Erdut killings
Erdut killings | |
---|---|
Territorial Defence Forces, Serb Volunteer Guard |
The Erdut killings were a series of murders of 37
Most of the victims were exhumed in 1998, after the area reverted to Croatian control following the signing of the
Background
In 1990, following the
After a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and
Prelude
The first artillery attack against ZNG units in
Shortly after the bombardment, as the Croatian Serb TO and
Timeline
On 9 November, the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG arrested
The killings continued the next month, when the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG arrested five more non-Serb civilians in Erdut.[26] They were killed at the TO training centre in Erdut and the bodies of three were thrown down a well in Daljski Atar. Seven more Hungarian and Croat civilians were arrested by the Croatian Serb TO and police and the SDG in Erdut and detained in the Erdut training centre until 26 December, when they were killed. The bodies of six of them were also thrown into a well in Daljski Atar.[29]
Further killings occurred on 21 February 1992, when four non-Serb civilians were arrested by Croatian Serb forces and the SDG and killed in the training centre
Aftermath
In August 1995, following Operation Storm, Croatia regained control of territories previously held by Croatian Serb forces, with the exception of eastern Slavonia—the region around Erdut. Eastern Slavonia was gradually transferred to Croatian control based on the Erdut Agreement signed on 12 November 1995,[33] and the transfer, facilitated by United Nations peacekeepers, was completed on 15 January 1998.[34]
In October 1998, three bodies were retrieved from a well in Erdut.[35] Days later, more bodies were retrieved from a well in Daljski Atar,[36] where a total of 23 victims were found.[37] A total of 32 sets of human remains were recovered in the village of Ćelije by 2012. The mass grave in Ćelije is toured annually by a procession commemorating the victims buried there and in several other locations in eastern Slavonia,[38] while the site in Daljski Atar is marked by a monument to the civilian victims since 2013.[37]
War crime charges
The ICTY charged Milošević with the extermination of non-Serb civilians in Erdut, the forcible transfer of at least 2,500 inhabitants of the village and destruction of their property.
The ICTY charged
The ICTY also indicted Goran Hadžić, a Croatian Serb political leader at the time and the head of the SAO SBWS government, before the SAO SBWS merged into the Republic of Serbian Krajina. The charges include war crimes of persecutions, extermination, murder, imprisonment, torture, inhumane acts and cruel treatment, deportation, forcible transfer of population, wanton destruction and plunder of property in Erdut and elsewhere.[48] He died of brain cancer in July 2016, aged 57, and judgement was never passed. On 31 July 2012, Croatian authorities indicted Božo Bolić, the commander of the police station in Erdut in late 1991 and 1992, and charged him with unlawful arrests and abuse of civilian population, who were later turned over to the SDG. As of 2014[update], Bolić remains at large.[49][50]
See also
- List of massacres in Croatia
Footnotes
- ^ Hoare 2010, p. 117.
- ^ Hoare 2010, p. 118.
- ^ The New York Times & 19 August 1990.
- ^ ICTY & 12 June 2007.
- ^ Hoare 2010, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Ramet 2006, pp. 384–385.
- ^ a b Hoare 2010, p. 119.
- ^ The New York Times & 3 March 1991.
- ^ The New York Times & 2 April 1991.
- ^ EECIS 1999, pp. 272–278.
- ^ The Independent & 10 October 1992.
- ^ Narodne novine & 8 October 1991.
- ^ O'Keefe 2010, pp. 114–115.
- ^ t-portal & 24 July 2011.
- ^ Osijek-Baranja County 2011.
- ^ a b Nazor 2011a.
- ^ Nazor 2011b.
- ^ ICTY & 28 August 2003, pp. 25554–25555.
- ^ index.hr & 16 October 2012.
- ^ The New York Times & 10 December 1991.
- ^ a b c Vreme & 14 January 2010.
- ^ CIA 2002, p. 209.
- ^ Bjelajac & Žunec 2009, pp. 249–250.
- ^ The New York Times & 18 November 1991.
- ^ The New York Times & 10 May 1992.
- ^ a b c Cencich 2013, p. 102.
- ^ ICTY & 22 March 2012, p. 10.
- ^ a b ICTY & 22 March 2012, p. 11.
- ^ a b c ICTY & 22 March 2012, p. 12.
- ^ Cencich 2013, p. 103.
- ^ ICTY & 22 March 2012, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Zebić & 25 July 2011.
- ^ Søberg 2007, p. 46.
- ^ Søberg 2007, p. 60.
- ^ HRT & 22 October 1998.
- ^ HRT & 28 October 1998.
- ^ a b Ministry of Veterans' Affairs & 27 November 2013.
- ^ Večernji list & 31 March 2012.
- ^ ICTY & 23 October 2002, item 36.
- ^ ICTY 2006, pp. 7–8.
- ^ The Guardian & 19 January 2000.
- ^ The New York Times & 26 March 1995.
- ^ ICTY 2000.
- ^ ICTY & 9 July 2008, p. 2.
- ^ ICTY & 9 July 2008, pp. 5–8.
- ^ The New York Times & 24 April 2003.
- ^ ICTY 2013, p. 5.
- ^ ICTY & 22 March 2012, pp. 8–16.
- ^ Glas Slavonije & 31 July 2012.
- ^ Večernji list & 26 April 2011.
References
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- Cencich, John R. (2013). The Devil's Garden: A War Crimes Investigator's Story. Lincoln, Nebraska: ISBN 978-1-61234-172-9.
- OCLC 50396958.
- Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. London, England: Routledge. 1999. ISBN 978-1-85743-058-5.
- ISBN 978-1-139-48750-4.
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- Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building And Legitimation, 1918–2006. Bloomington, Indiana: ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8.
- Søberg, Marius (2007). "Croatia Since 1989". In Ramet, Sabrina P.; Matić, Davorka (eds.). Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education & Media. College Station, Texas: ISBN 978-1-58544-587-5.
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- "Hadžić se na optužbe tužitelja samo nasmijao: "Bio je Miloševićev čovjek na terenu, krvnik i ubojica"" [Hadžić Only Scoffs at Charges by the Prosecutor: "He Was Milošević's Man in the Field, Executioner and Murderer"] (in Croatian). index.hr. 16 October 2012.
- "Sumnjiči ga se za smrt 12 civila i ozljeđivanje još njih troje" [Suspected of Death of 12 Civilians and Injuring Three Others]. Večernji list (in Croatian). 26 April 2011.
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- "Roads Sealed as Yugoslav Unrest Mounts". The New York Times. Reuters. 19 August 1990. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013.
- Simons, Marlise (24 April 2003). "Mystery Witness Faces Milosevic". The New York Times.
- Sudetic, Chuck (18 November 1991). "Croats Concede Danube Town's Loss". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013.
- Sudetic, Chuck (2 April 1991). "Rebel Serbs Complicate Rift on Yugoslav Unity". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
- Švarm, Filip (14 January 2010). "Arkanova ostavština" [Arkan's Legacy]. Vreme (in Serbian). No. 993.
- Zebić, Enis (25 July 2011). "Bolna prisjećanja na vrijeme Hadžićeve strahovlade" [Painful remembrance of Hadžić's reign of terror]. Slobodna Evropa (in Croatian).
- "U Erdutu traje najzahtjevnija ekshumacija" [The Most Demanding Exhumation in Progress in Erdut] (in Croatian). Croatian Radiotelevision. 22 October 1998.
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- "Case Information Sheet - Željko Ražnatović "Arkan" (IT-97-27)" (PDF). International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 2000.
- Nazor, Ante (April 2011). ""Informacija o angažovanju jedinice JNA u Dalju 01. 08. 1991. godine" (okupacija Dalja, Aljmaša i Erduta) – (I. dio)" [Information on Engagement of a JNA Unit in Dalj on 1 August 1991 (Occupation of Dalj, Aljmaš and Erdut) – (Part 1)]. ISSN 1333-9036. Archived from the originalon 7 December 2013.
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- "Obilježena godišnjica pogibije hrvatskih branitelja 1. gardijske brigade Tigrovi u Erdutu" [Anniversary of Death of Croatian Defenders of the 1st Guards Brigade - Tigers in Erdut] (in Croatian). Osijek-Baranja County. 2011.
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