UN policeman recalls Medak carnage

A former UN policeman described seeing corpses after the Croatian Army had withdrawn from the Medak Pocket. At the trial of Croatian Generals Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac, Steve Marishink told the District Court in Zagreb that all the buildings had been destroyed, some were still on fire, and that the UN civil police had found no survivors. UN policeman recalls Medak carnage “The destruction was fresh, and there was a smell of death around the whole area,“ added the witness, recalling the moment the UN civil police had entered the Medak Pocket, recently vacated by the Croatian Army. He remembered seeing two charred female bodies in a henhouse in the village of Citluk. Their faces were unrecognizable, and worms were crawling in and out of two holes in their skulls. Marishink concluded that the women had been killed a day or two before their arrival, and that their bodies had been burnt subsequently. He added that he had also come across the bodies of dead soldiers, one of whose ears had been cut off. During his testimony, the witness, who had been part of a reconnaisance team, described an encounter with a group of Croatian troops who, he said, looked different from their other ragged, dirty-looking colleagues. “They were smartly dressed, and I think they were carry Heckler and Koch guns. When I approached them, they had yellow lightning insignia on their shoulders, and it said that they were policemen. It seemed as though they were controlling what we were doing. They just looked at us, but the way they looked gave me the creeps, I can even say I was afraid,“ he recalled. Photos taken by Marishink in the Medak Pocket were also shown at the trial, which, together with reports on victims and destroyed villages, were submitted to the UN. In the first trial delegated to the Croatian judiciary by the Hague Tribunal, Ademi and Norac are accused of command responsibility for atrocities committed against civilians and prisoners-of-war during an operation to liberate the region known as the Medak Pocket. During the operation in September 1993, according to the prosecution, Serb villages were razed to the ground, numerous murders were committed, and the local Serb population persecuted.

UN policeman recalls Medak carnage

“The destruction was fresh, and there was a smell of death around the whole area,“ added the witness, recalling the moment the UN civil police had entered the Medak Pocket, recently vacated by the Croatian Army.

He remembered seeing two charred female bodies in a henhouse in the village of Čitluk. Their faces were unrecognizable, and worms were crawling in and out of two holes in their skulls.

Marishink concluded that the women had been killed a day or two before their arrival, and that their bodies had been burnt subsequently. He added that he had also come across the bodies of dead soldiers, one of whose ears had been cut off.

During his testimony, the witness, who had been part of a reconnaisance team, described an encounter with a group of Croatian troops who, he said, looked different from their other ragged, dirty-looking colleagues.

“They were smartly dressed, and I think they were carry Heckler and Koch guns. When I approached them, they had yellow lightning insignia on their shoulders, and it said that they were policemen. It seemed as though they were controlling what we were doing. They just looked at us, but the way they looked gave me the creeps, I can even say I was afraid,“ he recalled.

Photos taken by Marishink in the Medak Pocket were also shown at the trial, which, together with reports on victims and destroyed villages, were submitted to the UN.

In the first trial delegated to the Croatian judiciary by the Hague Tribunal, Ademi and Norac are accused of command responsibility for atrocities committed against civilians and prisoners-of-war during an operation to liberate the region known as the Medak Pocket.

During the operation in September 1993, according to the prosecution, Serb villages were razed to the ground, numerous murders were committed, and the local Serb population persecuted.