Petrinja killings

The Petrinja Killings refers to a series of mass murders and other crimes that were committed by various Serb forces against Croat POWs and civilians, from September 1991 until June 1992, in the town of Petrinja and in surrounding areas.

Croats were killed over several months, both during the battle to control the town and later during the occupation; in indiscriminate artillery attacks against civilian areas and in instances of wilful killings against civilians and POWs. Croatian sources state that over 250 people were killed (including at least 120 civilians) during these crimes.

In 1990, ethnic tensions between Serbs and Croats worsened after the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by the Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska zajednica – HDZ). The Yugoslav People's Army (Serbian: Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated Croatia's Territorial Defence (Croatian: Teritorijalna obrana – TO) weapons to minimize resistance. On 17 August, the tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin (approximately 60 kilometres (37 miles) north-east of Split), parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia. In January 1991, Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, unsuccessfully tried to obtain the Yugoslav Presidency's approval for a JNA operation to disarm Croatian security forces. The request was denied and a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March prompted the JNA itself to ask the Federal Presidency to give it wartime authority and declare a state of emergency. Even though it was backed by Serbia and its allies, the JNA request was refused on 15 March. Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than to preserve Yugoslavia with Croatia as a federal unit, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the federal Presidency. The threat caused the JNA to abandon plans to preserve Yugoslavia in favour of expansion of Serbia as the JNA came under Milošević's control. By the end of March, the conflict had escalated with the first fatalities. In early April, leaders of the Serb revolt in Croatia declared their intention to amalgamate the areas under their control with Serbia. These were viewed by the Government of Croatia as breakaway regions.

At the beginning of 1991, Croatia had no regular army. To bolster its defence, Croatia doubled its police numbers to about 20,000. The most effective part of the Croatian police force was 3,000-strong special police comprising twelve battalions organised along military lines. There were also 9,000–10,000 regionally organised reserve police in 16 battalions and 10 companies, but they lacked weapons. In response to the deteriorating situation, the Croatian government established the Croatian National Guard (Croatian: Zbor narodne garde – ZNG) in May by expanding the special police battalions into four all-professional guards brigades. Under Ministry of Defence control and commanded by retired JNA General Martin Špegelj, the four guards brigades comprised approximately 8,000 troops. The reserve police, also expanded to 40,000, was attached to the ZNG and reorganised into 19 brigades and 14 independent battalions. The guards brigades were the only units of the ZNG that were fully equipped with small arms; throughout the ZNG there was a lack of heavier weapons and there was poor command and control structure above the brigade level. The shortage of heavy weapons was so severe that the ZNG resorted to using World War II weapons taken from museums and film studios. At the time, the Croatian weapon stockpile consisted of 30,000 small arms purchased abroad and 15,000 previously owned by the police. To replace the personnel lost to the guards brigades, a new 10,000-strong special police was established.

JNA and other Serb forces led an attack against Petrinja and surrounding areas from 2 September until the town fell on 21 September 1991.

On the 2, 16 and 21 September 1991, JNA commander, Slobodan Tarbuk, ordered the indiscriminate shelling of civilian populated areas of Petrinja, in order to deter HV forces from approaching the "Vasilj Gaćeša" military barracks. These attacks caused heavy damage to private homes, businesses and two churches and caused civilian casualties. The deadliest attack occurred on 16 September 1991, when Tarbuk ordered a mortar attack on civilians in Petrinja, causing five civilian deaths and 13 injuries.

Tarbuk was alleged to have said "I swear on their Ustaša mothers that I will flatten Petrinja to the ground".

Mass killings were perpetrated against Croat civilians and POWs during the Battle of Petrinja and during the occupation. On 16 September, a group of 25 Croatian soldiers and MUP police officers attempted to surrender to members of the Serb Territorial Defence and SAO Krajina police forces at Vila Gavrilović, a pre-war catering facility. Once disarmed, the 25 POWs were executed. Four of the prisoners survived with serious injuries while the remainder were killed. A mass grave with the remains of 19 victims was exhumed by Croatian authorities on 14 September 1995.