PRESSURE MUST BE EXERTED ON ZAGREB TO PROSECUTE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR MURDERS OF GOSPIĆ SERBS

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 16 /SRNA/ - At least 129 people were killed in a campaign of terror against Serbs in Gospić and the surrounding area in the autumn of 1991, with nearly half of the killings taking place during a bloody wave of violence from October 16 to 18, and the remains of 69 Serbs are still being sought 35 years later, the Veritas Documentation and Information Center said.

Veritas called on the international community and the relevant institutions to exert pressure on the Croatian judiciary so that the principle of universal justice would finally be applied, all those responsible for the crimes would be prosecuted, and the agony of families who have been waiting for 35 years for the right to commemorate and bury their loved ones with dignity would come to an end.

"The victims' families are deeply outraged and cannot find peace knowing that the three convicted men have been free for years, while Croatian state institutions are doing nothing to locate the remains of another 69 missing Serbs," Veritas stressed.

The center noted that the entire political, military and police leadership of Croatia at the time was fully aware of the killings of Serbian civilians.

According to Veritas, at least 129 ethnic Serbs were killed in this campaign of terror, including 39 women.

The victims included 10 married couples and four parent-child pairs. To date, the remains of 60 victims have been recovered, identified and buried.

Veritas noted that, three and a half decades later, domestic and international organisations continue to ask why only five individuals were prosecuted, given that court proceedings established beyond doubt that dozens of Croatian army and police members had participated in planning, arrests and executions.

Many of those responsible, either through command responsibility or as direct perpetrators, continue to hold senior positions in Croatian institutions, the armed forces and the police without hindrance.

Veritas recalled that in the autumn of 1991, members of the Croatian army and police, most of them masked, systematically took Serbian civilians from their homes and apartments in Gospić and nearby settlements.

The killings took place at several locations, with the primary targets being prominent Serbs who had previously expressed loyalty to the newly established Croatian regime.

After members of the Yugoslav People’s Army /JNA/ discovered 24 partially charred bodies in a separation zone in late December 1991, information about the crimes reached the international community through leading international media outlets and humanitarian organizations.

Under foreign pressure at the time, Croatian President Franjo Tuđman was forced to order an official investigation.

However, despite the evidence clearly pointing to those who ordered the crimes and those who carried them out, the case was swiftly shelved. The victims' bodies were deliberately moved from primary to secondary burial sites to conceal evidence of the crimes.

Although the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia initially conducted an intensive investigation, the case was transferred to the Croatian judiciary before indictments were issued.

In March 2001, the County State Attorney’s Office in Rijeka indicted five members of the Croatian army and police for war crimes against the civilian population, accusing them of the unlawful arrest and killing of at least 50 people.

In a final ruling issued by the Rijeka County Court in March 2003, then secretary of the Operational Headquarters in Gospić Tihomir Orešković was sentenced to 15 years in prison, then commander of the Croatian Army’s 118th Brigade Mirko Norac received a 12-year sentence and then commander of the Second Battalion Stjepan Grandić was sentenced to 10 years.

In the same ruling, the court acquitted Norac, Orešković and Ivica Rožić, citing insufficient evidence, in connection with the killing of three Serbs from Karlobag at the Crni Dabar site on Mount Velebit. The charges against Milan Čanić were dismissed after the prosecutor withdrew them.

Official census figures provide a clear picture of the consequences of the wartime exodus and the systematic removal of the Serb population.

According to the 1991 census, 9,025 people lived in the town of Gospić, including 36 per cent Serbs and three per cent Yugoslavs.

According to the 2021 census, the City of Gospić, which includes the settlement of Gospić itself and another 49 settlements, had a total population of 11,502, including 412 Serbs, or 3.58 per cent.