The Joševica massacre was a war crime committed by the paramilitary forces of the Krajina Serbs in the Croatian village of Joševica during the Croatian War of Independence. The atrocities took place on December 16 of 1991. (contains the forensic analysis done by Serb authorities) Serb paramilitary forces killed 21 Croatian civilians in the village of Joševica near the city of

Glina Glina is a word of Slavic origin, meaning "clay". It may refer to: * Glina (river) in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina *Glina, Croatia, a town in Croatia ** Glina massacres, 1941 * Glina, Piotrków County in Łódź Voivodeship (central Poland) * ...

. The Serb paramilitaries were members of a reconnaissance and sabotage group of the local Glina Territorial Defense, they entered the village on 16 December 1991, armed with

submachine guns A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automati ...

attached with silencers, and shot Croat civilians in their homes. One civilian survived the attack with serious wounds. After a few weeks, Serb paramilitary forces perpetrated another massacre, killing another 3 Croats. In total, 32 residents of Joševica out of 133 that had lived in Joševica (census 1991) were killed. The victims were mostly women and elderly, the eldest victim being 90 years old, while four victims were children aged between 10 and 16. At the time there was no active combat in the Joševica area, as the forces of rebel Serbs had already occupied the area. Serb military commanders had also made guarantees to the local Croats that they would enjoy peace and safety if they did not partake in armed resistance. It has been speculated that the Serb paramilitaries may have committed the massacre in revenge for losses they had sustained in battle with the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( hr, Hrvatska kopnena vojska or HKoV) is the largest and most significant component of the Croatian Armed Forces (CAF). Role and deployment The fundamental role and purpose of the Croatian Army is to protect vital national i ...

on the 12 and 13 December 1991.

Investigation

At the time, one Nikola Sužnjević, an investigating judge in the employ of the then-

Republic of Serbian Krajina The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sh, Република Српска Крајина, italics=no / or РСК / ''RSK'', ), known as the Serbian Krajina ( / ) or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, ...

(in 2008 a member of the city council of Glina) had investigated the events and made a detailed record with a precise list of victims and the description of how those persons were killed. Despite that, the occupation authorities of RSK took no further actions, and the perpetrators were not legally processed, despite the existence of witnesses that named the victims. The State Attorney's Office of the Republic of Croatia (DORH) has indicted six citizens of the

Republic of Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

for the Joševica case. All of them had left for Serbia in 1995 after the Croatian

Operation Flash Operation Flash ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Operacija Bljesak, Операција Бљесак) was a brief Croatian Army (HV) offensive conducted against the forces of the self-declared proto-state Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) from 1&nda ...

, where they took permanent residence.Index.hr
Srpska šestorka optužena za pokolj u Joševici, June 12, 2008. Accessed November 12, 2009 DORH brought the indictment forward almost 17 years after the events.

References

External links

Indictment against Vojislav Šešelj
Istraga
Joševica {{DEFAULTSORT:Josevica Massacre Mass murder in 1991 1991 in Croatia Massacres in 1991 Serbian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence Massacres in Croatia Republic of Serbian Krajina December 1991 events in Europe 1991 crimes in Croatia 1991 murders in Europe 1990s murders in Croatia History of Banovina Massacres of Croats