn carts, motor vehicles and even on foot were in plain sight, the Croatian forces kept shelling them from artillery weapons or bombing them from aircraft, launching even infantry attacks at some places.
The consequences of the military attacks on the column of refugees were particularly in evidence in the area around Glina, on the Glina - Dvor road and during their movement through the Republic of Srpska. The sites of attacks were strewn with bodies, destroyed vehicles, various objects lying around, and these were all removed by members of the Croatian police and army after they had prohibited international observers and UN force members any access to such places, and for which they obviously had teams prepared in advance.
A part of the column which trudged on along the highway through Croatia was systematically attacked also by the Croatian population although the Croatian authorities had given assurances, through the UN representative, for their unhindered passage. The attacks were the worst in Sisak, where people pulled Serbs out of the column, beat them up and even killed some of them. They stoned their vehicles and looted their property, all this in the presence of members of the Croatian police and army who, instead of ensuring safe passage for the column, as had been guaranteed, stood by and looked on.
So, having lost their homes, the people of Krajina were also stripped of what little belongings they had managed to bring along in haste.
As a consequence of these actions between 230,000 and 250,000 Serbs were banished from the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Immediately after completing the military campaign, the Croatian military and police embarked on a series of measures to "sweep the terrain " in Serbian places throughout Krajina, as the final stage of the genocide over the Serbian people of Krajina, which consisted of the physical liquidation of those who had remained. As a rule these were elderly people who had stayed behind to look after their property and the homes of their birth, or because they could not move on account of old age and infirmity. They were killed en masse most often on their very doorsteps, all their property was looted and what remained was set to fire. Looting, arson, the demolition of houses and the killing of the remaining civilians were carried out (and are still being carried out) in systematic fashion, with the removal of all traces of the act.
Members of international humanitarian organizations and international observers very often saw the consequences of these actions for themselves.
The witnesses who have been heard stated, inter alia, that members of the Croatian military and police killed even Serbs over the age of 70, as well as women. Most of these persons were killed in a brutal way and their disfigured bodies were left to lie in the fields where they had been working the land, on their doorsteps, or were burned in the houses which were set on fire. Among the reported cases are those of a ninety-year old woman who was slaughtered in her house, of a group of people who were tied up, killed and set on fire, of a blind old woman who was shot dead in the back of the head, of the killing of people by chopping their heads and arms off, the killing of people with axes, the placing of a sheep gut over the head of people before killing them, etc.
After taking Krajina, the Croatian authorities arrested a large number of people and confined them to camps where they were subjected to extremely brutal treatment, for which purposes they had in fact adapted schools and sports halls. The number of the remaining Serbs who were arrested is not known. Larger detention centres were in Zadar, Sibenik, Split, Knin, Sisak, Karlovac, Kutina, Gospic, Novska, Ivanic Grad and Sinj. The prisoners in those camps were tortured and inhumanely treated and exposed to all sorts of pressures. Representatives of international humanitarian or other organizations were not allowed access to some of these camps.
The looting, the destruction of their homes and households during and after the Croatian military campaign forced the Serbs to leave an area in which they had lived for centuries (written records about the Serbs in these parts are dated to 822; the regions of Lika, Kordun, Banija and Slavonija were settled by the Serbs in larger numbers in the 16th and 17th centuries - at the invitation of the Austrian emperors), and nurtured a specific culture on the crossroads between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Serbian people was compelled to also leave its shrines - its churches and monasteries,museums, its historic monuments and rich repositories of their cultural and artistic heritage, as well as the graves of their ancestors. They also left behind about 950 cultural monuments, 80 libraries and over 122 schools.
Observed in conjunction with the data provided in the previous reports of the Committee, this clearly attests to a continuous pattern of persecution of Serbs since the time of the creation of the independent Croatia. The establishment of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ - CDU) party, the referendum, and other actions of the Croatian political leaders before the o utbreak of civil war were attended by a menacing and aggressive political propaganda against the Serbs. On their electoral victory and assumption of power, the CDU set out to implement a programme designed to cleanse Croatia of Serbs, everywhere and barring none. Serbs became the object of verbal abuse and physical assault: in the street, in the stores, at their places of work, in their homes and flats; graffiti were written, arms were looked for, snipers were fabricated, threats were levelled by telephone, messages were sent to them demanding that they leave Croatia, the flats of Serbs were marked, their telephones were bugged and disconnected, statements of allegiance were demanded from them, their apartments were searched with no legal grounds, individuals were viciously beaten up, dismissed from work, all this followed by a second stage involving arrests and killings.
In some areas the Serbs were in fact liquidated en masse, for instance in Pakracka Poljana, Marino Selo, in Western Slavonia, in Vukovar, Osijek, Gospic, Sisak, Zadar, Brod, Zagreb, Split and other places. The property of the Serbs - their apartments, houses, vacationing cottages, shops, as well as their cultural and historical monuments were blown up and demolished in many places, in pursuit of the ultimate objective of eliminating Serbs from Croatia altogether. In some communities (Dubrovnik and Zagreb) there were also actions to convert the Serbs to Catholicism.
All actions directed at the Serbs were coordinated by the top state authorities of Croatia with the intention of completely eliminating the Serbs as a national, ethnic and religious group in Croatia or reducing their number to a negligible one. The remaining Serbs in Croatia were put in such living conditions which could only lead to their extermination as a national, ethnic or religious group.
All this clearly indicates that a systematic and deliberate campaign was and is being waged in Croatia to completely extirpate the Serbs from Croatia, orchestrated by the party in power in Croatia.
As a result of the genocidal campaign of the Croatian authorities, from a constituent element of Croatian statehood, the Serbs have become a minority, having been reduced from 12% to at maximum 3 % of the population of Croatia.
The data presented here are primarily based on the statements of eyewitnesses. They can be supplemented by evidence gathered by United Nations members as well as by representatives of other international organizations.
1
The column of refugees fleeing from Krajina through Glina was intercepted and attacked and many civilians were killed. After that a part of them, on the basis of an agreement UNPROFOR had brokered with the Croatian authorities in respect of their route, continued on their way to Petrinja, Sisak and further on through Croatia, along the Zagreb-Belgrade highway. The witnesses, people who were among these refugees described what they had gone through:
1.1. The witness 276/96-1 stated:
My unit found itself surrounded near Topusko. Then, UNPROFOR brokered negotiations between colonel Cedo Bulat and the Croatian general Stipetic who set the condition that we were to surrender all heavy and light armaments or the Croatian army would attack the column of civilian refugees which was on the road leading from Vrginmost to Glina and Zirovac and Dvor na Uni.
Cedo Bulat decided that we should surrender our weapons, which we did, and I reached Glina with a column of tanks where we handed over the ordnance. The negotiations lasted for three days, August 7,8 and 9, 1995. However, the Croats did not abide by the agreement and their army massacred the civilians in the column, as I found out later.
After we had surrendered our tanks in Glina some of us changed into civilian clothes and some remained in uniforms, and we set off via Glina-Petrinja-Moscenica and to the Zagreb - Belgrade highway.
When we arrived at Moscenica we had to run a gauntlet of Croatian soldiers and civilians who hurled stones at us. They smashed the windows of my car, even though they had told us that the passage would be safe. They pulled out some people from the cars and beat them. For instance, they pulled C.B. from the village C. near Vrginmost out of the column and the Croatian soldiers lynched him.
1.2. The witness 300/96-5 stated:
In August 1995 when Krajina was attacked by the Croatian armed forces, I fled. My family was in the column of refugees aboard a tractor with trailer. Near Glina they cut off part of the column and a number of refugees, including my family, turned back.
Between Glina and Topusko the Croatian army had laid contact mines to prevent the column from moving. But that was not the only woe which befell the refugees in the column. Members of the Croatian army in camouflage uniforms attacked the civilians, robbed them and took whatever they felt like from the tractor trailers, and then pushed the trailers to the side of the road, smashed them, turned them over, burned them. Then with heavy-duty machinery they rammed them into the ground and buried them under a thick layer of earth.
Such was the fate of my family also. We lost our tractor, trailer and all our belongings that we had taken along.
Two women from the refugee column who were a bit more composed and courageous, were bold enough to ask the commander of the Croatian unit to return the tractors. He was very displeased. He ordered that they both be taken prisoner and it was done. They were M. and Lj., between 40 and 50 years of age. They ended up in the camp in Karlovac.
The column was held there for a full three days.
Then my family joined M.L. who had miraculously managed to keep his tractor, so that we rode on it a bit, but we walked most of the way beside the tractor and that is how we got to Sisak. There they stoned us. They hurled stones at us all the time.
1.3. The witness 62/96-5, a farmer from the vicinity of Vrginmost, born in 1930, testified:
With the other peasants we set out in a convoy, riding on tractors. There were also carts and cars in the convoy. Very few of the refugees were young people. When we got to Glina uniformed Moslems and Croats cut the column apart. They started shooting. I and the rest of my family leaped off the tractor. Two buses came along. In the general mess and commotion I managed to shove my granddaughter and wife into a bus. The bus was full of dead bodies because we came under fire from all directions. The buses left in the direction of Topusko.
A day later UNPROFOR troops appeared making it possible for the column to pass through from Topusko to Glina. As we passed by the very spot where the night before Croats and Moslems had jointly attacked us, I saw both of my tractors smashed by bulldozer and lying in a heap by the road as well as all our things. Everything was destroyed and scattered about, not only my two tractors, but also the carts and the automobiles, everything which had been in the column.
I got aboard a bus and we set off for Belgrade via Sisak. A large group of people beside the highway attacked our convoy. They hurled stones at us. People in the cars and on the tractors were injured and the windshield of our bus was broken. The driver and several other people on the bus were hurt.
That night I saw many wounded and killed women, old men and children near Glina. I cannot say how many of them there were. It was dark. They shot at us from all directions and all hell broke loose in the column. I was lucky to survive as I managed to get on one of the two buses that had come along.
1.4. The witness 116/96 stated:
We reached Topusko with the column and on August 9 we set off from there for Glina. In Glina Croatian soldiers awaited us, who threatened us, spat on us, reviled us.
Continuing our journey we passed through Petrinja and on the same day, August 9, we came near Sisak, where a crowd of young people awaited us, hurled stones at us breaking all the windows on our car, make "Yugo". We had to duck to avoid being hit.
At a certain point my daughter started screaming and I saw that my mother had been hit above the right eye and that she was bleeding but we had nothing to stanch the gushing blood with except for a towel. We were surrounded by members of the Croatian army who would not let us get out of the car but forced us to drive on.
Approaching Sisak, we came across UNPROFOR troops standing with Croatian army soldiers who were shouting threats at us, and the UNPROFOR men just stood there laughing, so that we did not dare ask them for help.
My mother, Desanka Komadina from Donje Budacke near Karlovac, born in 1924, was injured by a stone on August 9 around 7 p.m., and she died the next morning about 6 a.m. in Zupanja. She was a healthy woman. Two stones which hit her were found in the car next to her seat: one the size of an egg and the other larger than a fist, with sharp edges.
When we reached Sid we buried my mother there.
1.5. The witness 300/96-8, a 17-year old pupil, stated:
Due to an injury I was at the Topusko spa for rehabilitation. It was August 1995. There was shooting from every conceivable quarter. At a certain point I decided to go home. I set off through Glina. I did not know that the town had fallen. They caught me right away. They placed a knife to my throat, fired shots above my head, beat me, hitting me mostly in the head, and also in the body and legs. They threatened me and dragged me hither and thither through the town from noon till midnight. Then they let me go but they told me that they would certainly get me and that I would be executed. They were Croatian soldiers in camouflage suits.
I managed to pull out of Glina and rerntu to Topusko. Five days passed. It was horrible, there was no water, no food, no lights. We were encircled, and so I joined a convoy of refugees moving on the highway bound for Zagreb and Belgrade.
In Sisak the Croats stoned us so that we barely managed to save our necks.
My condition in consequence of all this is very grave. I no longer can sleep. Sometimes during the day I am so high-strung that I could roll on the floor. I am on a number of medicaments prescribed to me by my doctor. I regularly see a psychiatrist, but the anxiety persists. I do not know if and when I will recover. Six months have passed and still there is no improvement. In Petrinja I was a very good pupil and now I am barely managing.
1.6. The witness 300/96-10, a worker, born in 1958 in Vojnic, testified:
On August 6, 1995, I was in a position near Topusko with my unit. We could hear women and children crying and the sound of tractor engines all day long.
Three days passed. On August 9 we were given the order to surrender our weapons and to set off for Yugoslavia. I joined the column of refugees.
I did not know anything about the fate of my family.
Near Glina the column was broken in upon and later I saw tractor trailers and various objects scattered about on the left and right sides of the road. They were all damaged.
After we passed through Petrinja we came across a military vehicle with several Croatian soldiers in camouflage suits on it. When they neared us they stopped and said to us: "Serbs, we want to cut your throats". I was petrified with fear. In front of us they started discussing the way in which they would slay us. Fortunately a police car came by and they defended us.
1.7. The witness 300/96-11 stated:
With my wife and three children I set out in a "Yugo" with the refugee convoy.
They held us outside Topusko for three days and four nights. A column of refugees formed there and then we set out towards Glina. My car broke down and I, my wife and our three children had to board a trailer. It took us three days to cover a distance of 250 kilometers through Croatia. Although we were escorted by international forces all the time there were numerous incidents on the way. The Croats stoned our column all along the route.
1.8. The witness 257/96-1, a pensioner, born in 1925, testified:
I lived in Utinja, the commune of Karlovac. On August 5, 1995,
our village came under shellfire and my neighbours started leaving. My neighbour asked me: "What are you waiting for?" So, aboard a tractor, I and my wife joined the column of Serbian refugees.
>From Utinja the column made its way to Vrginmost and en route the train of civilians came under cannon fire, but I did not see whether anyone was wounded or killed then.
>From Vrginmost we continued towards Topusko, where we were held for three days and then proceeded along the Glina-Petrinja-Sisak road.
When we arrived at Glina a Croatian soldier armed with an automatic rifle came up to me saying to one of his fellow- soldiers, pointing at me , "let us do away with the old man", but his comrade prevented him from killing me.
The train of Serbian civilians came under an avalanche of stones as it was passing through Sisak. I was exposed to it a number of times and two or three stones hit me causing injuries. My wife was also hit and her glasses were broken.
As we were passing through Kutina we were also hurled stones at and the crowd shouted at us disparagingly "Gypsies! Gypsies!"
1.9. The witness 680/95-18 stated:
Along the way many tractors and other vehicles broke down but the soldiers and military police allowed no repairs or delays, but forced the Serbs to move on by hook or by crook. So those whose vehicles had broken down had to board other vehicles, leaving their own behind by the road with all their belongings.
As we were passing through Sisak on October 10,1995 , civilians threw stones at us.
The driver and the passengers of a truck belonging to the Agricultural Cooperative in Vrgin Most were pulled out, the truck was plundered, and they had to find other transportation in the train of tractors.
We travelled through Croatia for two days and two nights around the clock with no rest.
1.10. The witness 221/96 who was withdrawing with a tractor train from Topusko, testified:
I was on a tractor with another four or five people, and when the column reached Sisak, at a certain moment a Croatian policeman whacked me from the back in the nape of the neck with a stick, cursing my Chetnik mother. The wound I sustained bled for two hours after that.
In Sisak some women from the column were hurt.
1.11. The witness 138/96 stated:
We set off in a column and were intercepted first in Glina, on August 6, 1995 where we were held for four days and were then told that we could proceed in the direction of Sisak escorted by UNPROFOR.
At Sisak the column came under a hailstorm of stones, my car windows were shattered and I was hit in the head by a stone. Many people in the column were injured. Others were injured much worse than I was.
On our route I saw many overturned tractors and cars.
1.12. The witness 336/96 stated:
The column was broken in upon in front of Glina. The people were panic-stricken. Shooting and explosions reverberated from Glina. We stayed there for three days and three nights during which time negotiations were being conducted between the Croatian authorities, UNPROFOR and our own representatives. Later we found out that passage across Croatian territory would be allowed.
I returned then to Topusko which had been raided by Croatian forces which terrorized the population.
A number of our soldiers had kept their weapons and were to secure the column. They were captured, some of them were later released, and others remained imprisoned. I have no idea what became of them.
Simo Krnjic from Slunj was killed then. When the train of refugees set off from Topusko for Glina, it took us a full 24 hours to cover a distance of 12 kilometers. Then we proceeded to Petrinja. En route the Croats subjected us to various psychological pressures. There was an UNPROFOR checkpoint at the exit from Petrinja, but only the Croatian police maintained contact with them. It was then that we observed that they were on intimate terms with the Croatian police.
Once in Sisak they led us through the iron works in Sisak, and from there we set out for Popovaca where we were stopped.
At Popovaca they offered us mineral water and food. I only had some mineral water and felt nauseated right away, I remember that it tasted foul. I hallucinated on the way. I believe that the water had been adulterated.
En route the column of Serbs was maltreated by the Croats. Their tractors were seized. For instance they seized the tractor of Stevo Gusic from Vojnic.
They maltreated us as a rule at night and the police turned on flashing rotating lights to distract attention from the ordeal of the Serbs in the column as much as possible.
1.13. The witness 303/96-1, 32 years old, stated:
I set out from Vojnici with a column of refugees on August 6, 1995 with my husband and two children. When we reached Glina the column was broken in upon. I heard that a number of persons at the head of the column had been killed. For two days we waited in the forests for negotiations to take place and then they let us move on through Petrinja towards Sisak and on to Serbia.
As our convoy was approaching Sisak we came under a hailstorm of stones hurled at us by the Croatian population. The first stone hit my child in the head and and tore her flesh at the temple. The child of B. M. was also hurt.
All the vehicles in our convoy were damaged by the stones.
1.14. The witness 62/96-1, a peasant woman from the vicinity of Vrgin Most, testified:
Until August 4, 1995 I lived in the village of Stipan, the commune of Vrgin Most, with my husband and two children.
In the afternoon of August 4, we set out aboard our tractor driven by my 16-year old son. With other refugees from Krajina we started in the direction of Glina. At Glina the Ustashi attacked us. First aircraft flew over the column and bombs landed. Then they shelled the column from the flanks.
It was about 8.30 p.m. when we reached the centre of Glina. There they cut the column. The crying and screams of old people and women could be heard. My brother-in-law shouted: "Run for your life, they will kill us all". Many people were killed then.
I took my 9-year old son and my brother's child aged 10 and we started running, jumping over a woman lying on the ground. We ran across a bus with no lights on. The driver told us that he was going back to Topusko. We got on the bus and it took us through a forest from Glina to Topusko. It was night. The bus was packed with women, children and old people. We arrived at Topusko about 4 a.m. People asked UNPROFOR for help, but were told that UNPROFOR was waiting for authorization. Then we set off, aboard the bus, in the direction of a forest.
There we came across Moslems who shelled the column from all sides. The driver made a U-turn and drove us back to Topusko and we stayed there for two days and on the third day we set out in the direction of Glina on the highway leading from Zagreb to Belgrade.
The Croatian population and army, soldiers and civilians alike, threw stones at us as we were passing. Many of us sustained injuries, but we all took it silently. Once an armed Croatian soldier got into the bus, cocked his rifle and asked us where we were headed. No one replied.
The windows of the bus were smashed. When we arrived in Belgrade not a single window was whole.
We had to put the children beneath our legs and under the baggage to protect them from the stones. There were infants 5-6 months old among the children.
One woman buried a one-year old infant under a pile of diapers and it suffocated.
1.15. The witness 271/96, who lived in Kupljensk, the commune of Vojnic, stated:
I was forced to flee to Serbia, and on August 4, I set out in my "Zastava 101" car. Through Croatia we moved in a convoy consisting of a large number of passenger and freight vehicles and tractors. Each convoy was led by a Croatian police vehicle. We travelled for three or four days and nights through Croatia to Lipovac. The Croats gave us drinking water, and those who took it would be "sleepy" afterwards, so that we concluded that some stupefying agent had been added to it.
As I was approaching Lipovac, three or four men brandishing some poles ran out of the dark and to my car and started whacking it, smashing all my windows and denting the body of the car.
1.16. The witness 141/96 stated:
I lived with my wife in a village near Vojnic and engaged in farming.
When on August 6, 1995 they started shelling Vojnic we set out aboard a tractor with a convoy of refugees, bound for Glina and on for Sisak.
When we got to Staklenik the Croats attacked us, and my wife, who was on the tractor, started running away.
She was hurt on that occasion. Through UNPROFOR she returned back home to the village and is probably there now.
In the commotion I was separated from her and I continued the journey on somebody else's trailer for I had had to leave mine behind in Staklenik. We continued our journey via Sisak towards Belgrade.
En route we came under a hailstorm of stones. Croatian civilians as well as uniformed members of the Croatian army and police hurled stones at the column. Many were hurt, having been hit in the head.
They stoned us the worst in Sisak.
1.17. The witness 505/96-3, a woman refugee from Vojnic, 44 years old, testified:
I packed what I could in a hurry, started the tractor and with my little son set out for Glina, where we were taken prisoner and to a camp.
Before we were captured, we came across Croatian soldiers and police and took to our heels back towards Topusko. They shot at the column from various weapons, many were killed and wounded.
1.18. The witness 228/96, a driver from the vicinity of Vojnic, born in 1953, stated:
On August 6, I set out towards Glina aboard my tractor. Croatian aircraft bombed us on the way. UNPROFOR had promised that they would protect us and escort us to the border. They, however, failed to show up so that we were left at the mercy of the Croatian army.
On August 7, 1995, I was taken prisoner by Croatian soldiers about one kilometer from Glina. Those Serbian soldiers who had managed to take off their uniforms and put on civilian clothes were fortunate, because all those in uniforms were beaten with rifle butts, kicked and hit with whatever they could lay their hands on.
They sat us on the ground with our hands behind our necks. They gave us neither food nor water.
Then Croatian military police came and locked us up in a shed and interrogated us there. They beat everyone whom they interrogated.
They would handcuff us in pairs, and when they ran out of handcuffs they used wire or a rope. Bound up like that we sat in the shed. There were some 50 of us.
>From there we were taken to Sisak.
1.19. The witness 339/96-2, a refugee from Kordun, testified:
I, my wife and our son set off in our automobile on August 6, 1995 in the direction of Banja Luka and caught up with a refugee convoy near Vrginmost. There were many refugees there, aboard animal-drawn carts, tractors and many walked.
As we were approaching Glina the Croatian army shelled the column and I saw two girls killed in a "Golf" automobile, which was in front of us and had Glina license plates.
We heard that the Croats had blown up the bridge near Dvor na Uni and that they were capturing Serbs, massively looting their property, seizing their cars, money and other valuables.
1.20. The witness 451/96, from the vicinity of Slunj, born in 1939, testified:
>From Topusko we went back wending our way through the "Vranusa" forest. Then we heard that the head of the column had been broken in upon by the Fifth Moslem corps. Then Croatian troops surrounded our column and held us there for two days. I know that buses came to drive refugees away, whereas we who had tractors remained.
I saw the Ustashi single out a Serb from the column and take him away, I do not know his name, only that he never came back.
After that we set out for Glina. Behind a fence I saw a hanged man, and another one who had been decapitated.
Eventually we reached Glina escorted by Croatian police and moved on to Petrinja. In Petrinja I saw piles of stones heaped along both sides of the road. Standing by them were Croatian civilians hurling stones at the refugee column and swearing at them. I saw many damaged vehicles, with shattered windows, and I saw many people with head injuries.
On the highway leading through Croatia, whenever a tractor broke down, police would come with a tow truck and pull the tractors away in an unknown direction.
1.21. The witness 303/96-8, a pensioner from the vicinity of Krnjak, 57 years old, testified:
Everyone fled as best as they could and every which way.
As I am disabled, I waited for two days to leave on a bus from Topovsko for Serbia. Some 300 people had gathered. There we were robbed by members of the Croatian army. They surrounded us and held us at rifle point for over an hour. They said all sorts of things to us.
Then the new mayor of Topovsko arrived. First he asked whether there were any Croats among us. No one answered in the affirmative. Then he asked before whom we were fleeing. The Croatian soldiers had dispersed by then.
This mayor told us that transportation had been secured for us to take us from Topovsko to Serbia and, during the day, eight buses of the "Cazmatrans" transport enterprise from Bjelovar really came and took us to Serbia.
I saw many overturned tractors along the road.
1.22. The witness 328/96-15, a farmer from the area of Vrgin Most, now living in Zrenjanin as a refugee, testified:
We set out from the village of Cremusnica aboard a tractor. The convoy was long and there were many people with their families, both from my own and the nearby villages. We progressed normally until we were a few kilometers off Glina, on August 6 around 7.30 p.m., Croatian armed forces broke in upon the column and then a tractor with people on it was hit by a wasp some 50 meters in front of me. I could not see whose tractor it was, whether anyone had been killed, for the people were panic-stricken and running. I got off the tractor then, and, being disabled, laboriously made my way to another tractor where my wife was. I saw Croatian soldiers approaching us and shooting at the fleeing people or those who were around the tractors.
Then I saw one Croatian soldier coming towards me. I was sitting. He approached me and directed his automatic rifle at my face. He was about 6 meters away. He opened fire. I was hit in the mouth and the bullet pierced my mouth from the right side and exited at the left side of my face, above my left eye. I felt a burning sensation and dizziness and then that soldier opened fire again and a bullet hit me in the shoulder. I lost consciousness and I do not remember what happened afterwards. I woke up sometime in the night. I was unable to get up. I was gravely wounded. The left side of my face was paralyzed. Somehow I managed to prop myself up against a tractor wheel. Then I heard voices calling me. Seriously wounded as I was I was unable to respond. I learned from P.M. that Ranka Radanovic, Milka Radanovic and Stevan Komadina had been hit standing by the tractor and that they no longer showed signs of life and that many people had been injured.
I then looked around for my wife. I somehow managed to drag myself to the end of the trailer but she was not there. Two Croatian soldiers approached me and I asked them to kill me, for it was better to put an end to all that misery. They said nothing. They walked away and brought a stretcher and I soon found myself in an ambulance. They took me to hospital in Sisak and placed me on a table and took my clothes off. My clothes were all bloodstained. There were Croatian policemen there who started questioning me about who had organized the columns and other things. I was unable to answer.
The next day they transferred me in an ambulance to the Rebro Hospital in Zagreb, and then the Dubrava hospital, where they operated on me twice, the second time on December 16, 1995. Croatian police came there again. They told me I had been declared a war criminal. I said to them that I was an invalid and therefore exempted from military service and that I had not been in action.
Finally they let me leave Croatia in late December 1995.
I lost my house which was 120 sq.m. in area, 12 acres of land, my farming machinery implements, 6 cows, 18 pigs.
I never saw my wife again. I heard that she is buried somewhere in Glina, but I do not know where.
1.23. The witness 284/96-4, a refugee from Vrgin Most, born in 1950, testified:
When the people started running away I had no means of transportation and I had to carry my husband on my back because he had had a stroke and some people admitted me to their tractor trailer.
During the night the column stopped as we were approaching Glina. Then the shooting started. The convoy was attacked by Croats. As the convoy stopped, all the people scrambled every which way getting out of their cars and leaping off the tractors and lorries to the right and left of the road to find shelter. I stayed beside the tractor trailer all night for I could not leave my immobile husband.
As I spent the whole night on the road I could see Croatian soldiers killing and slaughtering our people who had taken cover by the road. They mostly used knives. That night many people were killed or injured. Children screamed. Hearing them cry out for help I was totally lost and practically driven out of my mind.
We stayed in Topusko for two or three days and then set out through Croatia on a bus. En route Croatian civilians hurled stones at the bus. They aimed through the windows. A large number of people were injured.
An elderly woman who was sitting behind me in the bus was hit in the head with a stone and died from the injuries.
1.24. The witness 328/96-1, a refugee from Topusko, testified:
We started our journey with a refugee convoy on August 6,1995. There were a total of 13 persons aboard the tractor I was driving.
As we were approaching Glina I heard that the column had been cut apart and surrounded by the Croatian army. The people from the column ran for their lives, leaving the tractors behind. Several days later we were told that we could proceed to Serbia on the Glina-Petrinja-Sisak road. I was in the second group which included about 500 vehicles. In front of Petrinja the convoy was stopped.
There three Croat civilians pulled me out, cursing my Chetnik mother and saying: "now you will see who the Ustashi are, when we slit your throat". They sent me flying down on the ground and started kicking me, shouting "slaughter the Chetnik". I somehow managed to shield myself and I grabbed hold of the automobile door, but these three Croats tugged at my trousers and tore off one trouser leg which remained in their hands while I managed to jump into a car.
In front of me in the convoy was a truck with trailer which was stopped at Lipovaca. On that occasion I saw an elderly woman being taken out of the truck, she was dead. The driver told me that she had been killed by a concrete block which the Croats had thrown on the tarpaulin as the truck was passing under a bridge and it hit her in the head. The women was about 60 years old.
En route the Croats hurled all sorts of objects at us, stones, bricks, tiles. All the vehicles in our convoy were damaged. The windows of the van belonging to my neighbour B.D. were all smashed and he himself sustained head injuries.
1.25. The witness 524/96-2, a refugee from Vojnic now living in Serbia, testified:
I and my family were in two separate convoys. My wife and children and my mother were in one moving in the Vojnic - Glina - Dvor na Uni direction.
I was in a convoy which the Croats had allowed to pass through Sisak and Croatia on the way to Yugoslavia. Croats standing by the roadside hurled stones at the column. It was the most dramatic near Sisak. In Sisak itself the Croatian police did not intervene at all. I saw five people die in the column, either owing to injuries or other reasons. I do not know their identities. I saw their bodies being carried away.
As for property, all I had remained in Croatia - my old house and the new one which was under construction, as well as 13 acres of land. I came to Yugoslavia even without my personal papers