Another mass grave opened in Croatia

B92 ^ | November 13, 2002

[joan]

SLAVONSKI BROD -- Wednesday – Work began today on opening a mass grave believed to contain the remains of Serb civilians and soldiers from the former Yugoslav People’s Army killed in 1992.

The exhumation in the Croatian town of Slavonski brod, is being supervised by missing people committees in the Republic of Srpska, Yugoslavia and Croatia.

A representative of the Republic of Srpska committee said today that the bodies of Serb civilians from Posavina will be exhumed over the next few days from two mass graves and several individual graves in the area.

He added that the Croatian Government has information on some of these graves having previously been exhumed and bodies moved.

Almost two thousand Serb civilians are believed to have been held in Croat prison camps in the area during the war. At least half of these are believed to have been killed.

[F-117A]

Anybody you know?

[Verginius Rufus]

According to the report on the Croatian Radio-Television website for today (www.hrt.hr/vijesti), the remains being exhumed in Slavonski Brod are of 42 unidentified persons from the area of Bosnia and Hercegovina or found in or along the River Sava, which were brought to Slavonski Brod in 1992 and 1993 for identification. Some remains were identified then, but those which could not be were buried in the city cemetery. It is presumed that 18 of them were Bosnian Muslims. (The article doesn't say how many were Serbs.) DNA testing will be done to try to identify the bodies.

Meanwhile, Croatia is seeking information on more than 150 persons who disappeared in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[joan]

Well, Slavonski Brod appears to have been under Croat control before March 1992. According to a Bosnian Muslim, just on the other side of the border:

After the fall of the YPA barracks in Slavonski Brod [across the river in Croatia] the tensions in this region significantly increased.

...That was evident when they attacked me later. I was attacked by the members of the militia which had been formed in Brod at the start of March 1992 and had exclusively Croat and Muslim members. The first commander of the military police in Bosanski Brod was Josip Bilic. All of them were appointed based on the orders coming from Slavonski Brod. Serbs had already withdrawn to Lijesce.

So, it appears the YPA barracks fell, tensions increased, and then later Ismet Djuheric was attacked. He was attacked in March 1992 by Croat and Muslim members of a militia. The orders were coming from Slavonski Brod whose commander was a Croat.

Croatia sent brigades into Bosnia throughout the war. They murdered Serbs in Bosnia and created a mass grave of Serbs in the Bosnian part of Brod:

WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS: A mass grave of Serbs murdered by HVO before October 1992 was discovered in Brod, but that was not publicized. There is some documentation about the actions of Nijaz Causevic Medo, there are statements by witnesses, there is filmed evidence. Causevic filmed a three-hour movie about his unit.