| Paulin Dvor massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of theCroatian War of Independence | |
Paulin Dvor on the map of Croatia. Territories controlled by Serb or JNA forces in late December 1991 are highlighted in red. | |
| Location | 45°26′35″N18°37′26″E / 45.4431°N 18.6239°E /45.4431; 18.6239 Paulin Dvor,Croatia |
| Date | 11 December 1991 |
| Target | Croatian Serb villagers and oneHungarian national |
| Deaths | 19 |
| Perpetrators | Croatian Army (HV) |
ThePaulin Dvor massacre was an act ofmass murder committed by soldiers of theCroatian Army (HV) in the village ofPaulin Dvor, near the town ofOsijek on 11 December 1991 during theCroatian War of Independence. Of the nineteen victims, eighteen were ethnicSerbs, and one was aHungarian national. The ages of the victims, eight women and eleven men, ranged from 41 to 85. Two former Croatian soldiers were convicted for their role in the killings and were sentenced to 15 and 11 years, respectively. In November 2010, CroatianPresidentIvo Josipović laid a wreath at the graveyard of the massacre victims and officially apologized for the killings.
In 1990, following theelectoral defeat of the government of theSocialist Republic of Croatia by the pro-independenceCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ), relations between ethnicCroats andCroatian Serbs deteriorated.[1] In August 1990,an insurrection took place inCroatia centred in predominantlySerb-populated areas of the country.[2] These Serb-inhabited areas were subsequently namedSAO Krajina. After the Krajina declared its intention to integrate withSerbia, theGovernment of Croatia declared it to be a rebellion.[3] This conflict escalated into theCroatian War of Independence by March 1991.[4] In June 1991, Croatiadeclared its independence asYugoslavia disintegrated.[5] A three-month moratorium followed,[6] after which the decision came into effect on 8 October.[7]
The village ofPaulin Dvor had a population of 168 prior to the war, 147 of whom were ethnic Serbs.[8] The inhabitants of the village were known to support Croatian authorities inZagreb.[9]
On the night of 11 December 1991, Croatian troops entered the village. Nineteen people, eighteen Serbs and oneHungarian national, were detained in the house of a local man called Andrija Bukvić. Most of the village's 168 residents had already fled.[10][better source needed] The nineteen victims were detained because they were non-Croats.[9] According to police investigators, the troops became enraged after a Croatian soldier was killed by a Serb sniper in a nearby village. Ten Croatian soldiers are said to have burst into the Bukvić house and murdered all of the detained individuals before destroying the home.[10] The victims died of gunshot wounds and of injuries caused by thehand grenades that were hurled at them. Seventeen bodies were subsequently moved from the site of the killings. Only the body of Dara Vujanović, whose scalp had been removed, was left behind.[9] The ages of the victims, eight women and eleven men, ranged from 41 to 85.[8]
The victims of the massacre were first buried near a military warehouse inLug, near the town ofČepin.[9] The village of Paulin Dvor and its surroundings were seized byYugoslav People's Army (JNA) units and Serb paramilitaries soon afterwards. The area remained outside of Croatian control until it was peacefully reintegrated into the country in January 1998.[10] The remains of the massacred villagers were relocated to the village of Rizvanuša nearGospić in 1997 and remained there until 13 May 2002, when they were exhumed by investigators from theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).[9]
In 2005, theCroatian Supreme Court sentenced Nikola Ivanković, a former soldier who served in theCroatian Army's 130th Brigade, to fifteen years in prison, while in May 2012 the District Court in the town ofOsijek sentenced former Croatian soldier Enes Vitesković to eleven years in prison for his role in the deaths of eighteen people.[12]
In November 2010, CroatianPresidentIvo Josipović laid a wreath at the graveyard of the massacre victims. He said, "those who are left behind those victims deserve our apology" and stated that "a crime has no justification; revenge cannot be justified by a crime." The wreath-laying ceremony came just afterSerbianPresidentBoris Tadić's visit toVukovar to commemorate the Croatian victims of the 1991Vukovar massacre.[13] Part of the Croatian public saw the two visits as key to the reconciliation process, while another part condemned Josipović's comments as an attempt to belittle the Vukovar massacre and an attempt to "relativize the guilt for crimes committed during the war."[14]
