1991 Voćin massacre

1991 massacre of civilians in Voćin, Croatia massacre against Croat civilians in 1991 Voćin massacre (disambiguation) Voćin massacre the Croatian War of Independence Croatia center Cro-occup-lines-Jan92.svg Croatia Voćin 45.619861 17.547813 HR 75 6 left Voćin on the map of Croatia. Territories controlled by Serb or JNA forces in late December 1991 are highlighted in red. Voćin, Croatia 45.619861 N 17.547813 E inline,title Mostly Croat civilians 13 December 1991 Anti-Catholicism, anti-Croat sentiment, Greater Serbia, Serbianisation Summary executions, ethnic cleansing 43 White Eagles paramilitary unit The Voćin massacre was the killing of 43 civilians in Voćin, Croatia, by the Serbian White Eagles paramilitary unit on 13 December 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The massacre was carried out after the unit was ordered to abandon the village before the Croatian Army (Hrvatska vojska – HV) recaptured the area in Operation Papuk-91. All the victims were local Croats, except one Serb, who had tried to protect his neighbours. Gunfire was the leading cause of death, though some of the victims were killed with axes or chainsaws, or were burned to death. The victims exhibited signs of torture and were left unburied. On the night of 13–14 December, the White Eagles dynamited a 550-year-old church in the village. The HV secured Voćin on the night of 14/15 December, the Serb population having left the previous night. Afterwards, Croatian soldiers torched many homes belonging to the Serbs who had once inhabited the village. The area was toured shortly afterwards by then-US Congressman Frank McCloskey, who publicised the killings at a news conference held in Zagreb the next day, calling them genocide. He persuaded American professor Dr. Jerry Blaskovich to take part in the investigation of the killings. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) later charged Slobodan Milošević with the killings and Vojislav Šešelj with the deportation of non-Serbs from Voćin. In 2015, the International Court of Justice ruled in the Croatia–Serbia genocide case that Croatia did not produce sufficient evidence to substantiate its claims about the events in Voćin. Background 1991 Yugoslav campaign in Croatia Within the 1991 Yugoslav campaign in Croatia, the 5th (Banja Luka) Corps of the Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) was tasked with advancing north through western Slavonia, from Okučani to Daruvar and Virovitica, and with a secondary drive from Okučani towards Kutina.Marijan 2012 262 This task was essentially consistent with the line expected to be reached by the main thrust of the JNA advancing from eastern Slavonia in about a week. The linkup was designed to facilitate a further advance west to Zagreb and Varaždin.Marijan 2012 261 The JNA was stopped by the Croatian National Guard (Zbor Narodne Garde – ZNG) between Novska, Nova Gradiška and Pakrac, although SAO Western Slavonia Territorial Defense Forces (Teritorijalna odbrana – TO) units took positions on the Bilogora and Papuk north of Pakrac, near Virovitica and Slatina with no JNA support.CIA 2002 102 The TO was supported by Serbian paramilitaries deploying to the village of Voćin on the Papuk Mountain in October.Cencich 2013 94 The paramilitaries were the White Eagles under the control of Vojislav Šešelj. He visited Voćin in the following month and incited the paramilitaries to persecute the Croat population.Kearney 2007 217 According to testimonies of surviving residents of Voćin, the White Eagles and several local Serbs terrorised the Croat population,Amnesty International 1992 7 reduced to 80 by late 1991.Blaskovich 1997 37–41 Prior to the war, ethnic Serbs formed eighty percent of the village's population.The New York Times 19 December 1991 On 29 October, the ZNG launched Operation Hurricane-91 against positions held by the JNA and the TO near Novska and Nova Gradiška,Nazor 2007 134 and Operation Swath-10 against the TO positions on the Bilogora Mountain south of Virovitica.Nazor 2007 136 Aiming to exploit the success of Operation Swath-10 and recapture Papuk area, Croatian forces, renamed the Croatian Army (Hrvatska vojska or HV) on 3 November,MORH launched Operation Papuk-91 on 28 November.Nazor 2007 147 Killings thumb|right|Church of the Pilgrimage to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Voćin, rebuilt after the war The HV began advancing in the area of Đulovac, located approximately 5 km off west of Voćin, on 12 December,Nazor 2007 145 and the TO were forced to retreat from the area.The New York Times 19 December 1991 In turn, the White Eagles were to abandon Voćin, but were ordered to take no prisoners.Cencich 2013 94 They were also instructed to ensure the evacuation of the Serb population. Those who refused to leave were threatened and one man was killed in front of his home.Gagnon 2006 152 The killing of civilians living in Voćin and two nearby smaller villages began on 13 December at noon. The White Eagles infantry, supported by at least one tank, moved through Voćin bombing Croat-owned houses and killing civilians. The killings and the destruction took twelve hours and claimed the lives of 43 civilians.The New York Times 19 December 1991 The bodies of the victims were mutilated and left on display, presumably as a warning to others, outside Voćin itself, to flee or perish.Gow 2003 163–164 All the victims were Croat civilians, except one 77-year-old Serb who had tried to protect his neighbours from the paramilitaries. Most of the victims were elderly, including twelve women aged 56–76 and eleven men aged 60–84.Amnesty International 1992 6–7 Many of those killed were tortured, beaten using chains and burned.Cencich 2013 95 Most of the victims were killed by gunshots, but the cause of death proved hard to establish for eight victims whose bodies were severely burned.Amnesty International 1992 6 A couple was bound with chains and burned alive,Blaskovich 1997 37–41 two women were killed using axes or similar sharp objects,Amnesty International 1992 6 one of them by several axe blows to her head. Another couple was beheaded and their heads were placed in bags.Cencich 2013 95 The Serb civilian who attempted to protect the others was also beaten, tortured using lighted cigarettes and heated chains, and then flayed.Blaskovich 1997 42–44 At 3:00 a.m., the paramilitaries demolished the Roman Catholic church of the Pilgrimage to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Voćin. They used the 550-year-old structure as an ammunition depot. In the wake of the explosion, a single wall of the structure remained standing.The New York Times 19 December 1991 It is estimated that several tons of explosives were used for the purpose.Cencich 2013 94–95 At the same time, approximately 20 other Croat inhabitants of villages of Bokane, Krašković, Miokovićevo and Zvečevo, further to the south, were reportedly killed.Amnesty International 1992 6 Aftermath The HV liberated Voćin on the night of 14/15 December,Nazor 2007 145 the village's Serb population having withdrawn the night before. Afterwards, Croatian soldiers torched many homes that belonged to the Serbs who had once inhabited the village.Duijzings 2000 55 Following the withdrawal of the Serb forces and arrival of Croatian forces, crimes against the remaining Serb civilian population took place.Voćin https://snv.hr/en/zlocini/vocin/ snv.hr Serb National Council According to the Croatian NGO Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past, 40 Serb civilians were killed during the takeover.Zločini u Voćinu – Sjećanje na sve žrtve https://www.documenta.hr/assets/files/objave/Zlocini%20u%20Vocinu%20-%20Sjecanje%20na%20sve%20zrtve%2C%2013.12.2013.%20Documenta%20-%20Centar%20za%20suocavanje%20s%20prosloscu%20.pdf documenta.hr https://web.archive.org/web/20180921153410/https://www.documenta.hr/assets/files/objave/Zlocini%20u%20Vocinu%20-%20Sjecanje%20na%20sve%20zrtve,%2013.12.2013.%20Documenta%20-%20Centar%20za%20suocavanje%20s%20prosloscu%20.pdf 21 September 2018 13 December 2013 One of the first to arrive in the village following its re-capture was McCloskey, in Croatia on a United Nations fact-finding mission.Bartrop 2012 203 McCloskey asked an aide to arrange a press conference in Zagreb the next day, while the aide persuaded Dr. Jerry Blaskovich, an Associate Clinical Professor at the LAC+USC Medical Center (the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California hospital medical center), sent to Croatia to investigate alleged use of chemical weapons, to take part in the investigation of the killings of Croatian civilians.Blaskovich 1997 37–41 At the conference, McCloskey called the killings genocide.Bartrop 2012 203 CNN reporter Mark Dalmish refused to attend the press conference as the network mistrusted reports of the killings, and reportedly only became interested in the event once Blaskovich's involvement was announced.Blaskovich 1997 37–41 The victims' bodies were taken to the nearby town of Slatina for forensic examination on 17 December.Amnesty International 1992 6 Mackley contacted Croatian authorities and obtained permission to document the autopsies of the victims, but was denied access by authorities in Slatina. Mackley telephoned Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Šušak asking him to intervene on his behalf, but the local police allegedly disobeyed Šušak. The special police was deployed to Slatina to enforce Šušak's order to cooperate, almost causing an armed clash over the issue. To settle matters, a team was sent to Slatina by Zagreb University's Institute for Forensic Medicine to perform autopsies, retrieve bodies and perform the rest of the procedures in Zagreb.Blaskovich 1997 37–41 Survivors who took shelter in basements or cornfields, as well as a captured member of the paramilitary forces, later testified about the killings and identified the White Eagles as the perpetrators.Blaskovich 1997 37–41 In addition, the withdrawing paramilitaries left critical evidence behind, including personnel records, which confirmed that the force had been White Eagles associated with Šešelj. An American war crimes investigator for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Special Agent John Cencich, corroborated the information in a 2002 interview with a high-level inside witness linking Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia to the killings.Cencich 2013 95 In 2001, the ICTY charged Milošević with the deaths of 32 civilians in Voćin.BBC News 29 October 2001 Milošević was subsequently arrested and tried, but he died before his trial was completed.ICTY IT-02-54 8 In 2003, the ICTY also charged Šešelj with involvement in the forced deportation of non-Serb civilians from Voćin.BBC News 24 February 2003 In March 2014, Croatia alleged before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Croatia–Serbia genocide case that the massacre in Voćin was part of a larger campaign of genocide targeting the Croat population of Slavonia. In 2015, the ICJ ruled that although the material presented raises ground for grave suspicion about what occurred in Voćin, it is not sufficient to confirm that Croats were killed by Serb forces in that locality.2015 Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/118/18422.pdf dead https://web.archive.org/web/20161213060252/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/118/18422.pdf 13 December 2016 icj 82 In 2016, the ICTY Trial Chamber acquitted Šešelj of all charges, a finding which was partially reversed in April 2018, when the Appeals Chamber at the IRMCT noted there was a widespread and systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia, but dismissed the charges against Šešelj, other than those related to his role in the persecution of Croats in Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars. http://www.unmict.org/en/news/appeals-chamber-reverses-%C5%A1e%C5%A1elj%E2%80%99s-acquittal-part-and-convicts-him-crimes-against-humanity Appeals Chamber reverses Šešelj's acquittal, in part, and convicts him of crimes against humanity 11 April 2018 International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals 8 December 2025 Footnotes 20em References Books and scientific journal articles 60em https://books.google.com/books?id=BleF7tl_rbUC A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide Paul R. Bartrop ABC-CLIO Santa Barbara, California 2012 9780313386787 https://archive.org/details/anatomyofdeceita00blas registration Anatomy of Deceit: An American Physician's First-Hand Encounter With the Realities of the War in Croatia Jerry Blaskovich Dunhill Publishing New York 9780935016246 1997 https://books.google.com/books?id=tKiYPwudOZoC The Devil's Garden: A War Crimes Investigator's Story John R. Cencich 2013 Potomac Books Dulles, Virginia 9781612341729 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 9780160664724 Washington, D.C. https://books.google.com/books?id=D1eOpnjo9McC Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo Duijzings Ger 2000 Columbia University Press New York 9780231120982 https://books.google.com/books?id=6vbz_WMRiwEC The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s Valère Philip Gagnon 2006 Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 9780801472916 https://books.google.com/books?id=LCAbMi9yeGsC The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries: A Strategy of War Crimes James Gow C. Hurst & Co. 2003 9781850656463 London, England https://books.google.com/books?id=iYbO7fS4v20C The Prohibition of Propaganda for War in International Law Michael G. Kearney 2007 Oxford University Press Oxford, England 9780199232451 Journal of Contemporary History Croatian Institute of History 0590-9597 http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=133719&lang=en Zamisao i propast napadne operacije Jugoslavenske narodne armije na Hrvatsku u rujnu 1991. godine Croatian The Conception and Failure of the Offensive Operation of the Yugoslav National Army in September 1991 Davor Marijan 44 2 November 2012 251–275 https://books.google.com/books?id=rPcVAQAAMAAJ Počeci suvremene hrvatske države: kronologija procesa osamostaljenja Republike Hrvatske: od Memoranduma SANU 1986. do proglašenja neovisnosti 8. listopada 1991 Croatian Beginnings of the Modern Croatian State: A Chronology of the Independence of the Republic of Croatia: from 1986 SANU Memorandum to the Declaration of Independence on 8 October 1991 Ante Nazor Croatian Homeland War Memorial Documentation Centre Zagreb, Croatia 2007 9789537439019 News reports 60em The New York Times 19 December 1991 The New York Times 19 December 1991 Stephen Engelberg Villagers in Croatia Recount Massacre by Serbian Forces https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/19/world/villagers-in-croatia-recount-massacre-by-serbian-forces.html BBC News 29 October 2001 BBC News 29 October 2001 Milosevic Indictment: Text http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/354561.stm The New York Times 30 August 2013 The New York Times 30 August 2013 Marlise Simons https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/europe/international-judge-is-removed-from-case-over-apparent-bias.html International Judge Is Removed From Case Over Apparent Bias BBC News 24 February 2003 BBC News 24 February 2003 The charges against Vojislav Seselj http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2795235.stm Other sources 60em ICTY IT-02-54 http://www.icty.org/x/cases/slobodan_milosevic/cis/en/cis_milosevic_slobodan_en.pdf Case Information Sheet – Kosovo, Croatia & Bosnia (IT-02-54) – Slobodan Milošević International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia MORH http://www.morh.hr/hr/dan-osrh-2013/povjesnica.html Croatian Povjesnica A History Ministry of Defence (Croatia) 2013-12-17 2013-11-30 https://web.archive.org/web/20131130121057/http://www.morh.hr/hr/dan-osrh-2013/povjesnica.html dead Amnesty International 1992 Amnesty International March 1992 Yugoslavia: further reports of torture and deliberate and arbitrary killings in war zones http://repository.forcedmigration.org/show_metadata.jsp?pid=fmo:850 2013-10-14 2016-03-06 https://web.archive.org/web/20160306111819/http://repository.forcedmigration.org/show_metadata.jsp?pid=fmo:850 dead Category:1991 in Croatia Category:Massacres in 1991 Category:Serbian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence Category:Massacres in Croatia Category:December 1991 in Yugoslavia Category:1991 crimes in Croatia Category:1991 murders in Europe Category:1990s murders in Croatia Category:Massacres of Croats Category:Massacres in the Croatian War of Independence