Danish soldiers "stood by" as Serbs were executed

A Croatian website has published the names of 6 out of 9 victims killed in the town of Dvor-na-Uni in August 1995. The executions happened a day after Croatia's Operation Storm was "officially over", index.hr is reporting. Danish soldiers "stood by" as Serbs were executed The Hague Tribunal recently found the military and police operation to have been a joint criminal enterprise aimed at forcibly and permanently removing the Serb population in Croatia. The victims in Dvor-na-Uni were elderly and disabled local Serbs, who tried to find shelter in a school. They were killed one by one as Danish soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers, stood by "only a couple of meters away doing nothing". The website quotes UN reports that include a testimony give by a Danish soldier, which say that 12 killers armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades "wore camouflage fatigues and no insignia" which would have identified them as members "of an army". They used hand grenades and rifles to kill their victims - who were either in wheelchairs or walking on crutches - some of them with amputated limbs - the oldest being a woman identified as Desanka Teodorovic, born in 1915, while others were aged from 30 to 70. The massacre was investigated by Danish BT television outlet, and its reports focused on the responsibility of the commander and members of the Danish UN unit, which numbered some 200 soldiers. Former Danish peacekeepers, "troubled by their guilty conscience", contacted the journalists to tell their story. They "could have intervened to save the nine civilians, executed one by one in front of them", said the media reports, but their commander, identified as Jorgen Kold, "told them to just observe". The Croatian website notes that "all three armies - Serb, Croat and Bosniak (Muslim) were in the area". The United Nations started an investigation into the massacre, but dropped it for lack of evidence. No one has been charged or prosecuted for the crime. A video still of a former Danish soldier being interviewed. The man served in Croatia in 1995 (index.hr)

Danish soldiers "stood by" as Serbs were executed

The Hague Tribunal recently found the military and police operation to have been a joint criminal enterprise aimed at forcibly and permanently removing the Serb population in Croatia.

The victims in Dvor-na-Uni were elderly and disabled local Serbs, who tried to find shelter in a school.

They were killed one by one as Danish soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers, stood by "only a couple of meters away doing nothing".

The website quotes UN reports that include a testimony give by a Danish soldier, which say that 12 killers armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades "wore camouflage fatigues and no insignia" which would have identified them as members "of an army".

They used hand grenades and rifles to kill their victims - who were either in wheelchairs or walking on crutches - some of them with amputated limbs - the oldest being a woman identified as Desanka Teodorović, born in 1915, while others were aged from 30 to 70.

The massacre was investigated by Danish BT television outlet, and its reports focused on the responsibility of the commander and members of the Danish UN unit, which numbered some 200 soldiers. Former Danish peacekeepers, "troubled by their guilty conscience", contacted the journalists to tell their story.

They "could have intervened to save the nine civilians, executed one by one in front of them", said the media reports, but their commander, identified as Jorgen Kold, "told them to just observe".

The Croatian website notes that "all three armies - Serb, Croat and Bosniak (Muslim) were in the area".

The United Nations started an investigation into the massacre, but dropped it for lack of evidence. No one has been charged or prosecuted for the crime.