LEST WE FORGET: 30 years since the crime on Petrovačka cesta, when Croatian planes killed dozens of Serbs in a refugee column!

It has been exactly 30 years since the crime on Petrovačka cesta, when Croatian air force planes killed ten Serbs who were leaving Srpska Krajina after Operation “Storm”. No one has yet been held accountable for that crime. Zagreb refuses to prosecute the responsible parties, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on whose territory the crime occurred, is not taking any action on this case, while the judicial authorities in Belgrade have decided to try the Croatian pilots in absentia for this crime, as well as the crime on Prijedorska cesta, near the town of Svodna, when three civilians were killed, also in a refugee column.

As if the Serbs from Krajina had not had enough misfortunes since they had to leave their homes in the face of the Croatian forces’ attack, an even greater tragedy befell them. Just when they thought they had escaped to safety, fighter jets under the control of Zagreb delivered a deadly payload directly onto the refugee column.

A total of thirteen people lost their lives on Petrovačka and Prijedorska cesta, including six children up to 13 years old, while 24 people were wounded.

The Serbian judiciary charges four Croatian officers with committing this war crime – Vladimir Mikac, Zdenko Radulj, Željko Jelenić, and Danijel Borović. They are being tried in absentia, given that they have been unavailable to the Serbian judicial authorities since the beginning of the investigation in 2021. They are charged with a war crime against the Serbian population, due to a reasonable suspicion that on August 7 and 8, 1995, they ordered the rocketing of a column of refugees on Petrovačka and Prijedorska cesta.

The Croatian Ministry of Justice received the indictment through diplomatic channels, but refused to forward it to its citizens and to cooperate with Serbia in any way. Thus, the members of the Croatian air force are still not formally aware that they have been accused of a war crime.

When the indictment against the four pilots for this war crime was filed in March 2022, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that it was “politically motivated” and that, as he stated, Serbia must confront its past. Plenković then reiterated that Croatia would protect the accused pilots.

“We are on the right path for justice to be served”

When asked if the victims’ families would finally get justice, lawyer Aleksandar Cvejić said that they would never have gotten justice if it were up to the Republic of Croatia.

“However, we are now on the right path for justice to be served after a long series of years and after an investigation that stalled for some time. It was sabotaged from various sides, including the domestic one. In the last few years, the possibility for a real and proper investigation to happen has opened up. There have been appropriate changes in the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office first and foremost, which enabled the investigation to be conducted properly. We are now finally on the path to a verdict and justice for the victims,” Cvejić said.

He says that the indictment was filed relatively quickly from the moment the real investigation began, i.e., from the moment prosecutor Dušan Knežević took over the case.

“However, that procedure was sabotaged from the moment the indictment was filed until the moment it was confirmed by the criminal non-panel of the Court for War Crimes, our court, which is a paradox. Maybe it’s not a paradox, it’s simply a model of behavior that has lasted for the previous years, not to say decades, according to which anyone can be tried, provided they are a Serb. What is specific here is that the accused are high military leaders of the Croatian air force. Practically, because it is a system deeply integrated into the Ministry of Defense and the Croatian state, the perception has been reached that the Croatian state is being tried, which does not have to be the case. And it did not have to be the case until the moment when the current Republic of Croatia, which allegedly inherits the traditions of European culture and law, started to directly sabotage this procedure with a strange explanation that it is a political procedure against the Republic of Croatia. There is not a single political word here, and there would be if I were the prosecutor,” the lawyer said.

From his point of view, as one of the proxies for the victims, he believes that the indictment is absolutely solid.

“I must say that the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office and the War Crimes Detection Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia play a major role in this procedure. Without them, there would be no this procedure, nor the indictment itself,” he said.

“Croatia unilaterally terminated the agreement with Serbia”

As he adds, the accused are being tried in absentia, but they have defenders who use all possible rights.

“Therefore, their rights are not violated, or, if they are violated, they are violated by the Republic of Croatia, which prevents them from responding to the call for its own reasons, which are political and self-serving,” he pointed out.

He said that Croatia in this, as well as in some other procedures, has absolutely unilaterally terminated the agreement it had with Serbia.

“What I think about that agreement and its quality is less important now, but that agreement was implemented very unilaterally. So, it was implemented when, for example, the specific crime of murdering prisoners of war in Ovčara, etc., was tried. Wherever it suited Croatia and where Serbs were accused, cooperation was carried out to the maximum. Now that it has finally come to trying someone from their side, they suddenly withdraw from that agreement, which I consider a great shame for the Croatian state. Currently, Croatia is causing more damage to itself than those who ordered the attack on the columns at that time,” Cvejić said.

He points out that the crimes on Petrovačka and Prijedorska cesta were committed on the day “Storm” officially ended, August 7, and also the next day, August 8, when there was no need for military interventions.

“Second, this happened on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Third, this happened at a time when there was still a NATO flight ban over Bosnia and Herzegovina. How these people got the opportunity and permission to fly over – that is perhaps a broader topic,” the lawyer said.

Why wasn’t the crime brought before the court in The Hague?

He says that the decision to attack the column was made at the highest level and claims that it could not have happened without the knowledge of the supreme commander, President Tuđman, and by the chain of command, Imre Agotić, who was the commander of the air force.”

“And Čuletić, who was the head of the operational center, in my opinion, very likely also the Minister of Defense Šušak. Without Admiral Domazet, who is the head of the intelligence service, this absolutely could not have happened. Moreover, these two attacks are not the only attacks that took place in the same way and in the same modus operandi during those days. Lička Kaldrma was also hit, when people left their homes, when there was no army at all, allegedly the ammunition depot of the army of the Republic of Srpska Krajina was hit. The column of civilians was hit. Moreover, that case is even more interesting than this one, and it might be interesting when it is opened because Admiral Domazet then ordered someone from the Split military area to hit the column of civilians with cannons. I think it was Colonel Rajčić, he consulted General Gotovina, and Gotovina told him to refuse that order and he refused the order. So, Ante Gotovina directly violated what Admiral Domazet was ordering. Moreover, I think that Ante Gotovina was in custody instead of Admiral Domazet. It was simply destined for him,” Cvejić said.

When asked why that crime was not brought before The Hague, the lawyer said that he thinks they simply did not want to get further involved in something that would look like prosecuting high officials.

“This does not stop at the commanders of the squadron or the air force centers. They wanted to avoid that for some reasons, but they in no way forbade our service for the detection of war crimes and the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, which has complete access to the Hague documentation. A good part of the information was drawn from there. Therefore, in a way, they were involved,” Cvejić said.