LET “MEDAČKI DŽEP” NEVER BE FORGOTTEN: How they tortured and killed Serbian civilians, burned their livestock and poisoned their wells!

The Veritas Documentation and Information Center issued a statement marking 33 years since the suffering of Serbs in the so-called “Medački Džep,” and we are publishing their statement in full:

On September 9, 1993, the Croatian Army suddenly launched an aggression against the Serbian villages of Divoselo, Čitluk and Počitelj, located south and southeast of Gospić in the so-called “Medački Džep,” which had until then been under UN protection for eighteen months.

As it advanced, the Croatian Army looted, burned and demolished houses, poisoned wells, and killed and massacred civilians, soldiers and militiamen. Those they failed to kill and destroy during the advance were killed and destroyed during the withdrawal, which, with the mediation of UNPROFOR, lasted until September 17 of the same year.

The tragedy of “Medački Džep” unfolded before the eyes of UNPROFOR, which this time was not merely a passive observer, but also took an active part in an attempt to take control of the area and prevent the killing of the remaining people and destruction of their property, which it succeeded in doing after three days of fighting with the Croatian Army and police.

A total of 88 Serbs were killed in this operation: 46 soldiers, 6 militiamen and 36 civilians. Among the victims were 17 women, while 26 of the civilians were over 60 years old. After the operation, Croatia handed over 52 bodies to the Serbian side; UNPROFOR personnel, after entering the area in direct combat, recovered another 18 bodies; two bodies were recovered by members of the SVK; one body was found in April 1994. In May 2000, investigators from the Hague Tribunal discovered another 11 bodies hidden in a septic tank in Gospić. Of the total of 84 recovered remains, seven still remain unidentified. Another 11 people are listed as missing, including 7 civilians with an average age of 71, four of whom were women.

There were no wounded people at all in this operation. This fact, together with the results of examinations of the bodies on the Serbian side (crushed skulls, numerous gunshot wounds inflicted at close range, severed body parts, people thrown alive into fires), leads to the conclusion that this was a systematic killing of prisoners and wounded people. All three villages were looted and then razed to the ground under a “scorched earth” policy. UNPROFOR commander General Jean Cot stated on September 19, 1993, after a complete tour of the aforementioned villages: “I found no signs of life, neither people nor animals, in several villages we passed through today. The destruction is complete, systematic and deliberate.”

For crimes committed during this operation, the Hague Tribunal Prosecutor’s Office indicted three Croatian generals: Rahim Ademi, Janko Bobetko and Mirko Norac, while the investigation against Petar Stipetić was discontinued after, according to the Chief Prosecutor, he managed to prove a “parallel chain of command.” Bobetko was not even served with the indictment due to his illness, and his death in April 2003 saved him from extradition to The Hague.

In September 2005, the Hague Tribunal transferred the Ademi/Norac case to the jurisdiction of the Croatian judiciary. The domestic indictment charged them with the killing of 28 civilians and 5 soldiers, as well as the destruction of 300 different structures, the complete slaughter of livestock and the poisoning of wells. In May 2008, the Zagreb County Court acquitted Ademi, acting commander of the Gospić Corps District, of all charges, while it found Norac, commander of Operation “Džep ‘93,” guilty of failing to prevent, and thereby supporting and encouraging, the killing of 4 civilians and the looting of property, as well as the killing and torture of one prisoner of war, and sentenced him to a single prison term of seven years, which the Supreme Court reduced to six years.

Beginning in 2012, the Croatian judiciary charged three more members of the Croatian Army: Josip Krmpotić, commander of the reconnaissance company of the Croatian Army’s 9th Guards Brigade, for allowing his subordinates to kill four unidentified captured soldiers of the Republic of Serbian Krajina and ordering the burning and destruction of houses belonging to the local Serbian population, as well as Velibor Šolaja and Josip Mršić, members of the same unit, for the killing of an elderly unidentified woman.

In the meantime, all three were convicted by the Zagreb County Court: Josip Krmpotić (convicted only of ordering the burning and destruction of Serbian houses) was sentenced to three years, Velibor Šolaja to five years and Josip Mršić to three years in prison, all in final judgments.

Although it was conclusively established in the aforementioned court proceedings that four women also burned to death inside the houses that were set on fire, no one was held responsible for their deaths. In April 1991, Divoselo had 344 residents, Počitelj had 307, and Čitluk had 129 residents, almost all of them ethnic Serbs. In September 2024, no one lives in Divoselo, two elderly women live in Počitelj, while Čitluk has four families with a total of ten members.

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