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Erdut killings
The Erdut killings were a series of murders of 37 Hungarian and Croat civilians in the village of Erdut, Croatia committed by Croatian Serb forces and Serb Volunteer Guard paramilitaries between November 1991 and June 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. Twenty-two Hungarians and 15 Croats were killed. The first killings occurred on 10 November 1991, when twelve civilians died. Eight more were killed over the following several days. Five more civilians were killed on 10 December, and another seven on 16 December. Four others were killed on 21 February 1992 and the final one was killed on 3 June. The bodies of these victims were either buried in mass graves or thrown into nearby wells.
Most of the victims were exhumed in 1998, after the area reverted to Croatian control following the signing of the Erdut Agreement in 1995. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged several Serbian and Croatian Serb officials, including Slobodan Milošević, Jovica Stanišić, Franko Simatović and Goran Hadžić, for their alleged involvement in the killings. Milošević and Hadžić died before their trials could be completed. Stanišić and Simatović were initially acquitted, but their acquittals were overturned on appeal, and they are being retried.
In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by the Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, HDZ), ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs worsened. The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated the weapons of Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana - TO) forces to minimize resistance. On 17 August, tensions escalated into an open revolt by Croatian Serbs, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin, parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia. This revolt was followed by two unsuccessful attempts by Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, to obtain the Yugoslav Presidency's approval for a JNA operation to disarm Croatian security forces in January 1991.
After a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March, the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the Federal Presidency to give it wartime authorities and declare a state of emergency. The request was denied on 15 March, and the JNA came under the control of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than to preserve Yugoslavia, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the Federal Presidency. By the end of the month, the conflict had escalated into the Croatian War of Independence. The JNA stepped in, increasingly supporting the Croatian Serb insurgents and preventing Croatian police from intervening. In early April, the leaders of the Croatian Serb revolt declared their intention to integrate the area under their control, known as SAO Krajina, with Serbia. The Government of Croatia viewed this declaration as an attempt to secede. In May, the Croatian government responded by forming the Croatian National Guard (Zbor narodne garde - ZNG), but its development was hampered by a United Nations (UN) arms embargo introduced in September. On 8 October, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia.
The first artillery attack against ZNG units in Erdut occurred on 25 July, when 24 mortar rounds were fired by the JNA from the Serbian province of Vojvodina on the opposite bank of the Danube. Besides the damage to the medieval Erdut Castle, the attack caused six deaths and resulted in the injury of 18 soldiers from the 1st Guards Brigade. The unit deployed approximately a hundred troops, stationed in a facility normally operated by Osijek water supply utility, earlier that month. The general area of the villages of Dalj, Erdut and Aljmaš was targeted by an artillery bombardment in the early morning of 1 August. Croatian sources indicate that the artillery fire came from the JNA 51st Mechanised Brigade on the left bank of the Danube and the Croatian Serb TO. The JNA denied taking part in the bombardment.
Shortly after the bombardment, as the Croatian Serb TO and Serbian Volunteer Guard (SDG) paramilitaries attacked the police station in Dalj, the Croatian police requested the JNA's assistance in terminating the TO attack. As the JNA deployed, it reported receiving gunfire from the ZNG 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Guards Brigade in Erdut as it moved towards 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) of road between Bogojevo and Dalj and returning fire before proceeding to Dalj. Conversely, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) witness of the event claimed that the JNA fired against civilian homes in Erdut unprovoked. The same day, the JNA tanks entered Erdut. After the takeover, Croatian Serbs established the government of the SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia (SAO SBWS)—a breakaway territory in Croatia—in Erdut, and Serbia's Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, specifically its commander Radovan Stojičić, set up an SDG camp in the village, run by Željko Ražnatović. The second half of 1991 saw the fiercest fighting of the war, as the 1991 Yugoslav campaign in Croatia culminated in the Siege of Dubrovnik, and the Battle of Vukovar. At the same time, Croatian Serb authorities began systematically expelling non-Serb civilians in areas under their control. The expulsions in the area of Erdut and elsewhere in eastern Slavonia were primarily motivated by the aim of changing the ethnic composition in favour of Serbs and the resettling of Serb refugees who had fled western Slavonia following operations Swath-10 and Hurricane-91.
On 9 November, the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG arrested ethnic Hungarian and Croat civilians in Erdut as well as in the nearby villages of Dalj Planina and Erdut Planina, and detained them in the SDG training camp. According to the ICTY prosecutor's office, twelve members of the group were killed the next day. The bodies of eight of the victims were buried in the village of Ćelije, one was buried in Daljski Atar and three bodies were thrown down a well in Borovo Selo. Five more non-Serb civilians were arrested by the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG in the village of Klisa on 11 November, one in Bijelo Brdo and one in Dalj, and taken to Erdut for interrogation. Two of the seven had Serb relatives and were released, while the remaining five were brutally treated, and were killed and buried in a mass grave in Ćelije after being interrogated. Three more civilians, including the family members of those killed on 10 November, were arrested and executed by Croatian Serb TO and SDG personnel in mid-November.
The killings continued the next month, when the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG arrested five more non-Serb civilians in Erdut. They were killed at the TO training centre in Erdut and the bodies of three were thrown down a well in Daljski Atar. Seven more Hungarian and Croat civilians were arrested by the Croatian Serb TO and police and the SDG in Erdut and detained in the Erdut training centre until 26 December, when they were killed. The bodies of six of them were also thrown into a well in Daljski Atar.
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Erdut killings
The Erdut killings were a series of murders of 37 Hungarian and Croat civilians in the village of Erdut, Croatia committed by Croatian Serb forces and Serb Volunteer Guard paramilitaries between November 1991 and June 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. Twenty-two Hungarians and 15 Croats were killed. The first killings occurred on 10 November 1991, when twelve civilians died. Eight more were killed over the following several days. Five more civilians were killed on 10 December, and another seven on 16 December. Four others were killed on 21 February 1992 and the final one was killed on 3 June. The bodies of these victims were either buried in mass graves or thrown into nearby wells.
Most of the victims were exhumed in 1998, after the area reverted to Croatian control following the signing of the Erdut Agreement in 1995. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged several Serbian and Croatian Serb officials, including Slobodan Milošević, Jovica Stanišić, Franko Simatović and Goran Hadžić, for their alleged involvement in the killings. Milošević and Hadžić died before their trials could be completed. Stanišić and Simatović were initially acquitted, but their acquittals were overturned on appeal, and they are being retried.
In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by the Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, HDZ), ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs worsened. The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated the weapons of Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana - TO) forces to minimize resistance. On 17 August, tensions escalated into an open revolt by Croatian Serbs, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin, parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia. This revolt was followed by two unsuccessful attempts by Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, to obtain the Yugoslav Presidency's approval for a JNA operation to disarm Croatian security forces in January 1991.
After a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March, the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the Federal Presidency to give it wartime authorities and declare a state of emergency. The request was denied on 15 March, and the JNA came under the control of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than to preserve Yugoslavia, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the Federal Presidency. By the end of the month, the conflict had escalated into the Croatian War of Independence. The JNA stepped in, increasingly supporting the Croatian Serb insurgents and preventing Croatian police from intervening. In early April, the leaders of the Croatian Serb revolt declared their intention to integrate the area under their control, known as SAO Krajina, with Serbia. The Government of Croatia viewed this declaration as an attempt to secede. In May, the Croatian government responded by forming the Croatian National Guard (Zbor narodne garde - ZNG), but its development was hampered by a United Nations (UN) arms embargo introduced in September. On 8 October, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia.
The first artillery attack against ZNG units in Erdut occurred on 25 July, when 24 mortar rounds were fired by the JNA from the Serbian province of Vojvodina on the opposite bank of the Danube. Besides the damage to the medieval Erdut Castle, the attack caused six deaths and resulted in the injury of 18 soldiers from the 1st Guards Brigade. The unit deployed approximately a hundred troops, stationed in a facility normally operated by Osijek water supply utility, earlier that month. The general area of the villages of Dalj, Erdut and Aljmaš was targeted by an artillery bombardment in the early morning of 1 August. Croatian sources indicate that the artillery fire came from the JNA 51st Mechanised Brigade on the left bank of the Danube and the Croatian Serb TO. The JNA denied taking part in the bombardment.
Shortly after the bombardment, as the Croatian Serb TO and Serbian Volunteer Guard (SDG) paramilitaries attacked the police station in Dalj, the Croatian police requested the JNA's assistance in terminating the TO attack. As the JNA deployed, it reported receiving gunfire from the ZNG 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Guards Brigade in Erdut as it moved towards 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) of road between Bogojevo and Dalj and returning fire before proceeding to Dalj. Conversely, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) witness of the event claimed that the JNA fired against civilian homes in Erdut unprovoked. The same day, the JNA tanks entered Erdut. After the takeover, Croatian Serbs established the government of the SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia (SAO SBWS)—a breakaway territory in Croatia—in Erdut, and Serbia's Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, specifically its commander Radovan Stojičić, set up an SDG camp in the village, run by Željko Ražnatović. The second half of 1991 saw the fiercest fighting of the war, as the 1991 Yugoslav campaign in Croatia culminated in the Siege of Dubrovnik, and the Battle of Vukovar. At the same time, Croatian Serb authorities began systematically expelling non-Serb civilians in areas under their control. The expulsions in the area of Erdut and elsewhere in eastern Slavonia were primarily motivated by the aim of changing the ethnic composition in favour of Serbs and the resettling of Serb refugees who had fled western Slavonia following operations Swath-10 and Hurricane-91.
On 9 November, the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG arrested ethnic Hungarian and Croat civilians in Erdut as well as in the nearby villages of Dalj Planina and Erdut Planina, and detained them in the SDG training camp. According to the ICTY prosecutor's office, twelve members of the group were killed the next day. The bodies of eight of the victims were buried in the village of Ćelije, one was buried in Daljski Atar and three bodies were thrown down a well in Borovo Selo. Five more non-Serb civilians were arrested by the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG in the village of Klisa on 11 November, one in Bijelo Brdo and one in Dalj, and taken to Erdut for interrogation. Two of the seven had Serb relatives and were released, while the remaining five were brutally treated, and were killed and buried in a mass grave in Ćelije after being interrogated. Three more civilians, including the family members of those killed on 10 November, were arrested and executed by Croatian Serb TO and SDG personnel in mid-November.
The killings continued the next month, when the Croatian Serb TO and the SDG arrested five more non-Serb civilians in Erdut. They were killed at the TO training centre in Erdut and the bodies of three were thrown down a well in Daljski Atar. Seven more Hungarian and Croat civilians were arrested by the Croatian Serb TO and police and the SDG in Erdut and detained in the Erdut training centre until 26 December, when they were killed. The bodies of six of them were also thrown into a well in Daljski Atar.