Evacuation in 26 Scenes

The order of the crisis headquarters of Pozega, dated October 29, 1991, lists 24 villages, to which two were later added. Within 48 hours it was necessary to evacuate residents of the villages of Oblakovac, Vucjak Cecavacki, Jeminovac, Snjegovic, Cecavac, Koprivna, Rasna, Pasikovac, Kujnik, Orljavac, Crljenac, Slobostina, Milivojevci, Podsrece, Vranic, Njezic, Pozeski Markovac, Klisa, Ozdakovac, Poljanska, Kantorovci, Gornji Vrhovci, Lucinci, Oljas, Smoljanovci, and Busevac. According to the 1991 census, 2120 persons lived in those villages - Feral's reporters visited in late January, 2001, more than nine years after the evacuation, most of the villages listed in the order and remained dumbfounded: everything had been burned down very meticulously, without mistakes of omissions

by Drago HEDL

Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, February 3, 2001

The implementation of the order about the evacuation of 26 villages in the western part of the Pozega municipality started at high noon on October 29, 1991. That order was issued a day earlier, read hundreds of times on the local radio and the members of Civilian Protection from Pozega, together with the Police units in charge of the evacuation, plastered large posters with the full text of the order at the most frequented locations. The evacuation of "all the citizens, their personal property and cattle" encompassed the villages in the foothills of the Papuk and Psunj mountains exclusively or overwhelmingly inhabited by the Serbs. The order of the Crisis Headquarters meticulously listed all of the villages. The territory that was supposed to be evacuated within 48 hours included the villages of Oblakovac, Vucjak Cecavacki, Jeminovac, Snjegavic, Cecavac, Koprivna, Rasna, Pasikovci, Kujnik, Orljavac, Crljenci, Slobostina, Milivojevci, Podsrece, Vranic, Njezic, Pozeski Markovac, Klisa, Ozdakovci, Poljanska, Kantorovci, Gornji Vrhovci, Lucinci, and Oljase - therefore all together 24 villages to which Smoljanovci and Busevac were later added. According to the 1991 census these villages had 2120 residents.

Already in the early morning hours on October 29, 1991, long columns of tractors, horse drawn carriages and agricultural mechanization, cars and cattle headed towards east, towards Pozega. The Civilian Protection recruited five buses for the transport of people, and five special purpose vehicles for the transport of cattle. All those who could not find accommodation were supposed to gather in "collection regions" in Ivandol, Dezevci, Perenci, Toranj, and Biskupci. The order stated that only the most necessary things should be taken from the houses, such as "food, clothing, footwear, bed sheets, toiletries, cutlery, only the most necessary lighting fixtures, gold and money," and naturally cattle. During the evacuation, claims one witness, people were told to lock the houses up carefully and that, once they return, everything was going to be the way they left it.

Necessary Decision

The order issued by the Crisis Headquarters of Pozega stated that the goal of the evacuation was the protection of the civilian population of the mentioned villages, which had begun to be endangered by "Chetnik terrorist forces and the units of the Yugoslav Army". Furthermore, claimed the Crisis Headquarters, the evacuation was supposed to provide conditions for more successful defense. However, Anto Bagaric, the president of the Crisis Headquarters and currently the governor of the Pozega-Slavonija county, and at the time the president of the Executive Council of the Pozega Municipality, later somewhat differently interpreted the goal of the evacuation. In the series "War Days in Pozega", published in 1995 in the local newspaper Pozeski List, Bagaric stated that "such a decision was necessary, because it had been noticed that some of the Serb inhabitants of those villages were providing strong logistical support to the enemy (shelter, information, food, etc.) so that our forces found it impossible to achieve full control of the critical territory." The official document about the activities of the Civilian Protection in Pozega, on the other hand, contains yet another version: "Spreading of the war clashes to the north-western part of the municipality, and the need to establish a line of defense about 40 kilometers long, gave the impetus to the Crisis Headquarters to on October 28, 1991, issue the order about the evacuation of the population, its personal belongings and agricultural mechanization."

The Crisis Headquarters of the Pozega Municipality, besides the already mentioned president Ante Bagaric, included another 14 persons trusted by the then HDZ authorities. It included the Police Chief, Nikola Jankovic, commander of the 123rd Brigade of the Croatian Army, Miljenko Crnjac, the president of the municipality, Tomo Jelic, the head of the Defense Office, Drago Matosevic, the head of the Civilian Protection, Simun Miletic, and another nine persons. The evacuation order signed by the Crisis Headquarters included another two important informations: after the end of the evacuation every movement of civilians was forbidden in the listed villages, and the order was to be enforced for the indefinite time but was to "depend on the calming down of the situation in the mentioned territory".

The situation in the mentioned region calmed down relatively quickly, by the December of 1991. The Croatian Army, more precisely the 123rd Brigade commanded by nowadays General Mijlenko Crnjac, established full control of that territory, so that the circumstances because of which the evacuation order had been issued and implemented became fully obsolete.

Evidence of Looting

In early 1992 all displaced persons could have returned to their villages. However, with the exception of three villages, Poljanske, Orljavac and Lucinci, where Croats returned to their homes, the rest haven't return to this day. The reason is extremely banal - they had nowhere to return to. Their houses, commercial objects, churches, monuments, cemeteries, community halls, even transformer stations, had been burnt down or totally destroyed.

Feral's reporters, who in late January, more than nine years after the evacuation, visited most of the villages mentioned in the order, were dumbfounded by the systematic nature of the job - not a single building remains untouched, regardless whether it is a house, a commercial object, a stable... Everything was burnt down very meticulously, without mistakes or omissions. Gornji Vrhovci, one of the larger villages on the list of Bagaric's Crisis Headquarters, has the appearance of a place struck by an apocalypse and can be compared with the Hiroshima-like appearance of Vukovar's Mitnica after the fall of Vukovar in November 1991. Even today, so many years later, in Gornji Vrhovci, as well as most of the other villages on the evacuation list, one can see clear evidence of looting and arson. In the remains of the houses, one can clearly see that before being set on fire the houses were thoroughly "cleaned up". Even the electrical cables were pulled out of the walls, wall and floor tiles stripped from the bathrooms, doorknobs taken off doors... Then, once everything of value was carted off, everything was set on fire.

Hrvatski Vojnik in its February 1992 issue gives an interesting explanation of the destruction of Gornji Vrhovci and other villages. In the article "Cleansing of Papuk and Psunj" we can literally find: "When the 123rd Brigade started towards Gornji Vrhovci, the enemy stronghold that had for months been used for the bombardment of the villages in the northwestern part of the municipality and the positions of the Croatian Army, the enemy was struck by confusion. The fear forced them into headless flight before which they burnt down the whole village. When the soldiers of the 123rd Brigade reached the village, everything was still burning." The already mentioned series of Pozeski List has a somewhat different description of the incident. "The 123rd Brigade from Pozega then continued to advance and Chetniks, afraid of being surrounded and cutoff from the only way out towards Bucje, started pulling back from their other strongholds. Without much fighting our fighters entered on December 16 the infamous Gornji Vrhovci, and a day later the village of Zecevo. The best illustration of the enemy's flight were large amounts of weaponry, ammunition, food, and documentation left behind." Therefore, in this case there is no mention of "headless flight before which the whole village was set on fire," because it would be difficult to explain how those who are fleeing in panic have time to burn absolutely every house and commercial object while leaving weaponry and documentation untouched.

Giving in to Fate

However, contradictory information that appeared officially after the evacuation of the 26 villages and their destruction (as we said the exception are three villages, where houses owned by Croats remained untouched) continued to appear as if on an assembly line. Therefore the official document about the role of the Civilian Protection in Pozega contains a lot of interesting information, which, if read carefully, gives a clear picture of the events in that region. That document, in Feral's possession, states that during the evacuation of 26 villages the following items were "pulled out": 376 heads of cattle, 569 pigs and 167 sheep. However, in the period between November 3, 1991, therefore after the end of the evacuation, and March 17, 1992, the Civilian Protection "turned over for further care" 2295 heads of cattle, 3712 pigs, 1310 sheep, 85 goats, and 20 horses. One of the witnesses curtly explained to Feral how and in which manner those animals were "taken care of": "Ask local butchers about that."

In its report about the events in the region of the 26 villages after the evacuation the Civilian Protection of Pozega mentions its role in the clearing of the terrain. During that action, which started on May 5, 1992, which indicates that in the absence of systematic arson, immediately after that date the return to the 26 villages was still possible, the Civilian Protection removed 1179 dead pigs, 292 cows, 469 sheep, 68 goats, seven horses, three deer, 27 foxes, 277 dogs, 194 cats, and 1701 heads of poultry. It is interesting that murdered humans are not mentioned anywhere in that meticulous record. According to the witnesses there were about seventy of them!

Some people, mostly the elderly, did not respond to the evacuation order, believing that they had nothing to lose. They stayed in their homes, giving in to the fate. Some residents of the mentioned villages joined the Serb rebels in their strongholds, closer to Pakrac, and the evacuees quickly figured out what they were supposed to do and crossed the Sava river to Bosnia where they stayed or later moved to eastern Slavonija, to the empty houses of expelled Croats, especially in the settlements on the border with Serbia, such as Bapska, Lovas, Ilok...

Duro Brkinjaca the only Croat from Rasna, the village somewhat further away from the road Pozega-Pakrac, says that before the evacuation on October 29, 1991, not a single shot was fired in that village. Brknjaca had the misfortune of being hit by a cow immediately before the evacuation, so that he was in hospital at the time. When he returned and reunited with his, in the meantime evacuated wife, the whole village, including his house, had been destroyed. He gave a detailed description of the events, who burned houses and killed people, after the war to a French journalist. Soon afterwards, he was visited by "the people from the city hall" who warned him to watch what he talked about, so that he is not willing to repeat what he told to the French journalist.

Long List of Dead

There are quite a few recorded testimonies about the murders that took place in that region. One, whose content was examined by the Feral's journalist, lists names and basic information about the murdered residents of some of the 26 villages. That long list of the victims states that married couple Jovo (76) and Mila Radic (72) were murdered in Cecavac; In Jeminovac the victims were Mile Mijatovic (90), allegedly burnt to death in a burning house, and Milan Radmilovic (81) and his son Ljubomir (51); witnesses claim that in Vucjak Cecavski as many as 14 persons were murdered: Milan (79) and Ljuba Carevic (65), Jagoda Dulic (73), Radojka Dulic (47), Mile Dulic (39), Kata Dulic (73), Milena Ivanovic (47), Andja Starcevic (63), Milka Starcevic (73), Jagoda Starcevic (82), Mica Simic (61), Milka Simic (78), Janko Zivkovic (67) and Nikola Zivkovic (41).

Witnesses claim that in the village of Snjegavic 15 persons were murdered and list their names: Bosiljka Protic (84), Milan Protic (63), Draga Protic (60), Stanko Protic, Milan Radmilovic (56), Anka Radmilovic (53), Milka Radmilovic (84), Stanko Radmilovic (age not given), Andja Stankovic (70), Bosiljka Stankovic (age not given), Ljubomir Protic (53), Ana Radmilovic (70), Ilija Radmilovic (40), Zeljko Ranosavljevic (26), and Mileva Milosevic-Subasic (53).

The testimonies obtained by Feral from which the above mentioned data are taken could turn out to be very reliable. That much, as far as the total number of murdered persons in Snjegavic is concerned, was confirmed to Feral by Rudolf Macek, the county state prosecutor in Pozega. Namely, the State Attorney's Office in Zagreb on March 17, 2000, therefore soon after the establishment of the new authorities, passed to the county state prosecutor's office in Pozega a warrant against unknown perpetrators related to the wartime events in that part of Croatia. The warrant, which county prosecutor Macek refused to show to Feral's reporters, is against unknown perpetrators for the murders and destruction of whose villages. Namely, as far as murders are concerned, the persons from the village of Snjegavici were mentioned, but the county prosecutor Macek was not willing to reveal their names. He only disclosed that on his initiative on December 11 last year, in cooperation with the Government's Office for Missing and Detainees, an exhumation was conducted in Snjegavic and that on that occasion 13 bodies were exhumed. They were in a mass grave and their remains were transferred to the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Zagreb where the identification still hasn't been completed.

Unnecessary Haste

To Feral's question whether an investigation is under way, Macek replied that an investigation would be initiated if it turned out to be necessary once the bodies were identified and once it was established how the victims had died. He only added that a memorandum has been sent to the Defense Ministry with the request to identify the units and responsible individuals who were active in that region during the war, but he refused to tell us what was in the Ministry's reply, as that was supposedly a military secret. To Feral's question whether anyone has been tried for war crimes in the Pozega-Slavonija county, Macek replied that about fifteen Serbs had been sentenced after the operation Flash. To the additional question whether any investigations for war crimes have been initiated against Croats, Macek responded that there hadn't been any, but that there was no need to rush because, as everyone knows, there is no term of limitation for war crimes, if there were any, of course.

However, Anto Bagaric the then president of the Crisis Headquarters and today the Governor of the Pozega-Slavonija County, reacted at the session of the County Assembly as soon as the information about the warrant for murder and looting in Snjegovac leaked out. Bagaric stated that the warrant stated that in that village, in the action which followed on December 11 and 12, 1991, 22 persons were killed, and claimed that they were not civilians but residents of that and nearby villages "who ignored the call of the Crisis Headquarters for evacuation on October 29, but moved all of their property via at the time occupied Bucje, and Okucani to Banja Luka, and then returned in uniform to Psunj, joined the units of the Banja Luka Corps and actively participated in the war action on December 11 an 12 in which they were slain." When the autopsy results arrive and if they confirm the names and age of the persons from the written testimony about the events in Snjegavic, governor Bagaric will have a hard time explaining how come some members of the Banja Luka Corps were aged more than 80, and included many women.

For full five days, Feral tried to set up a meeting with Bagaric, but his secretary, although she was several times informed about the topic of our possible conversation with the former president of the Crisis Headquarters, could not find any free slots. Thus, we were denied answers to many questions, among which is the key one: was the evacuation order nothing but a practical implementation of the idea of "humane transfer of population" agreed at the highest levels of authorities?

Lack of Good Will

The order about evacuation of 26 villages, after being plastered more than nine years ago in villages around Pozega, has now again resurfaced. It is one of the most discrediting documents that indicate a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing. Those who were invited to because of "protection of lives" leave their villages, as well as the general Croatian public will have a hard time understanding why 26 villages in the foothills of Psunj and Papuk (as we said three that were also inhabited by Croats were only partly destroyed) were burnt to the ground. The answers to the questions who issued that order, who implemented it, who murdered people and looted villages, and then meticulously set them on fire, aware that thereby he was definitely preventing those who lived in the villages from ever returning to them, will one day have to be given to the public.

The Croatian Government, "dissatisfied with the hitherto work of the Police and judicial institutions on the discovery, investigation and processing of war crimes committed during and immediately after the end of the Homeland War," as is written in the statement issued on January 12, 2001, has decided to establish a special office of the State Attorney's Office, which will deal with criminal prosecution of war criminals.

This is the first task for the new state institution which is supposed to beat Hague investigators and Carla del Ponte in their unchecked wandering through our forests and mountains. Everything necessary is there. There is a written order, the members of the Crisis Headquarters who issued the order, military and police commanders, there are corpses and burnt villages. Only the good will is lacking...

Translated on February 22, 2001