Šimpraga at commemoration in Uzdolje

A commemoration for eight Serb civilians killed on their doorsteps 31 years ago was held on Thursday in Uzdolje, a village in the Biskupija municipality near Knin. The event was organized by the Council of the Serb National Minority of Biskupija Municipality, the Association of Families 'Against Forgetting', and the Serb National Council (SNV).

The main address was given by Anja Šimpraga, an MP from the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) and vice-president of the SNV, who stressed that the demand for justice for Serb victims does not diminish the suffering of Croatian victims. "On the contrary, consistent condemnation of all crimes and equal care for all those affected are the only path toward a society based on universal values, not selective memory," the SNV reported.

'Without truth and justice, there is no lasting trust'

Šimpraga emphasized that the commemoration was not organized to deepen divisions. "It is because without truth and justice, there is no lasting trust among citizens, no full democracy, and no genuine reconciliation," she said. She called for an investigation into every crime and the location of all missing persons, highlighting the figure of 1,727 missing individuals of various nationalities, 40 percent of whom are of Serb ethnicity.

She also recalled the joint commemorations held by the SNV and the Croatian government, describing them as "a light in resolving relations, accepting diversity as wealth, and expressing sorrow over the fact that the Croatian state failed to protect its citizens." She added that Croatian society has been warned that it must find the strength to acknowledge that crimes against Serb civilians, which should never have happened, were also committed during Operation Storm.

Constitutional Court ruling and 'the illusion of an investigation'

The MP referred to the recent ruling of the Croatian Constitutional Court, which found that Croatia had violated the Constitution and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights by failing to conduct an effective investigation into this case. "And on what basis did the Constitutional Court conclude that such a 'sloppy' investigation, which continues to this day, was conducted in this war crime case, given that potential suspects for this (non)deed have never been identified?" she asked.

She described how, over the years, data had been collected on units that passed through Uzdolje, and members of the 142nd and 6th Home Guard Regiments of the Croatian Army were questioned without success, with the same witnesses repeatedly summoned. In her words, this is "not an investigation but the creation of the illusion of an investigation."

The crime in the Šare hamlet

According to the press release, the work of Hague investigators and the field research of Documenta, Centre for Dealing with the Past established that on the morning of August 6, 1995, three men in Croatian Army camouflage uniforms, armed with automatic rifles, drove into the Šare hamlet. They harassed and intimidated some of the elderly residents they found there, and then one of them opened fire at a location 30 meters from the Knin-Drniš main road.

Killed in the attack were Milica Šare (1922), Stevo Berić (1933), Janja Berić (1932), Đurđija Berić (1916), Krsto Šara (1931), Miloš Ćosić (1923), and Jandrija Šara (1932), while Sava Šare (1915) was killed on her doorstep. One person survived and managed to flee into a nearby forest. Documenta filed a criminal complaint against unknown perpetrators back in 2017, and the investigation is still ongoing.

Quoting the dissenting opinion of Constitutional Court judge Lovorka Kušan, Šimpraga concluded: "In the investigation conducted both before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and before domestic authorities, all evidence clearly indicates that the direct perpetrators were members of the Croatian Army."