We visited Gospi\u0107, Divoselo, Po\u010ditelj and Medak, and the few people still living in the villages. We had a video-call with Dragan Pjeva\u010d whose mother Boja Pjeva\u010d was one of 88 people killed in the Medak Pocket.<\/p>\n
The commemoration for the victims<\/a>\u00a0was held at the portal of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Medak.<\/p>\n The town of Gospi\u0107, the largest populated place in the area, had an ethnically mixed population before the war, consisting of 64% Croats and 30% Serbs. Today, its population is 94% Croat and 3.5% Serb. The total population has been reduced by a factor of three to less than 10,000 (there used to be 30,000 inhabitants), so it is easy to calculate the number of Serbs left in the entire territory: around 350. \u201cNo,\u201d the locals tell us, \u201cthere\u2019s not even 250 Serbs living here.\u201d<\/p>\n It is most lushly green with vegetation where houses once stood, says Milan Uzelac, the vice prefect of the Lika-Senj County, as he points out the barely visible remnants of houses sprouting trees while we walk around Divoselo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The place can be found on the map, but if you reach it by the road being overtaken by grass on all sides, edged with signs warning of minefields, you\u2019ll have a hard time believing you are in a village. Everything is green, apart from the road passing through this lush patch of wilderness.<\/p>\n Divoselo, which according to the 1991 census had a population of 344, is now inhabited only by the Stani\u0107 couple, who reconstructed their house, and only during the summer. All the structures in the village, not just the houses, but auxiliary buildings, barns, garages, everything was blown up or razed to the ground during Operation Medak Pocket, so that apart from the vegetation and animals, there is no other life in the village.<\/p>\n The situation is similar in Medak itself, where a memorial service and commemoration for the victims was held at the church, although there are now 37 people living there, including four children. Mirko Zagorac was a refugee for a long time, but he returned, asked for his house to be reconstructed and now he lives there. The population of Po\u010ditelj used to be 367, and now it\u2019s two. \u010citluk in Lika also went down from 129 to two inhabitants.<\/p>\n Mirko tells us about how after Operation Storm, he travelled for 14 days to reach Belgrade. In Medak itself, the church remained undamaged.<\/p>\n Fifty shells fell around the Church of St. John the Baptist, but the church itself remained whole, no one knows how, Mirko tells us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There were no wounded or captured in this operation of the Croatian Army \u2013 88 people were killed, of which 26 were older than 60 and 17 were women. Another 11 are still counted as missing, of which seven were over 70 and four were women.<\/p>\n My brother Nikola found our mother Boja Pjeva\u010d 18 days later in Po\u010ditelj. She had three fingers missing from one hand… we are told by Dragan Pjeva\u010d, who was himself the president of the Coordination of Serb Associations of Families of Missing, Killed and Dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/20230916_CNA_NCH_9562_-1000x667.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEverything mined, everything razed<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A military operation without any wounded or captured<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/20230916_CNA_NCH_9596_-1000x667.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBoja Pjeva\u010d<\/strong><\/h3>\n