The
Paulin Dvor massacre
was an act of
mass murder
committed by soldiers of the
Croatian Army
(HV) in the village of
Paulin Dvor
, near the town of
Osijek
on 11 December 1991 during the
Croatian War of Independence
. Of the nineteen victims, eighteen were ethnic
Serbs
, and one was a
Hungarian
national. The ages of the victims, eight women and eleven men, ranged from 41 to 85. Two former Croatian soldiers were convicted for their role in the killings and were sentenced to 15 and 11 years, respectively. In November 2010, Croatian
President
Ivo Josipovi?
laid a wreath at the graveyard of the massacre victims and officially apologized for the killings.
Background
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In 1990, following the
electoral defeat
of the government of the
Socialist Republic of Croatia
by the pro-independence
Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ), relations between ethnic
Croats
and
Croatian Serbs
deteriorated.
In August 1990,
an insurrection
took place in
Croatia
centred in predominantly
Serb
-populated areas of the country.
These Serb-inhabited areas were subsequently named
SAO Krajina
. After the Krajina declared its intention to integrate with
Serbia
, the
Government of Croatia
declared it to be a rebellion.
This conflict escalated into the
Croatian War of Independence
by March 1991.
In June 1991, Croatia
declared its independence
as
Yugoslavia disintegrated
.
A three-month moratorium followed,
after which the decision came into effect on 8 October.
The village of
Paulin Dvor
had a population of 168 prior to the war, 147 of whom were ethnic Serbs.
The inhabitants of the village were known to support Croatian authorities in
Zagreb
.
Massacre
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On the night of 11 December 1991, Croatian troops entered the village. Nineteen people, eighteen Serbs and one
Hungarian
national, were detained in the house of a local man called Andrija Bukvi?. Most of the village's 168 residents had already fled.
[
better source needed
]
The nineteen victims were detained because they were non-Croats.
According to police investigators, the troops became enraged after a Croatian soldier was killed by a Serb sniper in a nearby village. Ten Croatian soldiers are said to have burst into the Bukvi? house and murdered all of the detained individuals before destroying the home.
The victims died of gunshot wounds and of injuries caused by the
hand grenades
that were hurled at them. Seventeen bodies were subsequently moved from the site of the killings. Only the body of Dara Vujanovi?, whose scalp had been removed, was left behind.
The ages of the victims, eight women and eleven men, ranged from 41 to 85.
Aftermath
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The victims of the massacre were first buried near a military warehouse in
Lug
, near the town of
?epin
.
The village of Paulin Dvor and its surroundings were seized by
Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA) units and Serb paramilitaries soon afterwards. The area remained outside of Croatian control until it was peacefully reintegrated into the country in January 1998.
The remains of the massacred villagers were relocated to the village of Rizvanu?a near
Gospi?
in 1997 and remained there until 13 May 2002, when they were exhumed by investigators from the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY).
In 2005, the
Croatian Supreme Court
sentenced Nikola Ivankovi?, a former soldier who served in the
Croatian Army
's 130th Brigade, to fifteen years in prison, while in May 2012 the District Court in the town of
Osijek
sentenced former Croatian soldier Enes Viteskovi? to eleven years in prison for his role in the deaths of eighteen people.
In November 2010, Croatian
President
Ivo Josipovi?
laid a wreath at the graveyard of the massacre victims. He said, "those who are left behind those victims deserve our apology" and stated that "a crime has no justification; revenge cannot be justified by a crime." The wreath-laying ceremony came just after
Serbian
President
Boris Tadi?
's visit to
Vukovar
to commemorate the Croatian victims of the 1991
Vukovar massacre
.
Part of the Croatian public saw the two visits as key to the reconciliation process, while another part condemned Josipovi?'s comments as an attempt to belittle the Vukovar massacre and an attempt to "relativize the guilt for crimes committed during the war."
Notes
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References
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- Books
- Court documents
- Journals
- Websites
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Prelude
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1991
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1992
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1993–94
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1995
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Internment camps
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Other
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Cultural identity
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National
coordination
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Regional
coordination
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NGOs
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Media
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Education
| Primary education
17 primary schools
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Secondary education
7 schools
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Other
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Religion
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Political parties
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Symbols
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History
| Historical organizations
and institutions
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Historical events
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Historical documents
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World War II
| General
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Concentration
camps
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Massacres
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Croatian War of Independence
| Origins
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Military offensives
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Serbian regions
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Serbian forces
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Atrocities
against Serbs
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Atrocities by
Serbian forces
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Diplomacy
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