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Baćin massacre

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Baćin massacre

Baćin massacre
Part of the Croatian War of Independence
Baćin massacre is located in Croatia
Baćin
Baćin
Baćin on the map of Croatia. Territories controlled by Serb or JNA forces in late December 1991 are highlighted in red.
Location Baćin, Croatia
Coordinates
Date 21 October 1991
Target Mostly Croat and some Serb civilians
Attack type
Summary executions
Deaths 75
Perpetrators Croatian Serb paramilitaries

The Baćin massacre was a war crime committed by Croatian Serb paramilitaries on 21 October 1991. It occurred in the village of Baćin, near Hrvatska Dubica in central Croatia, during the Croatian War of Independence. On 20 October 1991, 53 civilians were rounded up by Serb forces in the town and detained in a local fire station. Ten were later released either because they were Serbs or because they were connected with Serbs. Serb forces took the remaining 43 prisoners to a location near the village of Baćin the following day and at least 13 other non-Serb civilians from Baćin and Cerovljani were then brought to the same location. The detainees were placed on a bus and told that they would be released in a prisoner exchange. Croatian Serb paramilitaries instead forced them out of the bus and opened fire on them. All 56 detainees were killed. Their bodies were left out in the open and fourteen days passed before they were buried by Serb forces. Further killings of residents from Hrvatska Dubica, Cerovljani, and Baćin took place elsewhere that day. More than 75 people were killed in the massacre. Fifty-six corpses were exhumed from a mass grave near Baćin in 1997.

Background

In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by Franjo Tuđman's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), ethnic tensions between Croats and Croatian Serbs worsened.[1] Serbian President Slobodan Milošević used Tuđman's actions to his advantage, portraying the Croatian leader and the HDZ as reincarnations of the Ustaše.[2] The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) subsequently confiscated Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana – TO) weapons to miminize the possibility of resistance following the elections.[1] On 17 August, the tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs,[3] centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin,[4] parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia.[5] They established a Serbian National Council in July 1990 to oppose Tuđman's policy of pursuing independence for Croatia. Milan Babić, a dentist from the southern town of Knin, was elected president. Knin's police chief, Milan Martić, established Serbian paramilitary militias. The two men eventually became the political and military leaders of the SAO Krajina, a self-declared state which incorporated the Serb-inhabited areas of Croatia.[6]

After two unsuccessful attempts by [14] and police reserve force of 40,000 ZNG troops. The reserve units did not possess sufficient heavy or small arms to arm all of their personnel.[13]

Massacre

Serb forces took control of Hrvatska Kostajnica on 7 October 1991. Most Croat civilians had fled their homes when the town was first surrounded by the Serbs in September. Nevertheless, approximately 120 Croat civilians, mostly women, the elderly or the infirm, stayed in the villages of Hrvatska Dubica, Cerovljani, and Baćin. Serb forces rounded up 53 civilians in Hrvatska Dubica and detained them inside a local fire station on the morning of 20 October. Ten were released over the next day and night either because they were Serbs or because they were connected with Serbs. On 21 October, Serb forces took the remaining 43 prisoners to a location near Baćin. At least 13 other non-Serb civilians from Baćin and Cerovljani were brought to the same location.[15]

The detainees were placed on a bus and told that they would be released in a prisoner exchange. Croatian Serb paramilitaries forced them out of the bus and opened fire on them.[16] All 56 detainees were killed.[15] Their bodies were left out in the open and fourteen days passed before they were buried.[16] Further killings of residents from Hrvatska Dubica, Cerovljani, and Baćin took place elsewhere on 21 October.[15] Overall, more than 75 people were killed.[17] Most of those killed were Croat civilians, although several Serbs were also killed while attempting to protect their neighbours.[16]

Aftermath

A monument to residents of Baćin killed during the Croatian War of Independence.

109 people, mostly civilians, were killed or went missing in the region of Hrvatska Kostajnica by February 1992. A mass grave containing the bodies of massacre victims was discovered in Baćin in 1997.[16] Containing 56 bodies, it was the second-largest wartime mass grave in Croatia after the one in Ovčara.[18] Twenty of the victims could not be identified. They were reburied in a joint grave at the Roman Catholic cemetery in Hrvatska Kostajnica.[16]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Hoare 2010, p. 117.
  2. ^ Glaurdić 2011, p. 86.
  3. ^ Hoare 2010, p. 118.
  4. ^ The New York Times 19 August 1990.
  5. ^ ICTY 12 June 2007.
  6. ^ Repe 2009, pp. 141–142.
  7. ^ Hoare 2010, pp. 118–119.
  8. ^ Ramet 2006, pp. 384–385.
  9. ^ a b Hoare 2010, p. 119.
  10. ^ The New York Times 3 March 1991.
  11. ^ The New York Times 2 April 1991.
  12. ^ CIA 2002, p. 90.
  13. ^ a b CIA 2002, p. 86.
  14. ^ Nazor 2007, p. 73.
  15. ^ a b c BBC News 29 October 2001.
  16. ^ a b c d e Dnevnik 21 October 2011.
  17. ^ Večernji list 11 March 2013.
  18. ^ Index.hr 9 November 2010.

References

Books

Websites

Part of the Yugoslav Wars
Prelude
1991
1992
1993–94
1995
Internment camps
Other
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