Genocide was committed against Serb civilians in Brod in 1992, and despite an expert report on the crimes being submitted to the Hague Tribunal and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, no one has been held accountable even 30 years after the end of the war, said Marko Grabovac, president of the Organization for the Search for Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians from Brod.
Grabovac said that members of the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council, acting together with Muslim forces, occupied Brod for seven months. During that period, there were seven camps for Serbs through which several hundred detainees passed.
According to Grabovac, after the Army of Republika Srpska entered Brod, seven mass graves were discovered. One of them was located at the City Cemetery, where the bodies of 88 killed civilians and soldiers were found.
Grabovac said that an expert report on the genocide against Serb civilians in the territory of the former municipality of Bosanski Brod in 1992 had been prepared and submitted to both the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Hague Tribunal.
He said the report contains evidence concerning mass graves of Serbs, the bodies of murdered Serbs and Roma, raped Serb women, the torture of Serb detainees, burned Serb property and villages, as well as signs that had been displayed on facilities used by Croatian-Muslim forces in the Brod area.
Grabovac described it as completely unacceptable that, 30 years after the end of the war, no one has been held accountable for war crimes committed against Serbs in Brod.
He said that a criminal complaint submitted in 2001 to the Hague Tribunal, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Croatian judiciary named, in addition to Nijaz Čaušević, known as Medo, from Slavonski Brod, a large number of those alleged to have ordered and carried out war crimes against Serbs in the Brod area.
Brod will tomorrow mark Municipality Day and the 34th anniversary of its liberation during the Defensive-Patriotic War, when the Army of Republika Srpska ended the seven-month occupation by regular Croatian Army forces and Croatian-Muslim paramilitary units.
Units of the Army of Republika Srpska entered Brod on October 6, 1992, while General Slavko Lisica proclaimed October 7 as Liberation Day.
The liberation of Brod was part of Operation Corridor, one of the largest and most significant operations carried out by the Army of Republika Srpska together with members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the Defensive-Patriotic War.
More than 2,500 soldiers from the municipality of Brod took part in the Defensive-Patriotic War, of whom 244 were killed and more than 500 were wounded.
Source: RTRS
