That is how our friends and organisers from the Serb National Council called this study visit. We had come to learn. I am well-versed in Bosnian crimes, but the crimes on my own side, Croatian crimes, are rarely spoken about, and since I left to live in Bosnia, I no longer even ask, I\u2019ve given in to my powerlessness to change anything. So, I must admit that it was only the other day that I learnt of the prison in Bjelovar, the collection centre in Vara\u017edin and the prison in Po\u017eega. People could be gone for months, people could be gone forever. I didn\u2019t know that the RSK Army included Hungarians, and Croats, and other nationalities. On the slopes of Psunj, it wasn\u2019t easy to pick a side. I didn\u2019t know that Kraguj used to be home to many households that kept up the ma\u010dkare<\/em> [carnival] tradition, which was destroyed, along with good neighbourly relations, back in 1991. We also heard what we had heard countless times before when meeting minorities and those who used to be refugees \u2013 that help was given where it was unexpected, and injustice came from where you were counting on justice. That there are no differences between people and that no one wanted this. But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n We had gotten lost looking for Kraguj and our hosts. We asked some workers fixing the road in Pakrac for directions. \u201cKragujevac?!\u201d they said, baffled. They\u2019re not from around here, I thought. And neither am I. It was a warm spring afternoon and all the hills were wonderfully lush, the sheep, horses, the breeze carried scents of better times past.<\/p>\n There is this legend among Croats in Croatia when it comes to the Croatian Serbs. It is not old, it only dates back to the 1990s, which makes its mythical status all the more surprising, because we have all had an opportunity to meet a real, even a genuine Serb man or woman. Our own, or of a Bosnian or Serbian variety. The legend, however, warns that they are so bloodthirsty that blood runs down their chins. So what if a few of them are disappeared as \u2018collateral victims\u2019 of an otherwise legitimate military operation, or not even as collateral damage, but as just deserts? We did not know, and in all honesty, we did not care how people lived in occupied Krajina. For us, Krajina was and remains a black hole, together will all its inhabitants. That is probably the first stage of death, when someone denies you exist.<\/p>\n We found out that all our collocutors had heard Franjo Tu\u0111man\u2019s call for them to remain, but that few had believed him, and that by 1995, all had been disillusioned. Among those who had heeded his call and remained, not so much out of trust, but due to old age and sickness, some were killed on their thresholds. There were also those who did not get away on time, among them both the elderly and children. We visited the grave of little Milka Bosanac, the girl killed in Operation Flash on the playground in \u0160ehovica. Her mother succumbed to her injuries a while later. Her father had been killed already back in 1991, in the crime against the civilians of Grahovljani.<\/p>\n The captured members of the RSK Army we spoke with had surrendered, it was a demilitarised UNPA zone, Sector West, and they were not significantly armed, having surrendered most of their weapons to the UN a few years earlier. They were split up, some taken to the prison in Bjelovar, some to the collection centre in Vara\u017edin, and some to the prison in Po\u017eega. Sometimes for months without an indictment. We also heard about who dealt beatings and who didn\u2019t. Who lost their mind in prison. Who never came back. The people we spoke with are not criminals, this bears repeating. Though they were put through \u201cextensive and difficult\u201d interrogations by investigative authorities, no crime could ever be proven, because they had never committed any crime. Except for the greatest crime in the eyes of the state \u2013 rebellion. This offence will later prevent them from accessing employment and from returning and rebuilding. It turns out, however, that they will face the most difficulties in trying to ensure the prosecution and conviction of the perpetrators of war crimes against Serb villagers in the area of Pakrac and Oku\u010dani. Serves them right, you may say, why did they start it in the first place? What was it like for people who were expelled in 1991 and could never return?<\/p>\n As to who started it, and when, that question is far from simple. It\u2019s impossible to ignore the fact that every family here has someone who ended up in Jasenovac, or someone who put people in Jasenovac, but then there\u2019s also a significant number of those who died for the Partisan cause. In fact, if you\u2019re from these parts, you become very cautious with ready generalisations of Ustashas, Chetniks, etc. History did not start in 1991 anywhere, least of all here. The proximity of Jasenovac follows you around like a shadow through these villages and you become painfully aware of its insignificance in the daily life of the rest of Croatia. Jasenovac is the lesson we still haven\u2019t learnt. 83,145 victims identified by name to date, of that number almost 50 thousand Serbs. So much for images of bloodthirstiness. None of this is any justification for any other violence, but if we do not try to understand what happened, someone else will come along with their own interpretation.<\/p>\n There\u2019s another Croatian legend that says \u201cthey were killing us in the 1990s and now they walk free in Croatia\u201d. Such is the attraction of the criminal nature of others that we forget to ask ourselves: who is responsible for prosecuting those criminals? Or, do our criminals walk free in Croatia, too?<\/p>\n When we ask them why they came back, they tell us this is their home, their land, their grandfathers and great-grandfathers are buried here. But many people have left, \u201cnot just ours, but theirs too, especially lately.\u201d<\/p>\n What shocked me most, perhaps, was my inability to speak. I\u2019d noticed it first among our hosts, how they would skip over some words, not utter them, avoiding or leaving sentences unfinished. Still, we understood each other. Among the rights the defeated are denied is the right to name the phenomena and events in their lives, since these may sound scurrilous to the Croatian public. Believe me, I wanted to say to them, here I am, I\u2019m listening to you now, and I hear you, and I can barely breathe from the guilt, I am so immensely sorry for everything you went through. But why should these people be responsible for absolving me? The injustice would not have been laid to rest.<\/p>\n Petar Vukoti\u0107, father of Du\u0161an Vukoti\u0107, was captured by the Wermacht in 1941 as a member of the Yugoslav Royal Army and taken to a labour camp in Germany. In 1941, Du\u0161an\u2019s mother Desanka was taken to Jasenovac together with her sisters and mother, then later to Stara Gradi\u0161ka, from where she was deported to Germany. Both of them survived and returned to their home country after the war. They lived in Paklenica until 1991 when they became refugees and went to stay with relatives in Belgrade. I guess we weren\u2019t thinking about them back when Franjo Tu\u0111man was toying with the idea of reinstating the Ustasha-era currency, or a certain Ustasha \u00e9migr\u00e9 from Canada.<\/p>\n Du\u0161an lived and worked in Novska. Given that he was a member of the reserve police force, he was warned that it would be wise for him to volunteer for the Croatian Army, which he ended up doing. Pakra\u010dka Poljana was already known about. He thinks this is what saved his life, but could not help his parents. Early in 1995, not being able to bear staying away from home any longer, they returned to Paklenica. The other villagers knew their son was in the Croatian Army, they had all kinds of difficulties. But they endured, just so they could see their son on one of the rare encounters at the improvised border, because they did not believe he was alive. They ended up brutally killed in the basement of a relative\u2019s house where they had been hiding, together with Pantelija and Vjera Kova\u010di\u0107, from the advancing Croatian Army. This was when 13 civilians were killed in Paklenica.<\/p>\n Du\u0161an waited 18 years for the opportunity to identify the bodies of his parents. For ten years, he fought a legal battle to pressure the Republic of Croatia into investigating, finding and convicting the perpetrators. Du\u0161an\u2019s father had been born in 1919, his mother in 1925. He lost in court and had to cover the costs himself. This is common, he tells us, you simply stand no chance. \u201cYou should forgive as much as you can, so you don\u2019t go crazy and harm yourself. But you shouldn\u2019t forget.\u201d<\/p>\n As he tells us this, we are standing on the land of the Serb Orthodox Church. To our right is a small chapel, usurping the land. Seems this isn\u2019t just a Bosnian curiosity, Amer comments. The symbolism was not enough, apparently, because we soon discovered that part of the land was also usurped for a Catholic graveyard. Still, it doesn\u2019t seem the concept worked out too well, the graveyard appears unused. In retrospect, you come up with a million questions, but believe me, when you\u2019re there, you can\u2019t speak.<\/p>\n We walk away from the house in whose basement the crime was committed. The driveway is neatly mowed, though the house itself is in a thicket. We said hello to the neighbour, a congenial man with a moustache surrounded by his sheep and lambs. I\u2019d clear it up, he says, but I\u2019m not allowed, it\u2019s not mine. \u201cI\u2019d like to help, I just need permission.\u201d The owner, we find out, inherited the house, but lives abroad and rarely visits. We talk about the tragic depopulation of these parts. \u201cOh, the good old days,\u201d Ivica the neighbour says, \u201cwe\u2019d get together and in three hours we\u2019d have this lamb here skinned and roasted. Neighbours, friends.\u201d<\/p>\n The day before we spoke with bishop Jovan \u0106ulibrk and he told us nothing was more important than neighbours. Originally from Gradi\u0161ka, bishop Jovan cares for the welfare of his Serb and Croat people in this area, and not just here. Namely, we used to be aware, but today we forget the crucial contributions of the Serb people to Croatian culture through the centuries. The Bishop\u2019s Palace houses an old manuscripts library<\/a>. In addition to old manuscripts from the 16th century, early printed books in Serbian and a Byzantine collection, the diocesan library also keeps rare editions, journals from a number of countries, a collection dedicated to the Holy Land and Christianity in the Middle East, a collection of Judaica, first editions of Voltaire, Rousseau, but also Nietzsche…<\/p>\n This invaluable treasure was saved by Ivan Hiti, a soldier of the Croatian Army, when he refused to follow orders from (the generally unhinged) General Korade to burn down the library. Hiti\u2019s portrait adorns a wall in one of the rooms of the Bishop\u2019s Palace, along with other deserving citizens, scientists and dignitaries, people who had recognised the social value of this cultural heritage and the fact that it was being preserved precisely in Croatia. Instead of high honours, Croatia gave Hiti a dishonourable discharge from the army and the inability to find work again.<\/p>\n Especially those no longer among the living, even more so those whose loss weighs heavy on us due to the difficult or unknown circumstances of their deaths. At the Lenten mass for the dead at the Temple of the Holy Greatmartyr Dimitrius in Oku\u010dani, we remembered the killed and missing and honoured their lives and deaths. On the way to the temple, we were rerouted through backstreets under police escort, because preparations to celebrate Operation Flash and the arrival of the president and prime minister were well under way. In the temple courtyard we found HTV broadcasting vehicles covering the celebrations from Oku\u010dani.<\/p>\n According to data from the Serb community, within 36 hours, more than 10 thousand Serbs were expelled from Western Slavonia, at that time part of RSK and under UN protection, and 238 were killed or disappeared. The fate of only 162 victims has been brought to light since then[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Their names were read out at the end of the service, in front of the cross in the temple courtyard. The inscription on the cross reads \u2013 To the victims of the 1991-1995 wars. We laid roses and paid our respects, but the last farewell was interrupted by deafening noise from the neighbouring Catholic church, a call for the mass service dedicated to the homeland and those killed defending it. As you may have guessed, the Catholic church is twice the size of the Orthodox church, and juts out onto the street. And as I\u2019ve mentioned, it also has a modern sound system fit for concerts. In addition, part of it also encroaches on the land of the Serb Orthodox Church. But who has the right to complain?<\/p>\n None of those present were visibly disturbed or particularly surprised by this rude interruption. Today is that kind of day, they said, when they celebrate and we mourn. It is distasteful to dance on graves, I think to myself as I go out to the main street to see the commotion. I talk with the security staff, they tell me it\u2019s over, everyone was there. They find it strange that I\u2019m asking about the president and the prime minister, seeing as I\u2019d just come from the Serb Orthodox church courtyard. They\u2019re not unpleasant, though. The HTV crew keep to themselves.<\/p>\n We later find out that the partisan monument and ossuary for the remains of fallen fighters and victims of fascist terror in the Oku\u010dani area had been usurped for years. In 1995, the monument was removed and replaced by an almost identical one, but this time dedicated to Croatian defenders killed in Operation Flash, and instead of a five-point star, it now featured a marble cross. Years passed before it occurred to anyone to also honour the partisans whose bones had been laid to rest in the ossuary. The ossuary was renewed in 2019, but this time without the partisan monument. The defenders were given another monument, right next to this one. The monument is titled \u201cCrystal Cubes of Serenity\u201d. Perhaps it\u2019s some sort of euphemism for the army.<\/p>\n \u201cHere come our guests for Easter!\u201d Milena exclaimed when we appeared in her yard in \u010covac. Coffee and Easter eggs. \u201cDig in, kids,\u201d she said, \u201cmy people, even those who could\u2019ve made it, won\u2019t be coming now, on account of corona.\u201d<\/p>\n When we ask her about Operation Flash, she tells us how she was working that day, \u201ceven though it was May Day, it was a working day. Over in Gradi\u0161ka, at the bank. I took the car, I drove a Yugo, I didn\u2019t know what was happening. Then the detonations, they wouldn\u2019t let me through at the checkpoint, said I had to pay. I told them I was coming through one way or another, so they removed the barricade and I drove through. Grandpa here (she indicates her husband, sitting next to her) didn\u2019t want to, but later had to.\u201d Old bedridden grandma was left behind, she was burned in the house.<\/p>\n We came back in 2008, when we got funds to reconstruct the house.<\/p>\n It\u2019s better now than it was before when we just returned. No one takes any notice any more, doesn\u2019t matter what you are. There used to be 120 families here, now there\u2019s no one to greet you on the street. We used to have 150 pigs, and you\u2019d drive them through here, never any problems. Until 1991.<\/p>\n We continued on towards Vrbovljani, talking with many more people about many more things, about Jovan Ra\u0161kovi\u0107, cultural autonomy and the Z-4 Plan. About the interim police, and again about rights that remain inaccessible. The silence of empty Slavonian villages rings out with unfreedom, a life full of obstacles and sideways glances, and the experience of repeated and systematic discrimination. How long should a person atone for their sins? While criminals enjoy the protection of the state.<\/p>\n We reach Medari. Of the 24 people who found themselves in the village at dawn on 1 May 1995, Croatian soldiers killed 22. Only two girls survived, sisters aged 6 and 4.<\/p>\n \u201cThat morning, we woke up early, before six, Zvjezdana tells us. Mum had gone to work in Oku\u010dani (she worked as a community nurse with UNHCR, the mother adds) and Dad was out in the yard getting wood for the fire, to make us breakfast. We heard some noise and saw the army in the yard. \u2018\u017deljko, surrender!\u2019 they were shouting, someone was calling him by his name, so they knew him. My father was unarmed, he just had the keys to the house in his hand. He put his hands up, but they killed him, he fell over the kitchen threshold. I was 6 years old, I understood right away what was happening. Instinctively, I put my hand over my sister\u2019s mouth so they wouldn\u2019t hear her scream. I covered my mouth too. Later, when they went from house to house, to see if anyone was left over, I guess, we hid in the wardrobe. A Croatian soldier found us. I told him, \u2018Please, don\u2019t kill us, we didn\u2019t do anything to you!\u2019 But he said, \u2018I\u2019ve come to save you,\u2019 and he took us to the Red Cross. We never found out who he was.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, people are only divided into human and inhuman. Just human and inhuman, no other way,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n Today, Zvjezdana lives in Germany with her family. \u201cI wanted to live in my village, but all the doors were closed to us. We tried for years, without success, to be recognised as civilian war victims.\u201d Zvjezdana\u2019s mother explains that they are essentially trying to get a death certificate with the precise date of \u017deljko\u2019s death \u2013 1 May 1995. \u201cThe only death certificate we can get in Nova Gradi\u0161ka is dated 3 May, which no longer has anything to do with Operation Flash,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Although it is known which HV units were on the main lines of attack in the area \u2013 the 81st Guards Battalion, the 5th Guards Brigade, and parts of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Guards Brigade \u2013 not only have the perpetrators not been prosecuted, but the entire case is still in the pre-investigation phase. It\u2019s still not time?<\/p>\n The family of the murdered \u017deljko Di\u010dak no longer expects to see justice. \u201cBut recognition would mean a lot to us,\u201d Zvjezdana says, \u201crecognition that the crime happened.\u201d<\/p>\n As we talk, we are watched over by the bullet-riddled angels of the Orthodox Church in Medari that was destroyed in the war and never reconstructed. If I weren\u2019t afraid that what is left of it would be swallowed up by trees and undergrowth, I\u2019d think the ruins of the church would perhaps be the best monument, a reminder of the madness and misfortune we are capable of producing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/20210510_TMR_Studijski-put-SNV_Pakrac_01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nExcess of memory, dearth of history<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Loved ones are missed the most around the holidays<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve come to save you\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n