34 YEARS SINCE TREACHEROUS KILLING OF 40 SERB TERRITORIAL DEFENCE MEMBERS ON MILJEVCI PLATEAU

BELGRADE, JUNE 21 /SRNA/ – Thirty-four years have passed since the killing of 40 members of the Territorial Defence of the Republika Srpska Krajina on the Miljevci Plateau near Drniš, who, after surrendering, were treacherously killed and mutilated by Croatian Army forces, announced the Veritas Documentation - Information Centre.

Despite extensive evidence of the crime, no one was held accountable before the Hague Tribunal, while Croatian courts convicted only two Croatian soldiers, only for the killing of a single Serb Territorial Defence member.

On June 21, 1992, the Croatian Army attacked positions under control of the Serb Territorial Defence on the Miljevci Plateau near Drniš and took over control of seven villages.

It was the first major attack by Croatian forces on the Republila Srpska Krajina after the UNPROFOR had assumed responsibility as a peacekeeping force in the area.

Before the attack, the Croatian side had requested that the Serb side refrain from any possible provocations due to the holding of the International Children’s Festival in Šibenik, only to launch an attack on Serb positions that same morning.

Forty Serb Territorial Defence members were killed in the attack, most of them mutilated after surrendering.

“Instead of returning their bodies to their families, the Croatian authorities ordered captured Serbs, under threat of death, to throw them into a karst pit used for bulky waste disposal,” Veritas stated.

The organisation also recalled that Radio Split repeatedly broadcast the names of the deceased Serb soldiers accompanied by the Serb national anthem and insults.

On June 30 of the same year, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 762, condemning the operation and demanding that Croatian forces withdraw to their original positions, a demand that Croatia did not comply with.

Between July 17 and September 1, 1992, the Croatian side handed over to the Serb side, through UNPROFOR, 21 bodies, as well as bones recovered from the pit, packed into 20 bags and mixed with animal bones, which significantly complicated the identification process.

From the recovered bones and body parts, the remains of 40 individuals were assembled. Twenty-eight were identified and buried in family graves, while the remaining 12 unidentified victims were buried in a mass grave at the New Cemetery in Knin, where they remain today.

Following the fall of the Republika Srpska Krajina, Veritas notes, neither the international community nor Croatia showed interest in exhuming those remains and identifying them using modern DNA methods.

“No one has been prosecuted before the Hague Tribunal for the crime committed on the Miljevci Plateau, despite abundant valid evidence submitted to all relevant local and international organisations and institutions dealing with human rights protection and war crimes,” Veritas emphasized.

The Miljevci Plateau crime was also recorded on videotape by its perpetrators, and the footage was reportedly rented out through video clubs across Europe shortly after the event.

After lengthy criminal proceedings, the County Court Split sentenced Croatian Army members Ante Babac to three years and eight months in prison and Mišo Jakovljević to three years in prison in September 2014 for the killing of prisoner of war Miroslav Subotić, a member of the Territorial Defence of Republika Srpska Krajina from the village of Ervenik near Knin.

The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of Croatia on September 6, 2017.