Croatian atrocities documented in Balkans

By Gregory Stefanovich, People's Weekly World, 28 October 1995

Months after the fall of Serbian Krajina, Croatian troops continue their rampage through the region. A three day offensive at the beginning of August drove out virtually the entire population of 250,000 Serbs. Only a few thousand elderly Serbs remained behind.

Croatian special police units, operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are systematically looting abandoned Serbian villages. Everything of value—cars, stereos, televisions, furniture, farm animals—is plundered. The homes are then set afire. The arson continues unabated, and a European Union report says that 73 percent of Serbian homes have been destroyed. Troops of the Croatian army are also responsible, and often write the initials NDH on walls of burnt out Serb buildings. NDH signifies the Independent State of Croatia—the pro-Nazi puppet state in World War II. The use of these initials is popular among neo-Nazi Croatian troops.

The few remaining Serbs are subjected to terror and murder. A confidential European Union report says, Evidence of atrocities, an average of six corpses per day, continues to emerge. The corpses, some fresh, some decomposed, are mainly of old men. Many have been shot in the back of the head or had throats slit, others have been mutilated …. Serb lands continue to be torched and looted.

Following a recent visit in the region, a member of the Zagreb Helsinki Committee reported, Virtually all Serb villages had been destroyed …. In a village near Knin 11 bodies were found; some of them were massacred in such a way that it was not easy to see whether the body was male or female.

U.N. spokesman Chris Gunnes stated that U.N. personnel continue to discover bodies, many of whom had been decapitated. U.N. personnel noted the existence of several mass graves.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, there is no trace of the 10,000 Serb refugees who had been trapped while attempting to flee the invasion.

The Croatian Parliament has passed a law authorizing the seizure of Serbian property. Serbs are allowed to reclaim their property within only 90 days if they file a series of time-consuming forms, and if they return to the area while Croatian troops are murdering Serbs.

Leading Croatian General Zvonimir Cervenko recently referred to Serbs as chetniks, shepherds and Neanderthals. During a triumphalist train journey through Krajina, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman gave his view of events while speaking at each railway station: We have finally crushed the Yugo-communist and Serb aggression against Croatia. Tudjman claimed, The Croatian people will greet … with open hands and love in their hearts … the return of [Croatian emigres] who were driven away from the Croatian land …. The driven away emigres Tudjman refers to are pro-Nazi war criminals from World War II. Now that Croatia is free, they can return, and we shall offer them lands, farms, and a free country. Tudjman had this to say about Serbs: And there can be no return to the past, to the times when they were spreading cancer in the heart of Croatia, a cancer that was destroying the Croatian national being.

Peter Galbraith, U.S. ambassador to Croatia, rejected criticism of the invasion. According to Galbraith, the invasion cannot be called ethnic cleansing, because he defined this term as something Serbs do. Galbraith added that the invasion could prove to be a positive step towards peace. Despite this pronouncement, the war continues and NATO is preparing to send in upwards of 75,000 troops to occupy Bosnia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia.