Justice for Killed Serbs Does Not Diminish the Suffering of Croatian Victims
SDSS MP at commemoration for eight killed civilians says there can be no reconciliation without truth and criticizes ineffective investigation.
SDSS MP at commemoration for eight killed civilians says there can be no reconciliation without truth and criticizes ineffective investigation.
SDSS MP Anja Šimpraga said on Thursday at a commemoration in Uzdolje near Knin that the demand for justice for Serbian victims "in no way diminishes the suffering of Croatian victims." The commemoration was organized by the municipality of Biskupija and the Serb National Council (SNV) on the 31st anniversary of the crime in which three members of the Croatian Army killed eight Serbian civilians.
Šimpraga stressed that consistent condemnation of all crimes and equal care for all victims represent the only path toward a society based on universal values, not selective memory. She emphasized that the gathering was not intended to deepen divisions but to remind that "without truth and justice there can be no lasting trust among citizens, no full democracy, and no genuine reconciliation."
She also called for an investigation into every crime and the finding of all missing persons. "We want every crime to be investigated and every missing person to be found, all 1,727 of them of various nationalities, including 40 percent of Serbian nationality," said the MP.
She also referred to the recent decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, which found that the state had violated the Constitution and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights by failing to conduct an effective investigation. "And on what basis did the Constitutional Court conclude that in this case of war crime a 'sloppy' investigation has been conducted to this day, given that potential suspects for this (mis)deed have never been identified," Šimpraga asked.
She described the investigation as years of collecting data on units that passed through Uzdolje and fruitless questioning of members of the 142nd and 6th Home Guard Regiments of the Croatian Army, with constant summoning of the same witnesses who repeated their statements. Such a process, she noted, "is not an investigation but the creation of the illusion of an investigation."
Citing the dissenting opinion of Constitutional Court judge Lovorka Kušan, Šimpraga quoted: "In the investigation conducted both before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and before domestic bodies, all evidence clearly indicates that the direct perpetrators were members of the Croatian Army."
According to the findings of Hague investigators and the field work of Documenta Zagreb, the crime occurred on August 6, 1995, in the morning hours. Three men in Croatian Army camouflage uniforms, armed with automatic rifles, drove to the Šare hamlet in the village of Uzdolje. They mistreated and intimidated the elderly villagers they found or detained, and finally one of them shot the detained civilians at a location only 30 meters from the main Knin-Drniš road.
In the attack, Milica Šare (1922), Stevo Berić (1933), Janja Berić (1932), Đurđija Berić (1916), Krsto Šare (1931), Miloš Ćosić (1923), and Jandrija Šare (1932) were killed, while Sava Šare (1915) was killed on her doorstep. One person survived the crime by managing to flee into a nearby forest.
Šimpraga also recalled earlier joint commemorations by the SNV and the Croatian Government, calling them "a light in resolving relations, accepting diversity as wealth, and expressing sorrow over the fact that the Croatian state failed to protect its citizens," while at the same time Croatian society was warned to acknowledge that crimes against Serbian civilians were also committed during Operation Storm.
