ZAGREB, July 24 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) on Thursday released a report containing the names of 83 Serb civilians said to have been killed by Croatian troops during an operation in 1995.
ZAGREB, July 24 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights (HHO) on Thursday released a report containing the names of
83 Serb civilians said to have been killed by Croatian troops during
an operation in 1995. #L#
The report, entitled "Military and Police Operation 'Flash'", was
presented by HHO President Zarko Puhovski and Executive Director
Ranko Helebrant.
Croatia launched the operation at about 0500 hours on May 1, 1995 in
order to restore government authority in the Western Slavonia
region occupied by rebel Serb forces.
Puhovski and Helebrant said that the death toll was not final
because the report contained only the information that had been
verified by several sources.
The HHO gathered the information for three months spanning from the
end of 2001 to the beginning of 2002.
According to the report, in the morning hours of May 1, 1995, 30 Serb
civilians were killed in Croatian Army attacks on lines of refugees
fleeing towards Republika Srpska. Most of them were killed in an
attack on a refugee column near Novi Varos, where Serb civilians
were retreating behind two Serb tanks.
Puhovski stressed that some of the civilians from the refugee
columns had been killed by Serb soldiers who wanted to make their
retreat to Bosnia easier. He said that the names of those civilians
were not given in the report.
The report gives the names of 53 Serb civilians who remained in
their homes because they wanted to live under new Croatian rule, but
were killed.
Helebrant said that 22 of them had been killed in Medari, the first
village taken by Croatian troops, at about 0600 hours on May 1. Of 24
people who remained in the village, only two girls survived
because, according to a testimony, they were recognised by a
Croatian soldier who did not let them be executed.
He said that Croatian troops systematically looted Serb houses
after holding their owners outside the village for 48 hours on the
pretext of their security.
Serb civilians were not allowed to bury their dead, but this was
done by Croatian soldiers, Helebrant said, adding that many graves
were left unmarked.
Puhovski said that during Operation Flash the Serbs of Western
Slavonia were subjected to a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign
as part of an agreement between Croatian and Serb leaders and a part
of the international community.
In support of his claim that the departure of the Serbs had been
previously agreed, Puhovski said that Serb forces started pulling
out the moment the operation was launched, that not a single bullet
was fired on Croatian soldiers from Serb-held Bosnia, and that
Croatian troops did not take any protective measures against a
possible attack from the Bosnian side of the Sava river.
He said that the agreement was positive because it reduced the
number of casualties.
Puhovski went on to say that the report was a follow-up to a report
on Operation Storm, adding that it was late for financial and
organisational reasons and because Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska
were not immediately ready to cooperate.
Puhovski criticised Croatian government bodies for failing to
provide a single statistic on civilian casualties during Operation
Storm or seek such information from the HHO because the casualties
were citizens of Croatia.
"Does that mean that they have all the information or that they are
not interested?" he asked.
Asked by a journalist if retired Croatian Army general Luka Dzanko,
who earlier today began an interview with investigators from the
Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, was mentioned as an officer
responsible for alleged crimes in Western Slavonia, Puhovski said
that witnesses had not mentioned him as a responsible person.
Puhovski said that the report would be available to anyone who
wanted to use it professionally, including defence attorneys and
prosecutors at the Hague tribunal.
Helebrant said that the report was based on statements by 500-600
witnesses, that all facts had been verified by two independent
sources, that HHO activists had visited almost all villages in the
former UN Sector West and that they had also travelled to Republika
Srpska and Serbia.
(hina) vm