The Sisak killings refers to the illegal detainment, torture and murder 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 ...

civilians from the city of

Sisak Sisak (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in central Croatia, spanning the confluence of the Kupa, Sava and Odra rivers, southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb, and is usually considered to be where the Posavina (Sava basin ...

by members of the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( or HKoV) is the land force branch of the Croatian Armed Forces. It is numerically the largest of the three branches of the Croatian Armed Forces. The HKoV is the main force for the defense of the country against external threa ...

and police from July 1991 to June 1992 during 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 ...

Background

In March 1991, Croatia began to descend into war. The

Republic of Serb Krajina The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Република Српска Крајина, Republika Srpska Krajina, separator=" / ", ; abbr. РСК / RSK), known as the Serbian Krajina ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српск� ...

(RSK) declared its intention to

secede Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the c ...

from Croatia and join the

Republic of Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

while the

Government of the Republic of Croatia The Government of Croatia (), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia (), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government (), is the main executive branch of government in Croatia. It is led by the Prime Minister of Croatia, president o ...

declared it a rebellion. In June 1991 Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia. Tensions eventually broke out into full-scale war, which lasted until 1995. According to the

1991 Croatian census The 1991 population census in Croatia was the last census of the population of Croatia taken before the Croatian War of Independence. It was conducted by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics during the final week of March 1991. For the 1991 census ther ...

, the city of Sisak had a population of 84,348 of which 54,621 were Croats and 19,209 were Serbs. Serbs accounted for approximately 24% of the population. Sisak is situated in central Croatia, approximately 50

kilometres The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the preferred measur ...

southeast of Zagreb. As war began, the town was on the front lines.

Crimes and killings

Between 1991 and 1992, Croatian Serbs living in Sisak and surrounding areas were subjected to threats, abductions, killings and "disappearances". According to

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

, as many as 21 Serb villagers were thought to have been killed on 22 August 1991 in several villages when "Croatian security forces undertook a house-to-house search for Serbian paramilitaries who had fired mortars at the town of Sisak". Another 12 were reported to have been killed in March 1992 some of whom were workers at the city's oil refinery. Victims were frequently tortured before being killed with instances of breaking of limbs, stabbings and even decapitations, as outlined by the findings of the Sisak General Hospital; the bodies of 64 victims have been exhumed.

Trial

Vladimir Milanković, wartime deputy police commander of the Sisak area, and Drago Bosnjak, a former member of the Sisak special police unit "Wolves" went on trial in 2012 for war crimes. In 2013, Milanković was convicted of ordering illegal arrests and not punishing crimes against Serb civilians such as illegal detentions, threats, and mental and physical abuses which resulted in the deaths of 24 people between mid-July 1991 and mid-June 1992. Bosnjak was acquitted. In 2004, Amnesty International noted that "some of those who may have directly committed, ordered or tolerated rimes in Sisak or may have participated in their subsequent cover-up, remain in powerful positions at the local level of state institutions or in the police and are thus still in a position to undermine the investigation of these crimes." Croatian human rights activists claim that over one hundred Croatian Serb civilians were killed in Sisak during the war.

References

{{Serbian minority institutions and organizations in Croatia 1991 in Croatia Mass murder in 1991 Mass murder in 1992 Croatian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence Massacres in Croatia Massacres of Serbs History of the Serbs of Croatia Massacres in the Croatian War of Independence Sisak