\u201cIobserved a group of about 12 soldiers arriving on foot along the road. I could not identify to which party they belonged. Some wore hats or caps. They took a position lying behind the wall along the road and on the lawn. Two or three soldiers approached the school. They disappeared behind the building.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOne of the soldiers went from his position on the lawn to the school and looked through the windows. He signalled to the soldiers behind the wall. They started shooting. Immediately after, shooting could be heard from inside the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
On August 8, it will be exactly 25 years since Christian Jensen witnessed this incident, which he described a few days after it happened to Danish investigators who sent their findings to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY.<\/p>\n
At the time, Jensen was a 54-year-old senior sergeant with the Danish battalion of the United Nations mission in Croatia. The battalion was based on a playing field 35 metres from the school building in the town of Dvor, which had been part of the territory held by the secessionist Republic of Serbian Krajina, an unrecognised entity established by rebel Croatian Serbs within Croatia in 1991 as Yugoslavia collapsed.<\/p>\n In early August 1995, the Republic of Serbian Krajina disintegrated during Operation Storm, a military offensive by vastly superior Croatian forces to take back territory held by the rebels, aided by a rear attack by the Bosniak-led Bosnian Army\u2019s Fifth Corps.<\/p>\n Some 200,000 Serbs fled Croatia as a result, many in a long convoy of cars, buses and other vehicles that headed along the road that led through Dvor and then across the border to Serb-controlled territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n Among the fleeing Serbs were around 50 residents of a psychiatric hospital and a retirement home in the town of Petrinja. They were evacuated to Dvor and given shelter in the town\u2019s elementary school, three kilometres from a bridge over the River Una which led to safety across the border in the Bosnian town of Bosanski Novi (since renamed Novi Grad).<\/p>\n By August 7, most of the people who were at the school had managed to leave. But nine of them stayed \u2013 those who were unable to leave without anyone to help them. Most were Serbs, but at least one Croatian women was among them. Some had serious mental or physical disabilities.<\/p>\n Croatian soldiers pushed into Dvor in the late afternoon of August 7 and intercepted the convoy of refugee vehicles at the traffic circle near the bus station. A firefight ensued with Serb soldiers from the convoy, and both sides incurred losses.<\/p>\n For the Serbs, it was crucial to hold the crossroads in order to secure the road from the Croatian town of Glina to Bosanski Novi, which was the escape route for tens of thousands of Croatian Serbs. The next morning, the remnants of the Republic of Serbian Krajina Army counterattacked from the west and south in order to allow the refugee convoy to proceed, and Croatian troops withdrew to positions just outside the town.<\/p>\n The Croatian and Serb versions of these events mostly coincide up to this point. But there is disagreement about who controlled the area around the school in the early afternoon of August 8 \u2013 and on which side were the soldiers who approached the school around 2.50pm that day.<\/p>\n After entering the school, the soldiers lined up the refugees in the entrance hall, including wheelchair-bound Zorka Maric and 80-year-old Desanka Teodorovic, who was on crutches.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly one soldier fired three to four rounds at the old woman. I saw her collapsing in the chair. The same soldier shot single rounds against the other civilians. They fell on the floor. It was obvious they were dead,\u201d Jan Wellendorff, a senior sergeant with the Danish battalion of the United Nations mission who had a direct view of the school hall, told the ICTY investigators.<\/p>\n The massacre at the school was\u00a0reported by the\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on August 10. In the weeks that followed, Danish investigators working for the ICTY questioned a number of witnesses, whose testimonies BIRN has now acquired from the Danish Military Command.<\/p>\n However, 25 years later, the perpetrators of the attack in the school in Dvor remain unidentified and unpunished, and Serbia and Croatia continue to blame each other for the killings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first reports from the Danish UN troops put the blame for the executions on the Bosnian Army\u2019s Fifth Corps, for several reasons. Firstly, together with the Croatian Army, the Fifth Corps attacked a Serb refugee convoy in the village of Donji Zirovac, around 25 kilometres from Dvor. At least 16 civilians were killed. There were also reports of a Bosnian Army attack on Serb refugees in Trgovi, nine kilometres west of Dvor.<\/p>\n Fewer than two hours after the massacre in the school, the Danish battalion sent a despatch expressing suspicion that the Fifth Corps was responsible, although neither Jensen, Wellendorff nor other witnesses could tell if the perpetrators belonged to the Bosnian Army, Republic of Serbian Krajina forces or the Croatian Army.<\/p>\n \u201cOne person had a shield on his upper arm, red with two V-like signs at the upper edge,\u201d Jensen said, describing the only one of the killers who had any insignia. The chief Danish commander interpreted this to mean the Roman numeral \u2018V\u2019 (5), it emerged during joint questioning of witnesses by Serbian and Croatian prosecutors in 2012 in Copenhagen, whose content is being reported now for the first time by BIRN.<\/p>\n However, the Fifth Corps\u2019 insignia does not include the Roman numeral \u2018V\u2019. On top of that, while being questioned, Jensen was shown various Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian insignias, and recognised none of them. The claim that the Bosnian Army was responsible still made its way into numerous Danish military, UN and media reports.<\/p>\n However, several military commanders \u2013 both Croatian and Serb \u2013 as well as civilians present in Dvor at the time have confirmed there were no Bosnian soldiers there before August 10, so Fifth Corps troops could not have carried out the killings at the school.<\/p>\n Sources from both the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office and the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor\u2019s Office also told BIRN that they have ruled out a Bosnian Army presence in Dvor at the time of the killings.<\/p>\n In a 2015 Danish\u00a0documentary<\/a>\u00a0about the massacre, Republic of Serbian Krajina Army general Mile Novakovic claimed that \u201cthe school was of no interest to Serb forces\u201d. However, BIRN established that on August 8, both Serb and Croatian units were near the building.<\/p>\n \u201cAround 6am we managed to organise 150 to 200 soldiers. Morale had been shattered, everyone was worried about his family in the [refugee] convoy. We advanced slowly. Around noon, my group pushed into the centre of Dvor,\u201d the chief of staff of the Republic of Serbian Krajina Army\u2019s 13th Brigade, colonel Lazo Pekec, told BIRN.<\/p>\n Colonel Pekec entered Dvor from the west, and was involved in ensuring the safe passage of the refugee convoy until 10pm that night.<\/p>\n Another Krajina Army officer confirmed that on the morning of August 8, they \u201cejected the Croats from Dvor\u201d and met Novakovic\u2019s forces, who attacked from the south. Novakovic himself\u00a0wrote\u00a0<\/a>that after re-entering Dvor, he deployed a Banja Luka Special Police detachment in the town centre, meaning that it could be argued that the area around the school was under Serb control around the time of the massacre.<\/p>\n As well as the Krajina Army and the Banja Luka Special Police detachment, the Serbian State Security Service\u2019s Unit for Anti-Terrorist Operations was also in the area. Its members were known as the \u2018Red Berets\u2019 and were sometimes described as \u2018Arkan\u2019s Men\u2019 by civilians who confused them with the Serbian Volunteer Guard, a paramilitary unit led by Serbian warlord Zeljko \u2018Arkan\u2019 Raznatovic. The sources from the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office also sometimes describes Red Berets fighters as Arkan\u2019s Men.<\/p>\n A senior source at the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office said that its officials believe that a group made up of Red Berets and Republic of Serbian Krajina soldiers were responsible for the massacre.<\/p>\n The source said that on the morning of August 8, Arkan\u2019s Men were patrolling in Dvor and forcing local Serbs to join the refugee convoy and leave the town. As Dvor was a Serb-majority town, those who chose to stay were considered traitors.<\/p>\n A Dvor resident told ICTY investigators that on August 8 around 9am, he and his wife saw two soldiers, one of whom ordered him to kneel and asked him why he had not joined the refugee convoy.<\/p>\n \u201cI told him I was sick and could not leave. He took his knife and put it to my throat but after questioning me he put it back,\u201d said the witness, who BIRN was able to identify as Zvonimir Baburak.<\/p>\n The soldiers sat down and accepted the brandy and coffee that Baburak and his wife offered. Baburak said he did not know \u201cwhat force the soldiers belonged to, they had no insignia\u201d.<\/p>\n The soldiers inquired if there were Muslims in the school, then left for the school building, with three or four other soldiers joining them. \u201cLater we heard shouts of \u2018Come out\u2019 and \u2018Surrender\u2019, and shooting at the school,\u201d said Baburak.<\/p>\n Afterwards he was visited by his brother, accompanied by a soldier from Leskovac in Serbia. The soldier asked him to identify a corpse lying in the street nearby. \u201cIt was our local barber. Some of his head was missing,\u201d said Baburak. The barber was a local Croat named Nedjeljko Ivelic. His wife had also been killed in their house.<\/p>\n Later Baburak also found the corpse of a young man lying near the school, his throat cut. In the evening he went to his brother\u2019s house where he said that Serb soldiers boasted that there were \u201c10,000 of Arkan\u2019s Men\u201d in the area. One soldier showed Baburak that they had Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian insignias and changed them at will.<\/p>\n The Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office source said there were numerous accounts of Arkan\u2019s Men being active in Dvor that day. \u201cWe have a witness who was thrown out of her house by Arkan\u2019s Men at noon. Another witness saw that Arkan\u2019s Men beat an Orthodox priest who did not want to join the convoy,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n The Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office also believes that Serb fighters killed five Croatian soldiers from 17th Sunja Homeguard Regiment who did not withdraw when the Croatian Army retreated that morning but took shelter in one of the houses across from the school instead. Between 10am and noon, they were captured and executed in a corn field near the bus station. A sixth soldier who separated from the group survived by asking for shelter at the Danish base.<\/p>\n \u201cWe assume that the Ivelic couple, the disabled people in the school and the five Croatian soldiers were killed by members of the same units, including the Red Berets. More than 100 witnesses have been questioned. All the witnesses questioned at the beginning of the investigation said the killers were Arkan\u2019s Men,\u201d said the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office source.<\/p>\n A Danish military log entry dated August 8 also says that \u201ccivilians in Dvor have indicated that the liquidations were carried out\u201d by Arkan\u2019s Men.<\/p>\n Although the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office source is still trying to identify the direct perpetrators, it believes that there is a greater chance of identifying the units to which they belonged. \u201cThen it would be possible to indict the commanders according to the command responsibility principle,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n The claim that Serb soldiers committed the massacre in the school has several weak points. The soldiers who threatened Baburak came to his house around 9am. Even if they were Serbs \u2013 Croats would have been unlikely to sit and drink coffee and brandy in the middle of Serb-controlled Dvor \u2013 the massacre happened hours later.<\/p>\n BIRN also found a Croat civilian who claimed that in the days before August 8, the Republic of Serbian Krajina Army ordered two young soldiers to guard the disabled people at the school.<\/p>\n Further questions can be raised because during the whole of Operation Storm, there is not a single confirmed instance of Serb soldiers massacring Serb civilians, and because all the Danish soldiers agree that the killers behaved as if they were attacking an enemy position when approaching the school.<\/p>\n Jensen described the soldiers lying on the ground to protect themselves from potential fire, while Wellendorff and others claimed the school was hit by a shell and a hand grenade. A Serb squad operating in Serb-controlled Dvor would have been unlikely to behave as if it was infiltrating enemy territory or attacking an enemy-controlled building.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOn August 8 there was no any soldier or unit under the command of the Croatian Army in Dvor,\u201d claimed colonel Bruno Cavic of the Croatian Army 145th Brigade in the 2015 Danish documentary about the massacre.<\/p>\n The documentary sparked public fury in Croatia for showing men who were allegedly Croatian soldiers close to the school on that day.<\/p>\n Both Cavic and other Croatian commanders claimed that after withdrawing from Dvor on the morning of August 8, they did not re-enter the town before August 9 \u2013 well after the massacre in the school. However, Cavic was in only charge of his own brigade only, and there were several other Croatian units present.<\/p>\n BIRN was able to establish that the Croatian Army actually entered Dvor not twice, but three times. The second time was on the morning of August 8, after the Serb counterattack drove the Croat troops out of the town.<\/p>\n In 2011, Zagreb-based news weekly\u00a0Novosti<\/em>\u00a0translated\u00a0excerpts<\/a>\u00a0from the Danish military log which noted heavy fighting and a wounded Croatian soldier near the school that day. BIRN acquired additional despatches recording intensive fighting in the centre of Dvor in the afternoon of August 8; fighting which was still going on in the evening.<\/p>\n The main Croatian commander in the Dvor area was Zagreb Military District chief of staff, brigadier Vinko Stefanek. He confirmed that Croatian Army briefly re-entered Dvor on the morning of August 8.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the fighting the previous night I ordered a withdrawal to the crossroads at the northern edge of the town. In the morning, there were some probing efforts, not organised and very limited,\u201d Stefanek told BIRN. Another officer confirmed that after around 100 metres, Stefanek ordered his forces to halt.<\/p>\n However, despite these orders, one 17th Regiment battalion pushed on further, even passing the school playing field where the Danish battalion had its base. Some Croatian soldiers were captured by the Danes\u2019 cameras, which also\u00a0filmed<\/a>\u00a0the wounded soldier mentioned in the military log. BIRN was able to identify the man as Sasa Simic.<\/p>\n \u201cI was walking on the other side of the embankment situated by the road. After passing the UN base, I suddenly saw a mass of Serb soldiers. They tried to encircle us. I threw a grenade and opened fire,\u201d said Simic, who was speaking to media for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I felt I was hit. When I regained consciousness, I asked my guys to take me to the UN. The Danes gave me morphine,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Danish military log records that this happened shortly before 9.30am \u2013 hours before 2.50pm, when the massacre took place. However, according to the direction from which the killers came, it is possible that they arrived from the area that Croatian forces had reached that morning. And Jensen, who was best positioned to observe the road, said that after the shooting, the killers walked away towards the north-west. That direction led to the where the Croatian troop positions were at the time.<\/p>\n \u201c[The attack on the school] was a cleansing operation, done very professionally, but with no military purpose. The only purpose was pure terror,\u201d Jensen told BIRN. This description fits the pattern of other crimes committed by Croatian forces during and after Operation Storm.<\/p>\n However, Croatian soldiers usually wore coloured stripes on their shoulders so they could recognise each other. The perpetrators of the massacre wore no stripes, although they could have removed them.<\/p>\n It is also unclear why a Croatian unit would endanger itself by massacring civilians and attracting attention while the area was still under Serb control.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be unrealistic if the Croats would begin to clear the houses around the school before they controlled that part of the city,\u201d captain Erik Sorensen, another Danish eyewitness, told BIRN.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Twenty-five years after the killing in the school in Dvor, the victims\u2019 families have still not seen justice. With the passing of time, important witnesses have been dying, and no indictments are expected in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n The source from the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office said that the perpetrators remain unknown.<\/p>\n \u201cIn spite of all the actions that have been undertaken, sufficient evidence has still not been gathered to build justified suspicion against a specific perpetrator,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor\u2019s Office gave an even briefer summary of its progress. \u201cThe Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor\u2019s Office cannot estimate how close it is to bringing an indictment against those responsible for this crime,\u201d said a source from the Belgrade-based prosecution.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the Croatian State Attorney\u2019s Office suspects that the perpetrators were Serbs, while the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor\u2019s Office thinks the opposite.<\/p>\n BIRN has identified strange omissions in the investigations. Crucial commanders in Serbia have not been interrogated by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Danish investigators who were at the scene of the school massacre only a couple of days afterwards, collecting evidence for the ICTY, were also not questioned by Serbian or Croatian prosecutors.<\/p>\n As the crime was committed in Croatia, the authorities there should be primarily responsible for delivering justice. But their attitude to the victims is highlighted by the fact that according to information published by media, only two of the nine victims \u2013 Zorka Maric and Jovan Macut \u2013 have been identified by DNA analysis for far so they could be given proper funerals by their families.<\/p>\n The other victims\u2019 identities have still not been confirmed by DNA analysis. They are all still buried in unmarked graves in Petrinja, the cemetery\u2019s director told BIRN.<\/p>\n Maric\u2019s relatives have engaged a lawyer, Sladjana Cankovic, who said she plans to file a complaint to the Croatian Constitutional Court about human rights violations caused by the ineffective investigation into the case.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it is rejected, we will bring the same complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. Twenty-five years after the crime was committed, nothing can justify the lack of prosecutions of the perpetrators,\u201d Cankovic said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs in many other war crimes cases, especially those committed against Serbs, without the political will, [the case] does not make it to court.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Danish Diary \u2013 August 8th<\/a><\/p>\n Danish diary \u2013 August 8th \u2013 part two<\/a><\/p>\n Danish dispatch \u2013 ArBiH murderers<\/a><\/p>\n Danish dispatch \u2013 August 8th heavy fights afternoon evening<\/a><\/p>\n ICTY Testimony \u2013 Jan Wellendorff<\/a><\/p>\n ICTY Testimony \u2013 Christian Jensen<\/a><\/p>\n ICTY Testimony \u2013 Zvonimir Baburak<\/a><\/p>\n Interrogation Copenhagen 2012 \u2013 Origin of 5th Corps mistake Roman numeral (Danish)<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jerko Bakotin<\/strong><\/a> and Sasa Kosanovic<\/a> are journalists from the Croatian weekly newspaper Novosti<\/a> and Nils Mulvad<\/strong><\/a> is an investigative journalist and managing editor at Investigative Reporting Denmark. This article was enabled by BIRN\u2019s Balkan Transitional Justice grant scheme, supported by the European Commission, and Reporters in the Field, a programme by the Robert Bosch Foundation hosted together with the media NGO n-ost.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/www.recom.link\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BIRN_Christian-Jensen_DanBat_Private.jpg\")
<\/a>Bosnian Army troops initially suspected<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>Serbian\u00a0<\/strong>\u2018Red Berets\u2019 come under scrutiny<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>Croatian\u00a0<\/strong>Army soldiers also accused<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/a>Croats blame Serbs, Serbs blame Croats<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>Documents<\/h4>\n
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