Murder of 9 Serbs in Croatia unpunished for 20 years

Murder of 9 Serbs in Croatia unpunished for 20 years

TheDocumentation and Information Center Veritas pointed out that the average age of the victims, the Varivode villagers murdered on September 28, 1995, was 69.

The Serbian NGO also stresses that the crime was committed two months after Croatia's military and police Operation Storm during which some 2,000 Serbs were killed and 230,000 expelled.

A month earlier, seven Serbs aged around 70 were murdered in the nearby village of Gosic.

"All the victims in both of the villages were civilians, and there had been no military activity in the area during the war or in the time of the murders. They stayed because they did not want to leave their homes and because they believed the then president of Croatia Franjo Tudjman when he said that all those who did not have any blood on their hands would be guaranteed personal safety and the safety of their property," said Veritas.

The bodies of the victims were exhumed in the spring of 2001 by the Hague Tribunal prosecution forensic teams, and identified by family members in Zagreb in 2002.

Office of the county public prosecutor in Zadar raised charges against six former Croatian soldiers in 1996 for the crime of murder for gain, and released them for lack of evidence.