Ćelije sometimes also referred to as Ćelija, is a
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
in eastern
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
located west of
Trpinja
Trpinja ( sr-Cyrl, Трпиња, ) is a Settlement (Croatia), village and an eponymous municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The village is located on the D55 road (Croatia), D55 road between Osijek and Vukovar. Landscape o ...
and south of the
Osijek Airport
Osijek Airport (; ), commonly referred to as Klisa is the international airport of Osijek, Croatia. It is located 20 km east southeast of Osijek and near the D2 road (Croatia), D2 state road, southwest of the village of Klisa, Osijek-Baranj ...
. The population is 121 (census 2011).
Name
The name of the village in
Croatian is plural.
History
Croatian War of Independence
On 7 July 1991, during the initial stages of the
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence) and (rarely) "War in Krajina" ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Рат у Крајини, Rat u Krajini) are used. was an armed conflict fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 between Croats, Croat forces loyal to the Governmen ...
, the
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA/; Macedonian language, Macedonian, Montenegrin language, Montenegrin and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian language, Croatian and ; , J ...
(JNA) and
SAO Krajina
The Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Srpska autonomna oblast Krajina, Српска аутономна област Крајина) or SAO Krajina () was a self-proclaimed Serb Autonomous Region (oblast) withi ...
militia forced evacuation of the ethnic-
Croat
The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...
population of the village—180 residents. The evacuation happened in the aftermath of a JNA tank and mortar attack on the
Croatian National Guard
The Croatian National Guard ( or ZNG) was an armed force established by Croatia in April and May 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. Although it was established within the framework of the Ministry of the Interior for legal reasons, th ...
(ZNG) on 4 July,
resulting in death of three ZNG troops. The confrontation was over control over Ćelije. Several days after the evacuation, the village was torched—the first such instance in the war.
Eleven civilians
killed in Erdut by SAO Krajina authorities in early November 1991 were buried in a
mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...
in Ćelije. ,
Goran Hadžić
Goran Hadžić ( sr-cyrl, Горан Хаџић, ; 7 September 1958 – 12 July 2016) was a Croatian Serb politician and President of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, during the Croatian War of Independence. He was accused of c ...
, one of
Croatian Serb
The Serbs of Croatia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Срби у Хрватској, Srbi u Hrvatskoj) or Croatian Serbs ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Хрватски Срби, Hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largest national minority in ...
political leaders at the time, is on trial at 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 in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...
. Hadžić faced charges related to the killings and other
war crime
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
s committed in 1990s but died before a verdict could be reached.
UNTAES protectorate and subsequent period
Ćelije were left in ruins until 1998, when a part of the refuged population returned, upon return of the area to Croatian control through the
Erdut Agreement
The Erdut Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Erdutski sporazum, Ердутски споразум), officially the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, is an agreement reached on 12 November 19 ...
, at the end of the
mandate.
[ That year, a ]mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...
containing victims killed after capture of the village was destroyed near the village, and a total of 32 sets of human remains were recovered in the village by 2012. Since 2002, a memorial procession is held annually through Tordinci
Tordinci (, sr-Cyrl, Тординци) is a Settlement (Croatia), village and a municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in Croatia.
Tordinci is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the Areas of Special State Concer ...
, Antin, Ćelije and Korog—villages where mass graves of 266 Croatian soldiers and civilians were found after the war.
In 2011, Croatian authorities opened an investigation against Boro Ivanović, commanding officer of the JNA 12th Proletarian Mechanised Brigade in 1991, in connection with 1991 expulsion of population and destruction of the village.
See also
* Trpinja municipality
*Bobota Canal
The Bobota Canal (, sr-cyr, Боботски канал, ) is a 50.73 kilometers long canal in Croatia. It is named after the eponymous village of Bobota, Croatia, Bobota.
The canal is classified as a water management system of paramount importa ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Celije, Croatia
Populated places in Vukovar-Srijem County
Populated places in Syrmia