1991 killings of Serbs in Vukovar

Killing of Serbs in Coatia 1991 killings of Serbs in Vukovar the Croatian War of Independence Vukovar, Croatia Croatian Serbs May–August 1991 Kidnappings, summary executions, ethnic cleansing Anti-Serb sentiment 43–120 Croatian forces The 1991 killings of Serbs in Vukovar were a series of incidents in which Serbs living in and around Vukovar during the spring and summer of 1991 were subject to kidnappings and summary executions by armed thugs associated with the Croatian National Guard. These events began as the Croatian War of Independence was starting, prior to the start of the Battle of Vukovar in August of the same year. After the war, some criminal investigations were undertaken, including one of the notable perpetrators Tomislav Merčep, though on the whole the matter remains largely unresolved. Background Vukovar is a city in the eastern region of Slavonia, located at the confluence of the Vuka and the Danube rivers.Uremovic Marinko Milas Ivana Zembylas Michalinos Integrated Education in Conflicted Societies 2013 Springer 9781137280985 186 https://books.google.com/books?id=BgmxAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT183 Challenges of Education for Peace in Segregated Schools in Vukovar According to the 1991 census, the city was ethnically mixed with Croats making up 47% of the population while Serbs made up 32.3%; 35% of marriages were mixed.Ingrao Charles W. Emmert Thomas Allan Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars' Initiative 2013 Purdue University Press 9781557536174 251 https://books.google.com/books?id=IDMhDgCJCe0C&pg=PA251 In 1988-89, a series of street protests dubbed anti-bureaucratic revolutions by supporters of Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević succeeded in overthrowing the government of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro, as well as the governments of the Serbian autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, replacing their leaders with Milošević allies.Ambrosio Thomas https://books.google.com/books?id=XuPEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 Irredentism: Ethnic Conflict and International Politics Bloomsbury Publishing 2001 978-0-313-07342-7 33–34 As a result, the western Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia turned against Milošević. On 8 July 1989, a large Serb nationalist rally was held in Knin, during which banners threatening Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) intervention in Croatia, as well as Chetnik iconography was displayed.Glaurdić Josip The Hour of Europe: Western Powers and the Breakup of Yugoslavia Yale University Press 2011 978-0-300-16629-3 New Haven, Connecticut 51–52 Franjo Tudjman, leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (hr Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, HDZ), came to prominence as a Croatian nationalist dissident and pushed for Croatian independence, while he and his party instilled xenophobic rhetoric and attitudes towards the country's Serb minority.Saideman Stephen M. Ayres R. William For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism, and War 2008 Columbia University Press 978-0-23151-449-1 74 https://books.google.com/books?id=WAOxl4-HS1wC&pg=PA74 June 15, 2020 October 28, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20231028142426/https://books.google.com/books?id=WAOxl4-HS1wC&pg=PA74#v=onepage&q&f=false live Ciment James Hill Kenneth Encyclopedia of Conflicts since World War II 2012 Routledge 978-1-13659-621-6 492 https://books.google.com/books?id=qtvlVCB3rPwC&pg=PA492 June 15, 2020 October 28, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20231028142425/https://books.google.com/books?id=qtvlVCB3rPwC&pg=PA492#v=onepage&q&f=false live In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the communist government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by the HDZ, ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs worsened.Lobell Steven Mauceri Philip Ethnic Conflict and International Politics: Explaining Diffusion and Escalation 2004 Springer 978-1-40398-141-7 79–81 https://books.google.com/books?id=_fvFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 The election period in the Vukovar municipality was marked with intense electioneering along national lines. The Serbs were well represented in the SKH-SDP, beyond their representation in the total population.Filipović 2019 89 In the villages around Vukovar, numerous protests were organized against the rise of the HDZ on the national level, following the politics of Slobodan Milošević in nearby Vojvodina and Serbia. The municipality committee of the SKH-SDP protested the Croatian delegation's withdrawal from the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.Filipović 2019 98 The local HDZ on the other hand organized rallies in Croat-populated villages, advocated for being seen as a representative of all Croats, and represented a grass-roots, less educated section of the population of the municipality, with a relatively inexperienced leadership composed of people outside the intelligentsia, which also made overtures towards reassessing the legacy of the Ustaše, causing dismay among the local Serbs.Filipović 2019 100-101 The election itself went through generally peacefully, with four members of SKH-SDP and an independent elected into the Sabor, four of which were ethnic Croats and one ethnic Serb, and all five were publicly known as people interested in peaceful coexistence.Filipović 2019 102 The HDZ was the largest minority party in the local council, and held sway in local governments of Croat-populated villages, while the SKH-SDP dominated the rest, as it received votes from the Serbs, other ethnicities, and some Croats as well.Filipović 2019 102-103 After the election, the Serbs created a local branch of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in June 1990, which initiated rallies converse in content to those of the HDZ but similar in the style of nationalism, and also gained power by having numerous SKH-SDP delegates switch parties.Filipović 2019 102-103 The municipality government of Vukovar was led by Slavko Dokmanović, a Serb of Trpinja and his deputy Marin Vidić Bili, a Croat of Lovas.Filipović 2019 103 In the summer of 1990, Dokmanović appeared on a rally organized by the SDS in Srb, and joined their newly-founded Serbian National Council (SNV).Filipović 2019 104 This was met with widespread condemnation, and he was forced to leave that position.Filipović 2019 105 Nevertheless, in August 1990, SDS organized a referendum in Serb-populated villages in the region about establishing a Serbian autonomy, that passed overwhelmingly.Filipović 2019 105 Prelude The Yugoslav People's Army confiscated the weapons of Croatia's Territorial Defence in order to minimise the possibility of violence following the elections.Hoare Marko Attila The War of Yugoslav Succession Cambridge University Press 2010 9781139487504 Cambridge 117–118 On 17 August, 1990 inter-ethnic tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs, centered on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin,Roads Sealed as Yugoslav Unrest Mounts The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/19/world/roads-sealed-as-yugoslav-unrest-mounts.html Reuters 19 August 1990 New York City 0362-4331 21 September 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130921063029/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/19/world/roads-sealed-as-yugoslav-unrest-mounts.html and parts of Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia.The Prosecutor vs. Milan Martic – Judgement http://www.icty.org/x/cases/martic/tjug/en/070612.pdf International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 12 June 2007 After the Pakrac clash of March 1991, SDS and SNV publicly encouraged a state of psychosis amongst the Serbs in the region, starting a refugee wave from Serb-inhabited villages, following public claims by local SDS leader Goran Hadžić about how their expulsion was imminent.Filipović 2019 105 Later the same month, Hadžić was also involved in the Plitvice Lakes incident, which escalated into a crisis in the Serb-inhabited villages in the region.Filipović 2019 110 While the Croatian Ministry of the Interior released Hadžić in an effort to calm down the insurgency, the parts of the HDZ loyal to Tomislav Merčep were keen on preparing for war.Filipović 2019 110 SKH-SDP official Stipo Lovrinčević and the local police chief Slavko Sredoselec had daily meetings with Vukovar Serbs whose properties were bombed and whose houses were shot at during night time, blaming the incidents on a handful of extremists.Filipović 2019 110 In April 1991, the self-proclaimed SAO Krajina 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.Sudetic Chuck Rebel Serbs Complicate Rift on Yugoslav Unity https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/02/world/rebel-serbs-complicate-rift-on-yugoslav-unity.html The New York Times 2 April 1991 At the beginning of 1991, Croatia had no regular army. In an effort to bolster its defence, it doubled the number of police personnel to about 20,000. Croatian authorities started organizing a military force called the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) in April and May 1991. Tensions intensified on 2 May 1991 when twelve Croatian policemen were ambushed and massacred by the SAO Krajina militia and White Eagles members in the village of Borovo Selo, near Vukovar.Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict, Volume 2 2002 Central Intelligence Agency 9780160664724 78–79 https://books.google.com/books?id=jodpAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA78 On 3 May, Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) units moved into Borovo Selo and on 12 May, Croatian Serbs voted in a referendum to stay in Yugoslavia.Frucht Richard C. Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture, Volume 1 2005 ABC-CLIO 9781576078006 437 https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA437 SKH-SDP controlled the media in the Vukovar region, including the Vukovar radio station and the Vukovarske novine newspaper, whereas the Croatian weekly Slobodni tjednik was used by the HDZ to promote nationalist causes, including the practice of publishing the names of Serbs in Vukovar who they claimed to have participated in illegal activities, which was often merely a ploy to get people in lucrative positions to be replaced.Filipović 2019 112 In early May, Croatian police took over the Vukovar radio station and replaced Serb members of the station with Croats.Sremac 1999 67 On 19 May, a Croatian nationwide referendum on sovereignty was held in which 94% voted in favor. Violence in and around Vukovar worsened after the independence referendum, with gun and bomb attacks reported in the town and surrounding villages in June 1991.Tense situation in Vukovar Stankovic Mirko BBC Summary of World Broadcasts 20 June 1991 Since early May 1991, the municipality government of Vukovar was largely dysfunctional. Dokmanović stopped coming to work in Vukovar citing personal safety reasons, and Marin Vidić Bili replaced him, while Stipo Lovrinčević retired from politics for health reasons. On 16 June, Merčep was named the Secretary of People's Defense, and effectively took power.Filipović 2019 112 Serbs in Vukovar were subjected to harassment as the Croatian police conducted numerous random searches of their homes and arrested an increasing number of them for 'activities against the Croatian republic'.Sremac 1999 68 On 25 June, Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia.Encyclopedia of World Political Systems 2016 Routledge 9781317471561 365 https://books.google.com/books?id=RyAGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA365 The SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia was proclaimed the same day.Bartrop 2012 121 Crimes Croatian paramilitaries led by Tomislav Merčep terrorized Serbs in and around Vukovar.Stover Eric The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in the Hague University of Pennsylvania Press 146 2007 Philadelphia 978-0-8122-1994-4Hedl Drago Regional Report: Vukovar Serb Killings Investigated https://iwpr.net/global-voices/regional-report-vukovar-serb-killings-investigated Institute for War & Peace Reporting 29 April 2005 Merčep was at the time a leading official in the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in the Vukovar area, and for a time had the formal position of the Secretary of the People's Defense, which he used to organize Croatian paramilitaries.Hedl Drago Mercep and Vukovar https://balkaninsight.com/2012/05/07/mercep-and-vukovar/ Balkan Insight 7 May 2012 In mid-May 1991, 25 year old Miodrag Nađ, a member of the Serbian Democratic Party, was killed near Vukovar in a drive-by shooting.Sremac 1999 67 Three Serbs were killed in Bršadin and one in Sotin in the time after the Battle of Borovo Selo and June 29, when Jovan Jakovljević, an ethnic Serb who was known in the community, was shot and killed at his doorstep in Vukovar on 29 June 1991.Patković Nikola Žrtve rata o kojima se ne govori - 'Moj je otac u Vukovaru ubijen u lipnju 1991. Samo zato što je Srbin' https://www.jutarnji.hr/magazini/zrtve-rata-o-kojima-se-ne-govori-moj-je-otac-u-vukovaru-ubijen-u-lipnju-1991-samo-zato-sto-je-srbin-7988447 Večernji list hr 27 October 2018 According to his son, Jakovljević's murder was meant to send a message to Serbs in Vukovar that the various threats received before that time would result in mass murder. On 25 July 1991, members of the ZNG apprehended Savo Damjanović and he was never seen again. Similar kind of kidnappings and disappearances of Serbs occurred with Mladen Mrkić on 31 July and Željko Paić on 10 August. Serbs were subjected to arbitrary arrests and forced interrogations, while their homes and cafes were blown up. In one case, three Serbs were taken to the banks of the Danube river where they were shot and killed, their bodies thrown into the water. The Serbian daily Novosti reported that the bodies of six males were recovered in the Danube from 12 July to August 1991 and autopsies found that they were all shot with firearms. It further states that over a hundred Serbs were imprisoned and tortured in the basement of the Secretariat of National Defence building.Simić Jovanka Likvidirani Srbi sahranjivani su u neobeleženim grobnicama, rekama i ribnjacima samo da bi im se zatrli tragovi. Haškim istražiteljima Merčepova "strategija" je bila poznata još 1996. godine. https://www.novosti.rs/dodatni_sadrzaj/clanci.119.html:276839-Mer269ep-krije-zrtve Novosti 24 October 2004 The terror prompted an exodus of Serbs from Vukovar. According to documentation of refugee arrivals from Belgrade, a total of 13,734 Serbs fled the town during the summer of 1991. A number of civilians were reported to have been shot and killed by ZNG forces in the settlement of Borovo Naselje in July and August 1991, including women and children.Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Report Submitted to the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) 1992 United Nations Merčep's formal power lasted until 23 July when the Zagreb government intervened to reinstate Vidić as the Commissioner for the city of Vukovar.Filipović 2019 112 The situation was so unbearable that in August 1991, Marin Vidić wrote a letter to Croatian President Franjo Tuđman complaining about Merčep's activities. At the intervention of Josip Manolić, Merčep was then moved out of Vukovar, using a helicopter, to be made an advisor to the interior minister instead. From where he would soon move to the Pakračka Poljana camp. Figures of victims range between 50 and 120, with the latter being provided as the highest estimate by the Serb National Council.Polšak Palatinuš Vlatka Vukovarski Srbi pitaju: Što je s našim ubijenima? Evo odgovora iz DORH-a https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/vukovarski-srbi-pitaju-sto-je-s-nasim-ubijenima-evo-odgovora-iz-dorh-a-foto-20181030 tportal.hr 30 October 2018 SNV itself keeps a record of at least fifteen individuals who met a similar fate, and reports on ICTY investigators having records about 86 such people.Vukovar https://snv.hr/en/zlocini/vukovar/ snv.hr Serb National Council 29 May 2022 The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights collected data about at least 19 instances of Serbs being led away for interrogation and never being seen again. NGOs in the city state that a total of 86 Serbs were killed or disappeared during Merčep's control of the town. Jovan Jakovljević's son spoke out publicly about how only 43 deaths and missing persons were formally reported, suspecting the real number to be much higher. All of these crimes are believed to have occurred prior to the Battle of Vukovar in August 1991, which is when the town officially became a war zone. Aftermath In August 1991, the Croatian Serb forces, acting under the operational control of the JNAArmatta 2010 165 clashed with the ZNG around Osijek, Vukovar and Vinkovci, and the fighting in eastern Slavonia led to ZNG blockades of JNA barracks in those cities and limited fighting against the garrisons there.CIA 2002 93 Vukovar fell to the JNA on 18 November 1991. It is estimated that 1,800 defenders of Vukovar and civilians were killed, 800 went missing.https://www.worldcat.org/title/422757024 A global chronology of conflict: from the ancient world to the modern Middle East 2010 ABC-CLIO 978-1-85109-667-1 Tucker Spencer Santa Barbara, Calif 2617 422757024 Many captured Croatian soldiers and civilians were summarily executed after the battle.2010-11-13 Croatian Cityscape: Stray Dogs, Rows of Wounded, Piles of Dead - New York Times The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/21/world/croatian-cityscape-stray-dogs-rows-of-wounded-piles-of-dead.html 2024-03-29 https://web.archive.org/web/20101113121828/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/21/world/croatian-cityscape-stray-dogs-rows-of-wounded-piles-of-dead.html 2010-11-13 Journalists witnessed one such killing in Vukovar's main street. They also reported seeing the streets strewn with bodies in civilian attire.Cvitanic Marilyn https://www.worldcat.org/title/664259084 Culture and customs of Croatia 2011 Greenwood 978-0-313-35117-4 Culture and customs of Europe Santa Barbara, Calif 34 664259084 Several war crimes were committed by Serb forces after the battle, including the Vukovar massacre of up to 264 wounded patients and medical staff, taken from the Vukovar hospital.Gow James The Serbian project and its adversaries: a strategy of war crimes 2003 C. Hurst 978-1-85065-646-3 London 163 There were also incidents of war rape, for which two soldiers were later convicted.2012-04-04 Vjesnik.hr - Naši silovatelji slobodno šeću Vukovarom, a mi smo zaboravljene http://www.vjesnik.hr/Article.aspx?ID=698CE4D1-DC27-4E80-BCAD-A997BA10DFE2 2024-03-29 https://web.archive.org/web/20120404120547/http://www.vjesnik.hr/Article.aspx?ID=698CE4D1-DC27-4E80-BCAD-A997BA10DFE2 2012-04-04 The non-Serb population of the town and the surrounding region was systematically ethnically cleansed, and at least 20,000 of Vukovar's inhabitants were forced to leave.Investigative Summary https://www.icty.org/x/cases/slobodan_milosevic/ind/en/mil-2ai020728e.htm 2024-02-18 www.icty.org Thousands more were transferred to prison camps in Serbia and rebel-controlled Croatia.Easterday Jennifer 2011 International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Prosecutor v. Šljivančanin http://dx.doi.org/10.5305/intelegamate.50.3.0303 International Legal Materials 50 3 303–322 10.5305/intelegamate.50.3.0303 0020-7829 subscription Serbs who fought on the Croatian side were regarded as traitors by their captors and treated particularly harshly, enduring savage beatings.2012-10-20 NAŠA DOMOVINA I Jovan je branio Hrvatsku > Slobodna Dalmacija > Spektar http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Spektar/tabid/94/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/71670/Default.aspx 2024-05-01 https://web.archive.org/web/20121020163236/http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Spektar/tabid/94/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/71670/Default.aspx 2012-10-20 Together with SAO Western Slavonia and SAO Krajina, in February 1992 this region would formally become part of the self-declared proto-state Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) that was proclaimed in December 1991. After the end of the war, Croatia and local Serb authorities signed the Erdut agreement in November 1995 and the region was reintegrated into the Croatian republic. Investigations Investigators from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) collected evidence in 1996 and 1997 regarding crimes against Serbs in Vukovar. Serbs have long voiced their concerns about the crimes committed against them in the months leading up to the fall of the Vukovar and the lack of accountability for the perpetrators. The topic of Vukovar is a sensitive issue for Croats who see the city as a symbol of their suffering during the war. In 2012, the journalist Drago Hedl opined that Merčep's crimes in Vukovar against Serbs might never be investigated in part, because of the significance of Vukovar for Croats. Merčep was only tried and sentenced for failing to prevent crimes against Serbs by his units in Zagreb and Pakračka Poljana. He was sentenced to seven years in 2017 by the Zagreb Supreme Court. In March 2020, he was released on parole due to his worsening health; he died in November 2020.Vladisavljevic Anja Croatian War Criminal Tomislav Mercep Dies https://balkaninsight.com/2020/11/17/croatian-war-criminal-tomislav-mercep-dies/ Balkan Insight 17 November 2020 References Sources https://books.google.com/books?id=pXygFoqg-G0C Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic Judith Armatta Duke University Press 2010 978-0-8223-4746-0 Durham, North Carolina Sremac Danielle S. War of Words: Washington Tackles the Yugoslav Conflict Greenwood Publishing Group 1999 Westport, Connecticut 978-0-275-96609-6 CIA 2002 https://books.google.com/books?id=it1IAQAAIAAJ Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict, 1990–1995 Central Intelligence Agency Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Russian and European Analysis 2002 50396958 978-0-16-066472-4 Washington, D.C. A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good Paul Robert Bartrop ABC-CLIO 2012 9780313386787 Hadžić, Goran (b. 1958) https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/clanak/336815 hr Stranačka politika u Vukovaru 1990-1991. Party Politics in the Vukovar in 1990-1991 Vladimir Filipović Annals of the Croatian Political Science Association 16 1 2019 97–115 Croatian Political Science Association 10.20901/an.16.05 213013973 1847-5299 2022-05-28 Hrčak free Category:1991 crimes in Croatia Category:Croatian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence Category:History of the Serbs of Croatia Category:Massacres in 1991 Category:Massacres of Serbs Category:Massacres in the Croatian War of Independence