Yellow Wasps
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The Yellow Wasps ( sr, Жуте осе / ''Žute ose'') were a
Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
ian
paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
group which was active in the
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
. It was headed by Vojin Vučković and Dušan Repić. The group was active in the
Zvornik Zvornik ( sr-cyrl, Зворник, ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in Republika Srpska, on the left bank of the Drina river. In 2013, it had a population of 58,856 inhabitants. The town of Mali Zvornik ("Little Zvornik") lies ...
region. Vojin and his brother Duško were convicted in 1996 for killing of 17 civilians in Čelopek, a suburb of the town of Zvornik, during the
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
of the
Bosniak The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...
population of the Drina valley in 1992. Four other members of the group have also been charged with war crimes.


Formation

The Yellow Wasps paramilitary unit was allegedly formed on 12 April 1992 by Brana Grujić, president of the Zvornik Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), and a man known as Marko Pavlović, commander of the Zvornik Territorial Defense unit (TO), at a session of the Zvornik municipal assembly. Consisting of about seventy men, the unit was commanded by Vojin Vučković, nicknamed "Žućo", born in 1962, an electrician from the town of
Umka Umka ( sr-cyrl, Умка) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Čukarica. Location Umka is located south-west of Belgrade, on the right bank of the Sava river, close to river's . It is a crossroad ...
, near
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
, martial arts expert and former coach of the
Serbian Interior Ministry The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia ( sr, Mинистарство унутрашњих послова, Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova; abbr. MUP) or the Ministry of Interior, is a cabinet-level ministry in the Government ...
judo team. During the ICTY trial of
Momčilo Krajišnik Momčilo Krajišnik (; 20 January 1945 – 15 September 2020) was a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb political leader, who along with Radovan Karadžić co-founded the Bosnian Serb nationalist Serb Democratic Party (Bosnia and Herz ...
evidence was given that Marko Pavlović was an intelligence officer named Branislav "Branko" Popović, a major with the Zvornik Brigade of the
Bosnian Serb Army The Army of Republika Srpska ( sr, Војска Републике Српске/Vojska Republike Srpske; ВРС/VRS), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of Republika Srpska (RS), the self-proclaimed Serb ...
who subsequently transferred to the
Serbian army The Serbian Army ( sr-cyr, Копнена војска Србије, Kopnena vojska Srbije, lit=Serbian Land Army) is the land-based and the largest component of the Serbian Armed Forces. History Originally established in 1830 as the Army of Pr ...
. The "Yellow Wasps" paramilitary group was one of three paramilitary groups responsible for the "ethnic cleansing" and looting of Zvornik. They targeted not just Bosniaks, but anyone rich, including Serbs. They captured the Serbian mayor of Zvornik and tried to take control of the town using weapons from the territorial defence force. The Bosnian Serbs arrested them and sent them back to
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, but they soon returned.


War crimes

The village of
Divič Divič is a village by the city of Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located on the Drina River, by an artificial lake created to form a reservoir for the HPP Zvornik hydro-electric power plant. The Drina River and the lake are a natural a ...
, on the left bank of the river
Drina The Drina ( sr-Cyrl, Дрина, ) is a long Balkans river, which forms a large portion of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps whic ...
, near Zvornik, was one of the first Bosnian towns to be ethnically cleansed of its Bosniak population of about 3000. On 26 May 1992, the Bosniak residents were transferred out of the village on buses and kept overnight in Zvornik. The next day the women and children were driven to the Bosnian government-controlled city of Tuzla. The able-bodied men (a total of 180) were initially detained in the Drina stadium before being taken to makeshift prison in a former office building. Two days later on 29 May most of the men were transferred to the Dom Kultura community centre in Čelopek, others disappeared. On 10 June 1992, Dušan Vučković and ten other soldiers visited the Dom Kultura. They forced fathers to commit sexual assaults on their sons and beat to death or shot a total of fifteen prisoners. Survivors were given ten minutes to clean the blood, prisoners ordered to carry out the bodies were not seen again. Subsequently, Vučković and his companions visited Čelopek almost every night to beat, torture and kill prisoners. On 27 June 1992, Vučković fired a machine gun at prisoners at random, killing twenty-five. The prison was closed two days later, and eighty-four survivors were transferred via Zvornik to the
Batković concentration camp Batković ( sr-cyrl, Батковић) is a village in the City of Bijeljina, Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two entities of ...
, near
Bijeljina Bijeljina ( sr-cyrl, Бијељина) is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the provincial center of Semberija, a geographic region in the country's northeast. Administratively, Bijeljina is part of the Republika Srpska e ...
.


Arrests and trials

In August 1992 about seventy Yellow Wasp members were arrested and accused of robbing and murdering Serbian and Bosniak civilians. They were detained in Bijeljina, where they were allegedly beaten and forced to sign confessions extracted under torture. They were transferred to Serbia before being released. Subsequently, the Vučković brothers were arrested by the Serbian Interior Ministry on 5 November 1993 and indicted on 28 April 1994. Duško was charged with killing sixteen civilians and wounding another twenty in June 1992, reportedly cutting off a civilian's ear, and for raping and robbing a Bosniak woman in the village of
Radalj Radalj () is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Mali Zvornik municipality, in the Mačva District of Central Serbia. The population of the village is 2,497 (2002 census) and it has an overall Serb ethnic majority. Historical population ...
, near
Mali Zvornik Mali Zvornik ( sr-cyr, Мали Зворник, ) is a town and municipality located in the Mačva District of western Serbia. In 2011, the population of the town is 4,132, while the population of the municipality is 11,987. It lays opposite of the ...
in Serbia (allowing the case to be tried in Serbia). Vojin Vučković was charged with illegal possession of arms and falsely identifying himself as a police officer. The indictment stated that the brothers had volunteered to help the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war erupted. During the trial Vojin Vučković denied involvement in the crimes to which he had confessed, claiming that he had been forced to sign a confession because he feared that the secret police would kill his family. He claimed to have been dismissed from the army after about two months, diagnosed as "a psychopath and an alcoholic," and been treated for alcoholism and drug abuse. Vučković boasted about connections in the Serbian Interior Ministry, was proud of his unit's military achievements in and around Zvornik, and said that his brother, who had obeyed his orders in the field, was an example to other soldiers. According to a
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
and
Helsinki Watch Helsinki Watch was a private American non-governmental organization established by Robert L. Bernstein in 1978, designed to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watch be ...
researcher, the prosecutor's questions were formulated to elicit answers that supported the defense. The prosecution's witnesses, two members of the Yellow Wasps, revealed nothing about the crimes but praised Vojin and Dušan's soldiery. Implied Serbian government involvement in the crimes was not pursued. The prosecution failed to present evidence of wrongdoing, witnesses did not appear, a judge allegedly showed inappropriate support towards the Vučković brothers, guards offered the brothers cigarettes, and on the third day of the trial, defense lawyers announced that Vučković had already been tried and found not guilty by a military court in
Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. I ...
for war crimes allegedly perpetrated in Bijeljina. The court was dismissed, the presiding judge fell ill, and the trial was then postponed indefinitely. In July 1996 the Vučković brothers were tried again and Duško Vučković was sentenced to seven years in prison. After an appeal, two years later the
Supreme Court of Serbia The Supreme Court ( sr, Врховни суд, Vrhovni sud), earlier known as the Supreme Court of Cassation ( sr, Врховни касациони суд, Vrhovni kasacioni sud), is the court of last resort in the Republic of Serbia. It is the ...
sentenced Duško Vučković to ten years in prison for a war crime against civilian population and a rape, and Vojin Vučković to four months in prison for illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives. At trial Duško Vučković admitted he had been a member of the
Serb Radical Party The Serbian Radical Party ( sr-cyrl, Српска радикална странка, Srpska radikalna stranka, ''SRS'') is an ultranationalist political party in Serbia. It was founded in 1991, and its founder and current leader is Vojislav Še ...
(SRS). He said that he joined the SRS because no one else would have taken him because of his mental health problems. He had made plans to go to the frontline with SRS colleagues Zoran Dražilović, Ljubiša Petković and Zoran Rankić and received military training under supervision of Rankic and his brother. He had been arrested on 15 April 1992 after an incident in Zvornik but was released a few days later thanks to the efforts of the president of the SRS in
Loznica Loznica ( sr-cyrl, Лозница, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city located in the Mačva District of western Serbia. It lies on the right bank of the Drina river. In 2011 the city had a total population of 19,572, while the administrative ar ...
and a lawyer hired by the party. In November 2005 Branko Grujić and Branko Popović, and four of the "Yellow Wasps", Dragan Slavković, Ivan Korać, Siniša Filipović and Dragutin Dragićević, were accused of murdering at least 22 and forcefully deporting 1,822 Bosniak civilians from the Zvornik municipality were charged by the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court with murder, torture and forcible movement of Zvornik Bosniaks in the period between May and June 1992. The so-called "Zvornik Group" were specifically accused of having expelled more than 1,200 Bosniaks from the villages of Kozluk and Skočić on 26 June 1992. Grujić, Popović and the other four pleaded not guilty. Duško Vučković, who would otherwise have been charged with the same crimes had died suddenly the week before in a detention cell in Belgrade District Prison. The trial was the first war crime trial transferred to the Serbian War Crimes Chamber by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...
. At the trial in 2008 former Yellow Wasp membe
Miroslav Nikolić
testified that the unit under Vojin Vučković's command had been responsible for the village of Kozluk. After a period away from the unit Nikolić returned to find Kozluk deserted. Grujić and Popović were also accused of knowing about but doing nothing to prevent Yellow Wasp members killing at least 19 Bosniaks from Divič inside the Dom Kultura in Čelopek and at least three others in the Ekonomija and Ciglana districts.


In film

The unit was the subject of a 1995 film by Ilan Ziv.


See also

* Serbian paramilitary *
Zvornik massacre The Zvornik massacre refers to acts of mass murder and violence committed against Bosniaks and other non-Serb civilians in Zvornik by Serb paramilitary groups ( Arkanovci, Territorial Defence units, White Eagles, Yellow Wasps) at the beginning ...


References


External links


Zlocini genocida u Zvornik (Crimes of genocide in Zvornik)
{{Yugoslav wars Far-right politics Paramilitary organizations in the Yugoslav Wars Paramilitary organizations based in Serbia Military units and formations of the Bosnian War Serbian war crimes in the Bosnian War 1992 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina Military wings of political parties Zvornik Military units and formations established in 1992 1993 crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina