On December 1, Forensic pathological department of the Medical Faculty at Zagreb's Šalata has identified remains of 13 Serb civilians who have their death in Lika, Dalmatia, Kordun, Banija, Western Slavonia between 1991 and 1995.
The last nine years have witnessed exhumation from mass, common and individual burial sites, the bodies of Milić Ljubica born in 1925 from Volinje, municipality of Dvor, Mladjan Filip, born in 1909 and his wife Mladjan Milka born in 1912 from Veljuna, municipality of Slunj, Stanojević Stanko born in 1918 from Bović, municipality of Vrginmost, Harambašić Ljubomir born in 1931 from Antunovac, municipality of Pakrac, Kutić Tejkan born in 1933 from Toranj, municipality of Pakrac, Ignjatović Pavle born in 1929 from Toranj, municipality of Pakrac, Vučković Mihajlo born in 1931 from Marin Selo, municipality of Pakrac, Subanović Ostoja born in 1952 from Toranj, municipality of Pakrac, Gvozdenović Dragica born in 1944 and her husband Gvozdenović Stevan born in 1939 from Čepin, city of Osijek, Stojaković Bogdan born in 1963 from Bračevac, city of Djakovo and Subašić Mirko born in 1924 from Vukovar.
More frequent exhumations are to be expected
Although it was expected, during the course of the identification process, no positive match was found from the mass burial site in Medari where exhumation took place at the end of June of this year. This seems rather odd when we remember that 28 bodies have been exhumed, 7 of which were members of Vuković family with three minors ranging from 8 till 11 years.
This December identification has put a light on the fate of a married couple Gvozdenović Stevana I Dragice who have been arrested at Čepin bus station on November 23 1991 together with Dragica's brother Grandić Ljubomir by a member of a Croatian army Fred Marguš who took them in to his army base where he tied them up and questioned them about alleged “enemy” activities. He drove them to a field called Jasenik between Beketinac and Čepinski Martinac where he executed them from a firearm at the point blank range. Their body remains have been found on January 10, 1992 at the point of their execution and have been burried at Osijek city cemetry on Vinkovačka road under registry number: UNKNOWN. The bodies have been exhumed from the grave last October, upon family request. The Crown Court in Osijek has given a 15 year sentence for this and murder of other five Serb civilians.
A decent human burial awaited Mladjan Filip and Ljubica, a married couple who was last seen on August 8, 1995 in a refugee cue near a village Žirovac Donji between municipalities of Glina and Dvor where they have been attacked by members of Croatian Army “Black Mambas” and members of Bosnian 5th corpus Army “Hamze” Hundred Serb families found their death there. 64 bodies have been exhumed last October from a mutual burrial site at Dvor. 15 years on and the killers are still at large.
2010 witnessed 52 identifications
The third mass identifications in this year fell to deaf ears when it comes to Croatian media, so this act can only be explained as the lack of willingness to associate with victims on the national level. These identifications have drawn victims' families part of which had to come with buses from Belgrade. The remains of identified bodies are buried soon after the identification process, mainly in Croatia where they were born and lived. When the remains are transported to Serbia, the Croatian Commission has to be warned in advance a period of a fortnight and a party in question needs to produce a proof of a secured burial place in Serbia.
The undertakers costs are met by the Croatian Commission up to the border where the Serbian Commission takes the responsibility of the remains and takes them to the cemetry If the burial is taking place in Croatia, all one needs to do is to announce the date, time and the place of the burial and the costs are borne by the Croatian Commission. Besides, the International Red Cross finances relatives' trips from Serbia to attend identification sessions in Zagreb as some of them do not have valid paperwork to cross the border.
This year, 52 exhumed bodies have been identified whilst two exhumations in Medari and Kuknjevac produced 47 bodies. Up to now 906 bodies have been exhumed in the past nine years from mutual, mass and individual burial sites all over Croatia. 619 have been identified as Serb victims. According to a charity called Veritas, 624 burial places remain to be exhumed. The president of the Croatian Commission for missing and detainees, Ivan Gruić announced the next exhumation sites to be in Mašićeva Šagovina and Okučani.
The ministry of war veterans blames the slow process of exhumation on the lack of finances and full on capacity of the exhumed bodies at the forensics department of the medical faculty at Zagreb's Šalata. On the other hand, the reasons why the families of missing persons wait for the identification of the exhumed bodies are the complicated administrative procedures set by certain government bodies and the International Commission for missing persons and detainees. Furthermore, further complications are caused by the lack of the blood samples of the first generation in line. This is also a plea to the family members of the missing persons to come forward to the nearest team who works with the commission of the missing and detainees and give their blood samples to ease off experts' work at Zagreb's Šalata.
Translated from www.snv.hr
Written by
Paulina Arbutina
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