From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Documents 2
Date: 22 Nov 1992 12:56:27 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu


No. 9
ETHNIC SERB POPULATION IN WESTERN SLAVONIA PRIOR TO ETHNIC CLEANSING
>From mid XVI century to this day, in Western Slavonia, there were many and
compact ethnic Serb settlements, so this area has for long been considered
as Serb land, as witnessed by numerous old geographic maps and historical
documents. The compact Serb ethnic area in Western Slavonia (see supplied
map: "Ethnic Composition of Population in Western Slavonia") was broken up
by Croatian state authorities after World War II into several parts, after
which these parts were administratively and artificially connected with
parts in which ethnic Croats represented a majority. This prevented the
creation of municipalities with ethnic Serb majority, and instead of having
several municipalities with ethnic Serb majority, we saw the creation of
nine ethnically mixed municipalities (see supplied map: "Administrative
Division of Western Slavonia" and list of settlements). This way, ethnic
Serbs were denied the opportunity to have, on a municipal level at least,
any real control over the administration, economic development and
education which they might have used in the best interests of their
community.

Most settlements with absolute or relative ethnic Serb majority, prior to
ethnic cleansing 1991-1992, were in the following Western Slavonian
municipalities: Daruvar, Grubisino Polje, Nova Gradiska, Novska, Orahovica,
Pakrac, Podravska Slatina, Slavonska Pozega and Virovitica. According to
1981. census data, the last census whose results are fully available to the
public, in these municipalities there were 251 settlements with absolute
and 32 with relative ethnic Serb majority. The number of such settlements
would have been greater still if many ethnic Serbs did not hide their
ethnic background during census by declaring themselves as "Yugoslavs".
There were settlements with ethnic Serb majority in the neighboring
municipalities as well, where ethnic cleansing has also taken place, such
as, for example, in the municipalities of Nasice and Bjelovar.


EXPULSION OF ETHNIC SERBS FROM URBAN SETTLEMENTS

In the urban settlements of Western Slavonia (Daruvar, Grubisino Polje,
Lipik, Nova Gradiska, Novska, Orahovica, Pakrac, Podravska Slatina,
Slavonska Pozega and Virovitica), which according to the 1981 census had
95,620 inhabitants, there were 17,199 ethnic Serbs and 17,944 Yugoslavs.
During the ethnic cleansing of 1991-1992, as determined by inspecting lists
of names, as yet incomplete, regarding refugees from the above urban
settlements, as of August 15, 1992, only to the territory of the Republic
of Serbia, there were 21,521 ethnic Serb refugees: 2,895 from Daruvar,
1,186 from Grubisino Polje, 983 from Lipik, 1,951 from Nova Gradiska, 1,391
from Novska, 485 from Orahovica, 4,382 from Pakrac, 4,273 from Podravska
Slatina, 1,841 from Slavonska Pozega and 2,134 from Virovitica. In case of
some urban settlements, more ethnic Serbs fled them than were recorded by
the 1981 census as living there. This is especially true of Pakrac and
Podravska Slatina. This statistical paradox is a result of the fact that
driven out of those settlements were not only those who in the 1981 census
declared themselves as ethnic Serbs, but also those who at that time
declared themselves as "Yugoslavs". The number of driven out ethnic Serbs,
as established by field researchers of the Serbian Council Information
Center, is in fact far larger than shown in official data. Many refugees,
for fear that they might be driven back to the territory of the Republic of
Croatia by force, have not reported to the local authorities their arrival
on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. Beside this, there is a lack of
lists of names of refugees from Western Slavonia in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
on the territory of the Republic of Serbian Krayina.

Ethnic Serbs in larger urban settlements, as most local ethnic Croats, were
employed in state owned companies and institutions, so their existence
depended almost entirely on the attitude the state authorities assumed
towards them. The right to manage these enterprises enabled the Croatian
authorities, or the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (CDU), to threaten the
existence of ethnic Serb communities in larger urban settlements by
harassing and firing from work ethnic Serb employees. This possibility has
been extensively used since early 1991 until this time, despite the
readiness of the larger part of ethnic Serb urban population to provide all
required evidence of loyalty to Croatian authorities. Many of them,
denouncing their ethnic Serb background and declaring themselves to be
"Yugoslavs", clearly demonstrated that they would not demand any special
ethnic rights from the authorities, just as they had not demanded them from
previous communist authorities. Despite their will to remain loyal at any
cost to Croatian authorities, even at the cost of denouncing their ethnic
rights, they were not spared from harassment - the fate determined for all
ethnic Serbs in the Republic of Croatia.

The campaign to fire ethnic Serbs from work and to create a feeling of
uncertainty in them was the beginning of ethnic cleansing of urban
settlements in Western Slavonia, but the results of that campaign did not
satisfy the Croatian authorities and the local ethnic Croat population.
Because of that, since mid 1991, other much more radical measures were
being prepared: the mining of ethnic Serb houses began, as well as of
commercial premises, and lists of unsuitable ethnic Serbs were being
prepared, they being slated for arrests or liquidation. These methods have
shown themselves to be very efficient in performing ethnic cleansing of
urban settlements in Western Slavonia, so by the end of 1991, they were
mostly ethnically cleansed; a part of ethnic Serbs from urban settlements
left and went to relatives on the countryside, while another part went as
refugees to the Republic of Serbia and Bosnia- Herzegovina.

Thorough research work performed by sociologist Mrs. Vera Nikolic, the
results of which have been placed at our disposal, indicates that the urban
settlement ethnic Serb population primarily left because fear had
systematically been implanted in them and because their lives were being
threatened. Most believed that was only a temporary refuge, but because of
what went on after their departure, and what is still going on with their
property and the few ethnic Serbs who did not leave the Republic of Croatia
(constant arrests, looting and taking away of apartments and property,
tearing down of houses, harassment and murder of ethnic Serbs and
"Yugoslavs"), they began to realize that they were not refugees, but were
in fact exiled, dislocated people strongly unwanted in the Republic of
Croatia, and strangers in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The documentation gathered, witness statements and polls taken among the
refugees all indicate that ethnic cleansing in all urban areas of Western
Slavonia began the same way and at approximately the same time, which leads
to the conclusion that it was performed as per previously formulated and
well orchestrated plans. The nature of this report, whose volume is by
definition limited, does not permit a detailed description of the initial
stage of ethnic cleansing in urban settlements, and for illustration's
sake, we will quote only one example, that of Grubisino Polje.

In Grubisino Polje, on the start of ethnic cleansing, ethnic Serbs
represented a relative majority, while ethnic Croats (979 of a total of
3,060 inhabitants as per the 1981 census data) represented a clear
minority. Despite this, the ethnic Croat population, joined by members of
ethnic Czech and Hungarian minorities, as early as the beginning of 1991
began to exert pressure on the ethnic Serb population in the town itself,
but also in neighboring mixed population settlements. The Croatian police
not only failed to protect the ethnic Serbs, but took part by itself in
denying them their basic human rights. There were no investigations of
cases of overt violence against members of the local ethnic Serb community,
nor of cases of damaging and destruction of Orthodox church facilities. On
certain Orthodox church facilities, threatening graffiti turned up; for
example, on the Orthodox church of V. Grdjevci, as reported also by
"Grubisinopoljski list" of July 19, 1991, among others, a large graffiti
turned up stating: "Death to the Serbs" ("Smrt Srbima"). In view of the
living memory of crimes committed by Croatian authorities and population
against ethnic Serb population during World War II, such threats and a
veritable anti-Serb hysteria went a long way in creating a feeling of being
threatened in the local ethnic Serb population. This feeling was further
promoted by the arrival of "blackshirts" - members of the National Guard of
the Republic of Croatia from Virovitica, under the command of the CDU
activist Stojan Gustin, on August 13, 1991. This unit, whose appearance and
aggressive behavior caused a consternation among the local ethnic Serbs,
blocked all roads from the settlement, established autonomous checkpoints
in the town and took over police affairs and operations in Grubisino Polje.
Its members began to arrest ethnic Serbs according to a previously compiled
list, produced by the local chapter of the CDU. The arrest list contained
124 names of ethnic Serb locals from Grubisino Polje and several
neighboring settlements. During merely the first several days of terrorism
spread by the members of National Guard of the Republic of Croatia (NGC),
more than twenty ethnic Serbs, mostly highly respected men, were arrested.
Spasoje Milosevic, Mitar Stanic and Drago Macak were arrested at that time,
and several days after their arrest, they were liquidated. Among those
arrested then, and subsequently released ethnic Serbs was also one Mladen
Kekerovic, whose fate is highly illustrative in realizing the sheer volume
of lawlessness which had by mid August 1991 taken root in Grubisino Polje
and brought about the mass refuge of ethnic Serbs from that place:

- Mladen Kekerovic (1973), the richest ethnic Serb from Grubisino
Polje, Novi put b.b., was arrested without any court order by members of
the National Guard of the Republic of Croatia on August 16, 1991, during a
business trip he embarked upon with a larger amount of money in his
possession. After several days of harassment in the improvised jail
situated in the hotel in Grubisino Polje, where among other things he had
his ear cut off, Mladen Kekerovic was permitted to leave the Republic of
Croatia and to go to Serbia. On the occasion of being released from prison,
he was not given back the money he had when arrested, nor was he permitted
to sell his property. This private property of his, estimated at some US $
950,000, was looted by members of the NGC from Grubisino Polje and
Virovitica, among whom was their commander Stojan Gustin.

Exposed to all kinds of harassment and lawlessness, insecure even regarding
its very life, the ethnic Serb population began to flee en masse from
Grubisino Polje. In part, they went to neighboring settlements with ethnic
Serb majorities, and in part they crossed over to the
of Serbia. Many of these
refugees came to Serbia to the same families with which they themselves, or
their fathers and mothers before them, were accommodated as refugees during
World War II, when as per the orders of the current authorities of the
Independent State of Croatia almost all ethnic Serbs were run out of the
Grubisino Polje region. After the mass exodus of ethnic Serbs from the
Grubisino Polje region at the end of August and in early September 1991,
only a handful of ethnic Serbs remained, mostly elder men and women,
determined to preserve the family property. Only some of them managed to do
so, because Croatian national guardsmen began to mine ethnic Serb houses in
early September 1991. This practice was continued throughout 1992 as well,
despite the fact that the municipality of Grubisino Polje is under
protection of UNPROFOR. One of the mine targets, according to our data, was
recently the house of Djuro Popara, given for use to the Argentinean part
of the UN forces. By evicting ethnic Serbs, and by knocking down their
houses and expropriating their apartments, the Croatian authorities have
attained their goal - they have ethnically cleansed the region of Grubisino
Polje and have made the return of ethnic Serb refugees impossible, thus
making this an ethnic Croat majority town.

Ethnic cleansing in all Western Slavonian towns, as previously stated, was
performed in the same manner and in a relatively short period of time. An
exception in that respect is only the town of Slavonska Pozega, most
probably because ethnic Serbs in it were a definite minority to start with.
Croatian authorities of this town conducted their own ethnic cleansing
markedly more slowly than elsewhere in the region of Western Slavonia.
Ethnic Serb population of this town could not leave it without special
passes, nor could they move about the municipality without such passes.
Only on November 1, the "Day of the Deceased", when Roman Catholics
generally go with flowers and wreaths to the graves of their deceased to
pray for their souls, did the mass eviction of ethnic Serbs from Slavonska
Pozega begin. Because of the holy day, the Croatian authorities permitted
all movement, even crossing of borders without any passes, so as to allow
all Roman Catholics to perform their religious rites with minimum
hinderance. Orthodox ethnic Serbs from Slavonska Pozega used that
opportunity and over one thousand of them left the town with flowers and
wreaths, so as to lead the Croatian guardsmen and policemen to believe that
they were Roman Catholics and to be allowed to cross the barricades without
the required passes. With flowers and wreaths in their hands, they crossed
the border in Slavonski Brod over to Bosnia- Herzegovina. This is how in
one single day, the majority of ethnic Serbs from Slavonska Pozega were in
fact turned into refugees.


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