POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Croatia’s Involvement in War Crimes Questioned

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Aug 28 2002 (IPS) - The recent discovery in the Western Lika region of Croatia of a mass grave containing 18 bodies is a gruesome reminder of the war crimes of the 90s which took the lives of some 320,000 people.

The case, which is being investigated by the International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), involves the discovery of a grave containing the bodies of 17 Serbs and one ethnic Hungarian who were apparently killed in the village of Paulin Dvor, near the town of Osijek in December 1991. However their remains were found sealed in plastic barrels which were buried in the village of Rizvanusa, near the town of Gospic, some 500kms West from Paulin Dvor.

According to sources the 18 had their personal documents with them and their names matched the list of missing persons from Paulin Dvor at the time of Croatia’s war of independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Analysts say the case is a reminder of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic’s regime who covered up atrocities against Kosovo Albanian civilians by transporting their bodies in freezer trucks to Serbia proper on several occasions in 1999. The trucks were submerged into the Danube and Drina rivers, hundreds of kilometres away from the crime scenes. As the trucks re-surfaced after a short while, more than 800 bodies were later buried in mass graves in Batajnica, the police training ground north of Belgrade.

“This may raise difficult questions for Croatia,” Croatian analyst Drago Hedl says. “Besides raising the uncomfortable parallels with Milosevic’s practice, the discovery may finally explode the myth, promoted by former leader Franjo Tudjman, that Croats could not have carried out atrocities as they fought a purely defensive campaign in 1991. It is looking increasingly likely that not only did Croatian forces commit war crimes, but attempted to cover them up.” Neither Tudjman nor Milosevic, arch-rivals of the 90s, are in power. Tudjman died in December 1999, while Milosevic fell from power in October 2000.

Their exit from the political scene and introduction of new administrations in Croatia and Serbia opened the doors for investigation of gruesome war crimes against non-Croats or non-Serbs.

According to the independent Croatian weekly “Feral Tribune”, it is not only the local public that is interested in the 10 year old crime. According to the weekly, Paulin Dvor case was the subject of serious conversation between Croatian State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic and International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte during their meeting on July 18, 2002. “The fact that the bodies were relocated from the original crime scene should cause serious investigation, del Ponte reportedly told Bajic”.

Reacting to media outcry over the Paulin Dvor case Karlo Gorinsek, former commander of the east sector of Croatian army in 1991, told “Jutarnji List” daily that he knew about the killing of 18 civilians in the village. He dubbed it “a classic war crime” and “an act of revenge of a small group of Croatian soldiers”. Gorinsek put the blame on the immediate superior officer, Branimir Glavas but Glavas said he had nothing to do with the case saying that Gorinsek – as the commanding officer of the region – should bear all the responsibility.

Osijek County State Prosecutor Davor Petricevic said he had “unofficially heard” that the Lika remains were those of people from Paulin Dvor but would not comment further. The interior ministry confirmed that police teams from Osijek and the capital of Zagreb were investigating the discovery in Lika.

The ICTY has refused to comment on the case but Croatian media say police inspectors have been assigned, not only to apprehend those responsible for the massacre in Paulin Dvor, but also to investigate who gave the orders for the bodies to be transported across the country and when. “Investigating and facing the war crimes can be a good start for the reconciliation,” says Natasa Kandic from the prominent Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. “It will take years, but there has to be a start somewhere,” she added.

However she admits it will be pretty hard as the statistics of the four wars of the 90s show that out of 23,5 million people of the former Yugoslav federation, some 320,000 died and dozens of thousands are still missing. No one knows how many are hidden in mass graves all over the former federation but we should at least try to find out, she said.