| Doboj ethnic cleansing | |
|---|---|
 Doboj municipality | |
 Interactive map of Doboj ethnic cleansing | |
| Date | May–September 1992 |
Attack type | mass killing,ethnic cleansing,forced transfer |
| Deaths | ~322 Bosniak civilians 86 Croat civilians |
| Perpetrators | Bosnian Serb forces,JNA,[1]White Eagles,[2]Red Berets[1] |
| Motive | Serbianisation,Greater Serbia, Anti-Bosniak sentiment, Anti-Croat sentiment |
TheDoboj ethnic cleansing refers towar crimes, includingmurder,forced deportation,persecution and wanton destruction, committed againstBosniaks andCroats in theDoboj area by theYugoslav People's Army and Serbparamilitary units from May until September 1992 during theBosnian war. On 26 September 1997, Serb soldierNikola Jorgić was found guilty by theDüsseldorf Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) on 11 counts ofgenocide involving the murder of 30 persons in the Doboj region, making it the firstBosnian Genocide prosecution. TheInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) classified it as acrime against humanity and sentenced seven Serb officials.
Out of over 40,000 Bosniaks recorded in the municipality, only around a 1,000 remained after the war.[3] According to theResearch and Documentation Center (IDC), 2,323 people were killed or went missing in the Doboj municipality during the war. Among them were 322 Bosniak civilians and 86 Croat civilians.[4]
Doboj was strategically important during theBosnian War. Before the war, in 1991, the population of the municipality had been 40.14%Bosniak (41,164), 38.83%Serb (39,820), 12.93%Croat (13,264), 5.62%Yugoslav (5,765) and others 2.48% (2,536).[5] The town and surrounding villages were seized by Serb forces in May 1992 with theSerbian Democratic Party taking over the governing of the city. What followed was a mass disarming and mass arrests of all non-Serb civilians (namely Bosniaks and Croats).[6]
Widespread looting and systematic destruction of the homes and property of non-Serbs commenced on a daily basis with the mosques in the town razed to the ground.[6] Many of the non-Serbs who were not immediately killed were detained at various locations in the town, subjected to inhumane conditions, including regular beatings, rape, torture and strenuous forced labour.[6] A school in Grapska and the factory used by the Bosanka company that produced jams and juices in Doboj was used as a rape camp. Four different types of soldiers were present at the rape camps including the local Serb militia, the Yugoslav Army (JNA), "Martićevci" (RSK police forces based inKnin, led byMilan Martić)[6] and members of the "White Eagles" paramilitary group.[6]
It has been documented within the UN investigations of Doboj, the incarceration of Bosnian and Croat women in a former Olympic stadium housing complex was the site of the mass rapes. Several thousand women of non-Serb origin were systematically raped and abused. Buses from in and around Belgrade brought men to the complex for the purpose of systematic raping of these women. The payment of money for this cruelty was part of the funding process by the various Serb para-military groups operating in the area. It was well known that these paramilitary groups were an extension of the JNA. Many women died at the camp in Doboj due to abuse.
In its verdicts, theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found that the Serb forces were found guilty ofpersecution of Bosniaks (through the commission oftorture, cruel treatment, inhumane acts,unlawful detention, the establishment and perpetuation of inhumane living conditions, the appropriation orplunder of property during and after attacks on non-Serb parts of the town, the imposition andmaintenance of restrictive anddiscriminatory measures),murder,forced transfer,deportation and torture as acrime against humanity in the Doboj area.[7]
Radovan Karadžić was convicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes across Bosnia, including Doboj. He was sentenced to alife in prison.[8]
Biljana Plavšić andMomčilo Krajišnik, acting individually or in concert with others, planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation or execution of the destruction, in whole or in part, of the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such, in several municipalities, including Doboj. Plavšić was sentenced to 11 and Krajišnik to 20 years in prison.[9][10][11]
Stojan Župljanin, an ex-police commander who had operational control over the police forces responsible for the detention camps, andMićo Stanišić, the ex-Minister of the Interior of Republika Srpska, both received 22 years in prison each. The judgement read:
The trial chamber was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that both Stanišic and Zupljanin participated in ajoint criminal enterprise (JCE) with the objective topermanently remove non-Serbs from the territory of a planned Serbian state[12]
In 2023, the follow-upInternational Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals sentenced Serbian State Security officersJovica Stanišić andFranko Simatović foraiding and abetting the crime of murder, as a violation of the laws or customs of war and a crime against humanity, and the crimes of deportation, forcible transfer, and persecution, as crimes against humanity in Doboj, included them in ajoint criminal enterprise, and sentenced them each to 15 years in prison.[13][14] The Tribunal concluded:
[Stanišić and Simatović] shared the intent to further the common criminal plan to forcibly and permanently remove the majority of non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[15]
It also concluded:
The Trial Chamber noted evidence that during the operation in Doboj, forces under Radojica Božović’s command acted in coordination with the JNA, which was under the authority of Slobodan Milošević at that time. Evidence considered by the Trial Chamber also shows that Milovan Stanković operated under JNA command, while holding a position of the Commander of the Doboj Territorial Defence and a JNA/Army of the Republika Srpska (“VRS”) commander.The Appeals Chamber therefore considers that the crimes of forcible transfer and persecution committed by the JNA, forces under Radojica Božović’s command, as well as forces under Milovan Stanković’s command during the takeover of Doboj can be attributed toSlobodan Milošević, a joint criminal enterprise member.[16]
On 26 September 1997,Nikola Jorgić was found guilty by theDüsseldorf Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) on 11 counts ofgenocide involving the murder of 30 persons in the Doboj region, making it the firstBosnian Genocide prosecution. However, ICTY ruled out that genocide did not occur.[9] Jorgić's appeal was rejected by the GermanBundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court) on 30 April 1999. TheOberlandesgericht found that Jorgić, a Bosnian Serb, had been the leader of a paramilitary group in the Doboj region that had taken part in acts of terror against the local Bosniak population carried out with the backing of the Serb leaders and intended to contribute to their policy of "ethnic cleansing".[17][18][19]
Sentenced to 27 years' imprisonment
Part of theYugoslav Wars | |||||||||
| Belligerents |
| ||||||||
| Prelude |
| ||||||||
| 1992 |
| ||||||||
| 1993 |
| ||||||||
| 1994 |
| ||||||||
| 1995 |
| ||||||||
| Internment camps | |||||||||
| Aspects | |||||||||
