COMMEMORATION OF VICTIMS FROM SKABRNJA AND NADIN

ZADAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - Expelled inhabitants of the villages of Skabrnja and Nadin, the Zadar hinterland, paid honor Thursday at the Zadar cemetery to victims of the crime which was committed in those villages by former YU-Army and Serb terrorists on today's date two years ago. Hundreds of members of the YU-Army and Serb paramilitary formations, supported by tanks, occupied Skabrnja on 18 November 1991, and Nadin on 19 November. Members of the occupying army killed 81 persons in Skabrnja and 18 in Nadin. Pathological analyses in the Zadar Medical Center showed that the persons were killed from weapons at point blank range. Some of them had been rushed over by tanks and some hanged, but almost everybody cruelly tortured before death. All that week, the YU-Army led by General Mladic (he is currently the commander of Bosnian Serbs) had not allowed EC Monitors the access to the occupied villages of Skabrnja and Nadin. Only on Saturday, 23 November 1991, Serbs handed over 37 dead bodies of civilians. One EC monitor could not bear the scene of the bodies rushed over by tanks and he left the EC Monitor Mission. The enemy army handed over bodies of killed civilians from Skabrnja and Nadin several times. Some bodies were never found and some buried in a mass grave in Skabrnja. Serb formations transported looted machines, trucks, wine, furniture, wheat, smoked ham and cattle and afterwards destroyed the two villages. Skabrnja was one of the richest Croatian villages. During the Maslenica operation, fierce fighting took place near Skabrnja. Only the ruins remained in the village. Thirty persons from Skabrnja died in exile, but 35 children were born. 181549 MET nov 93