VERITAS: TOMORROW MARKS 33 YEARS SINCE UNPUNISHED MASSACRE OF SERB CIVILIANS

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 5 /SRNA/ — Tomorrow marks 33 years since the unpunished crime against Serb civilians in Mirlović Polje near Drniš, committed by members of the Croatian Army under the command of Marko Skejo, who for years has led a march of black-shirted men wearing Ustasha insignia and chanting the Ustasha slogan "Za dom spremni" at state commemorations in Knin without facing any consequences, the "Veritas" Documentation and Information Center said.

Skejo and the black-shirted group attend commemorations in Knin marking the Croatian military and police operation "Storm" in Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia, during which more than 220,000 Krajina Serbs were driven from their ancestral homes, while the lists contain the names of 1,904 Serbs who were killed or remain missing.

Veritas particularly stressed that although the crime against the Serb civilians took place in front of numerous members of the United Nations Protection Force /UNPROFOR/, no one has so far been prosecuted, either before international or domestic courts.

A sabotage and terrorist unit from the 114th Brigade of the Croatian Army entered the village, which was then under the control of the authorities of the Republic of Srpska Krajina /RSK/, at around 6:30 a.m. on September 6, 1993, and massacred five women and two men.

Marija Trzin, born in 1928, and her neighbor Ljubica Trzin, born in 1938, had taken their sheep out to pasture that morning. When shells began falling on the village, they sought shelter in the basement of a house.

Hearing knocking at the basement door, they went to see who was there. As soon as the door was opened, a Croatian soldier threw a grenade into the basement, killing Ljubica instantly and seriously injuring Marija.

It was only that evening that a group of Serb soldiers found Marija and took her to the hospital in Knin, saving her life.

The following morning, RSK Civil Protection, accompanied by UN Civil Police personnel, found Ljubica's body and the bodies of the other six civilians.

Among the ruins of their homes, they found the burned bodies of Milan Bibić, born in 1926, and his wife Vasilija, born in 1926, as well as another Ljubica Trzin, born in 1937, whose body was still smoldering. The bodies of Božo Bibić, born in 1907, his wife Božica, born in 1912, and Marta Šarac, born in 1907, were found near the village pond.

The bodies were buried in the local cemetery without autopsies. About ten days later, on the orders of an investigating judge of the District Court in Knin, and in the presence of UN military observers and a military doctor from the British battalion, the bodies were exhumed and subsequently subjected to a forensic examination.

Forensic expert Željko Karan from Banja Luka, who examined the bodies, prepared a forensic report that was also reviewed by UNPROFOR representatives.

According to information obtained by "Veritas", the attack on Mirlović Polje was carried out by the 9th Battalion "Rafael vitez Boban," a unit of the Croatian Defense Forces /HOS/, named after the Ustasha colonel and general from the Second World War. The unit was part of the 114th Brigade of the Croatian Army, commanded by Marko Skejo.

In November 2011, at the request of Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor's Office, "Veritas" submitted all the documentation it had available on the crime. The Prosecutor's Office subsequently transferred the case to the Croatian prosecution authorities, where the investigation against unidentified perpetrators is still ongoing.

"It is completely unrealistic and absurd that, despite all the evidence, witness statements, medical findings and the clearly identified military unit and its command structure, the case has for decades formally been pursued by the Croatian judiciary against unidentified perpetrators," "Veritas" said.

It said such a practice clearly points to deliberate obstruction and Croatia's unwillingness to prosecute war crimes when the victims are Serbs.

According to the 1991 census, 188 Serbs lived in Mirlović Polje. Today, there are no Serbs left in the village.

"The crime committed in 1993 achieved its ultimate goal in that way - the complete ethnic cleansing of this part of Dalmatia," "Veritas" concluded in the statement.