Lovas massacre
Encyclopedia
Lovas massacre were the killings of Croat detainees in the villages of Lovas and neighbouring Opatovac in eastern Slavonia
, Croatia
. The civilians were killed by Croatian Serb paramilitary forces during the Croatian War of Independence
in the period from October 10, 1991 to the end of that year.
According to the local Croatian authorities, 75 civilians were murdered. A Serbian Special Court raised charges against war crimes suspects, citing 70 civilian victims.
. In 1991, Lovas had a population of 1,681, mostly Croats (85.7%), with some Serbs
(7.9%) and others (6.4%). Opatovac was populated by 550 people, of which there were 43.4% Croats, 26.2% Serbs, 21.1% Magyars, and 9.5% others.
In 1990 and 1991, ethnic Serbs in Croatia regions of Krajina and Slavonia has started an armed revolt against the newly elected
Croatian government. In mid-1991, the Serbs were openly supported by the Yugoslav regular Army
(JNA).
As the Army planned a major offensive in Croatia launched from the direction of Serbia
, it first targeted the city of Vukovar
on the Danube River, northwest of Lovas. The resulting Battle of Vukovar
was the most brutal and important fighting of the war.
and JNA forces moved into the village, occupying it, during which they killed another twelve civilians. Opatovac was captured on October 14. Over the next three days, three more were killed. According to the Belgrade Court which 14 men for the massacre
, 22 people were killed in the attack on the village.
Along with the JNA, the village was occupied by several paramilitary formations, including "White Eagles
" and "Dušan Silni" units, which were linked to several other massacres in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
In Lovas, 261 houses were completely destroyed, and all others were damaged, whereas in the smaller Opatovac, 15 homes were destroyed and about fifty others were damaged. Most of the damage was caused by artillery bombardment prior to the occupation, while some was caused afterwards. Much of the industrial infrastracture and anything of value was looted and transferred to Serbia.
According to survivors, the Croat villagers were abused, mistreated and tortured since the beginning. They were made to wear white ribbons on their arms marking them as Croats..
The Serbs turned a local library
into an improvised jail
. There, the non-Serb population was mistreated – men and women were arrested and subsequently beaten and molested with any and all instruments at their captors' disposal – from crowbar
s, knives
to electrode
s.
Rape and torture was a regular occurrence to those Croats who remained, who were also forced to wear white armband
s as a sign of racial recognition
Three Roman Catholic Churches in both villages were devastated. One of the two in Lovas – Holy Mary's Church – was levelled to the ground and all crosses in the vicinity devastated, including the local graveyard
which was desecrated. At the same time, three houses in the village's center were destroyed and a Serb Orthodox
church created in their place. The local graveyard was later used as a mass grave
where 68 of those killed were buried. The grave was 25 meters long and one meter wide and the dead were thrown in it one on top of another.
As the first mines exploded, Serbs started to shoot at the survivors. Then a JNA officer came up the road then and stopped further killings. Of those that were forced into the minefield, 21 were killed and another 14 wounded. A further nine people were killed in Lovas and one in Opatovac on that same day in unrelated killings. According to the Belgrade's Special Court, 22 people were killed during this event.
At the end of the year, a ceasefire
was signed and both sides agreed for arrival of United Nations
UNPROFOR peacekeepers which were mandated to protect the local population from harm. Lovas was part of UNPROFOR's Sector East. Despite the UNPROFOR mandate, during 1993, three sisters were killed.
Apart from those listed, another 29 villagers were killed or disappeared during the Serb occupation with the exact details of their deaths mostly unknown.
and buried at the Ovčara mass graves.
A total of 1,661 people became refugees due to the Serb occupation, of which 1,341 were from Lovas and 320 from Opatovac. Some locals were sent to Serbia, but were later returned as part of prisoner exchanges.
Following the Dayton Agreement
, the area was to be peacefully reintegrated into Croatia starting in 1995. In June and July 1997, the mass grave
at the cemetery was exhumed, as well as other assorted graves around the village holding another 10 bodies. These people were officially buried properly on March 21, 1998.
As a result of the war, a total of 83 villagers of Lovas lost their lives and four are still listed as missing. In Opatovac, two people were killed, and one is missing. After the war ended and the area was returned to Croatian control, almost two thirds of the Serbs fled, reducing their number to 106. The number of Magyars was also cut by almost one half (77). There are also 335 fewer Croats in the municipality.
and several of the survivals testified against him. Goran Hadžić
was also indicted.
On September 16, 2003, a Croatian Regional Court raised charges for the Lovas crimes against Ljuban Devetak (declared as "chief commander" of occupied Lovas), Milan Devčić (declared as "police chief" of occupied Lovas) and 16 other people, charging them with indiscriminate killings, abuse, rape and other crimes. Only one of the accused has been arrested, while the others were tried in absentia
.
In May 2007, Serb authorities arrested several people related to the killings, who were among those tried in absentia. The Serbian War Crimes prosecutor later confirmed an ongoing investigation, in cooperation with Croatian authorities, against 12 former Serb paramilitary members for their involvement in the massacre.
In November 2007, the Belgrade Special Court raised charges against 14 people in relation to the Lovas massacre. The accused are former members of the: JNA (4 people), paramilitary unit "Dušan Silni" (6 accused), as well as local territorial defence forces (4 people). The accused are: Ljuban Devetak, Milan Devčić, Milan Radojčić, Željko Krnjajić, Miodrag Dimitrijević, Drinko Pajic, Radovan Vlajković, Radisav Josipović, Jovan Dimitrijević, Saša Stojanović, Dragan Bačić, Zoran Kosijer, Petronije Stevanović and Aleksandar Nikolaidis. The charges concerned 70 civilian deaths. The trial began in April 2008.
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. The civilians were killed by Croatian Serb paramilitary forces during the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
in the period from October 10, 1991 to the end of that year.
According to the local Croatian authorities, 75 civilians were murdered. A Serbian Special Court raised charges against war crimes suspects, citing 70 civilian victims.
Background
Lovas and Opatovac are two villages located in eastern SlavoniaSlavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
. In 1991, Lovas had a population of 1,681, mostly Croats (85.7%), with some Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
(7.9%) and others (6.4%). Opatovac was populated by 550 people, of which there were 43.4% Croats, 26.2% Serbs, 21.1% Magyars, and 9.5% others.
In 1990 and 1991, ethnic Serbs in Croatia regions of Krajina and Slavonia has started an armed revolt against the newly elected
Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 22 April 1990, with a second round of voting on 6 May. The first free elections since multi-party politics were introduced, they resulted in a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 55 of the 80 seats...
Croatian government. In mid-1991, the Serbs were openly supported by the Yugoslav regular Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
(JNA).
As the Army planned a major offensive in Croatia launched from the direction of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, it first targeted the city of Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
on the Danube River, northwest of Lovas. The resulting Battle of Vukovar
Battle of Vukovar
The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army , supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Before the Croatian War of Independence the Baroque town was a prosperous, mixed community of Croats,...
was the most brutal and important fighting of the war.
Occupation of the villages and the first killings
Early on October 10, the village of Lovas was targeted by an artillery bombardment during which one person was killed. Later in the day, Serb paramilitaryParamilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
and JNA forces moved into the village, occupying it, during which they killed another twelve civilians. Opatovac was captured on October 14. Over the next three days, three more were killed. According to the Belgrade Court which 14 men for the massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
, 22 people were killed in the attack on the village.
Along with the JNA, the village was occupied by several paramilitary formations, including "White Eagles
White Eagles (paramilitary)
The White Eagles , also known as the Avengers , were a Serbian paramilitary group associated with the Serbian National Renewal and the Serbian Radical Party...
" and "Dušan Silni" units, which were linked to several other massacres in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
In Lovas, 261 houses were completely destroyed, and all others were damaged, whereas in the smaller Opatovac, 15 homes were destroyed and about fifty others were damaged. Most of the damage was caused by artillery bombardment prior to the occupation, while some was caused afterwards. Much of the industrial infrastracture and anything of value was looted and transferred to Serbia.
According to survivors, the Croat villagers were abused, mistreated and tortured since the beginning. They were made to wear white ribbons on their arms marking them as Croats..
The Serbs turned a local library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
into an improvised jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
. There, the non-Serb population was mistreated – men and women were arrested and subsequently beaten and molested with any and all instruments at their captors' disposal – from crowbar
Crowbar (tool)
A crowbar, a wrecking bar, pry bar, or prybar, or sometimes a prise bar or prisebar, and more informally a jimmy, jimmy bar, jemmy or gooseneck is a tool consisting of a metal bar with a single curved end and flattened points, often with a small fissure on one or both ends for removing nails...
s, knives
Knife
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
to electrode
Electrode
An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit...
s.
Rape and torture was a regular occurrence to those Croats who remained, who were also forced to wear white armband
Armband
An armband is a piece of material worn around the arm over the sleeve of other clothing if present. they may be worn for pure ornamentation to mark the wearer as belonging to group, having a certain rank or role, or being in a particular state or condition...
s as a sign of racial recognition
Three Roman Catholic Churches in both villages were devastated. One of the two in Lovas – Holy Mary's Church – was levelled to the ground and all crosses in the vicinity devastated, including the local graveyard
Graveyard
A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...
which was desecrated. At the same time, three houses in the village's center were destroyed and a Serb Orthodox
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
church created in their place. The local graveyard was later used as a mass grave
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
where 68 of those killed were buried. The grave was 25 meters long and one meter wide and the dead were thrown in it one on top of another.
Minefield massacre
On October 18, 1991 the worst atrocity was committed when two local Serbs, six paramilitaries and a platoon of JNA reservists forced a group of 51 civilians to walk into a minefield (set up by the Serbs prior to the villages' capture) in order to "clear it". One civilian was shot because he was unable to walk and the others were then forced to join hands and walk into the minefield.As the first mines exploded, Serbs started to shoot at the survivors. Then a JNA officer came up the road then and stopped further killings. Of those that were forced into the minefield, 21 were killed and another 14 wounded. A further nine people were killed in Lovas and one in Opatovac on that same day in unrelated killings. According to the Belgrade's Special Court, 22 people were killed during this event.
Later killings
Between October 24 and December 23, six more people were killed in Lovas.At the end of the year, a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
was signed and both sides agreed for arrival of United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
UNPROFOR peacekeepers which were mandated to protect the local population from harm. Lovas was part of UNPROFOR's Sector East. Despite the UNPROFOR mandate, during 1993, three sisters were killed.
Apart from those listed, another 29 villagers were killed or disappeared during the Serb occupation with the exact details of their deaths mostly unknown.
Aftermath
In total, 75 civilians were killed in Lovas and Opatovac, of whom 12 were women. Four of those killed were younger than 20, including one 18-year old. 32 of the victims were over 50 years old. The village suffered more casualties as eleven of the locals were killed fighting with the Croatian Army, seven of which were executed as prisoners of war in the Vukovar massacreVukovar massacre
The Vukovar massacre, also known as Vukovar hospital massacre or simply Ovčara, was a war crime that took place between November 20 and November 21, 1991 near the city of Vukovar, a mixed Croat/Serb community in northeastern Croatia...
and buried at the Ovčara mass graves.
A total of 1,661 people became refugees due to the Serb occupation, of which 1,341 were from Lovas and 320 from Opatovac. Some locals were sent to Serbia, but were later returned as part of prisoner exchanges.
Following the Dayton Agreement
Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
, the area was to be peacefully reintegrated into Croatia starting in 1995. In June and July 1997, the mass grave
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
at the cemetery was exhumed, as well as other assorted graves around the village holding another 10 bodies. These people were officially buried properly on March 21, 1998.
As a result of the war, a total of 83 villagers of Lovas lost their lives and four are still listed as missing. In Opatovac, two people were killed, and one is missing. After the war ended and the area was returned to Croatian control, almost two thirds of the Serbs fled, reducing their number to 106. The number of Magyars was also cut by almost one half (77). There are also 335 fewer Croats in the municipality.
Later events
The ICTY Tribunal at the Hague added Lovas as one of the charges against Serbian president Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
and several of the survivals testified against him. Goran Hadžić
Goran Hadžic
Goran Hadžić is a former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina who was in office during the Croatian War of Independence. He is accused of crimes against humanity and of violation of the laws and customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.The court...
was also indicted.
On September 16, 2003, a Croatian Regional Court raised charges for the Lovas crimes against Ljuban Devetak (declared as "chief commander" of occupied Lovas), Milan Devčić (declared as "police chief" of occupied Lovas) and 16 other people, charging them with indiscriminate killings, abuse, rape and other crimes. Only one of the accused has been arrested, while the others were tried in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
.
In May 2007, Serb authorities arrested several people related to the killings, who were among those tried in absentia. The Serbian War Crimes prosecutor later confirmed an ongoing investigation, in cooperation with Croatian authorities, against 12 former Serb paramilitary members for their involvement in the massacre.
In November 2007, the Belgrade Special Court raised charges against 14 people in relation to the Lovas massacre. The accused are former members of the: JNA (4 people), paramilitary unit "Dušan Silni" (6 accused), as well as local territorial defence forces (4 people). The accused are: Ljuban Devetak, Milan Devčić, Milan Radojčić, Željko Krnjajić, Miodrag Dimitrijević, Drinko Pajic, Radovan Vlajković, Radisav Josipović, Jovan Dimitrijević, Saša Stojanović, Dragan Bačić, Zoran Kosijer, Petronije Stevanović and Aleksandar Nikolaidis. The charges concerned 70 civilian deaths. The trial began in April 2008.