Court Records Reveal Croatian Units’ Role in Operation Storm Killings

When the Croatian Army's attacks on Serb positions started, Witness 67's neighbours from the village started to flee.

In the afternoon of August 6, 1995, Witness 67 went to a nearby house, where she found three soldiers with seven civilians. When one of the soldiers spotted her, he ran after her, hit her on the arm with his rifle butt and forced her to join the others.

The soldiers made them move towards a nearby factory. On the way, they tore up some of their identity documents and insulted them.

When the group came to a nearby road, two of the soldiers went off with two of the captured civilians.

The third soldier made the others return to the village, insulting and threatening them. Then he spotted one more civilian, who he ordered to join the group.

"The soldier drew a 'U' [symbol of the Croatian World War II fascist Ustasa movement] in the dust and stated that it was the golden letter, after which he sprayed bullets at the group with an automatic rifle gun," said the first-instance verdict in the trial of Croatian wartime generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak.

Witness 67 was the only survivor of the shooting.

Map showing crimes of murder, inhumane treatment and torture, wanton destruction and plunder of property which the ICTY found to have been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Each pin colour marks a different type of crime. Click on a pin to see the location and date of a crime, and also the name of the victims (in cases of murders and torture). Source of data: ICTY.

This was one of a series of similar attacks in which Serb civilians, mostly elderly, were killed or tortured happened during and after Operation Storm, which saw Croatian forces defeat the rebel Serbs and oust their self...