KECMAN: UNPUNISHED CRIME ON THE PETROVAC ROAD AND IN SVODNA NEAR NOVI GRAD

BOSANSKI PETROVAC, AUGUST 6 /SRNA/ - Retired Colonel Janko Kecman said he expects the Croatian pilots and the commanders who ordered the war crime of bombing the refugee convoy from Kninska Krajina in Janjile near Bosanski Petrovac and in Svodna near Novi Grad in 1995 to be convicted by Serbia’s judiciary, in absentia, to the harshest penalty, but also eventually be arrested.

"There was no military equipment in the refugee convoy on the Petrovac Road, but exclusively Serb civilians and soldiers who were withdrawing from Kninska Krajina, which is why the bombing of this convoy constitutes a war crime," Kecman told SRNA, commenting on the upcoming commemoration of the suffering of Serbs on the Petrovac Road. Kecman, who served during the war as a major in the Army of Republika Srpska and a helicopter pilot, testified that all Serb military equipment at the time had been halted below Oštrelj, along the stretch towards Kolunić. He points out that two Croatian military aircraft were operating in the area at the time. One flew over the convoy and continued in the direction of Zagreb, while the other relentlessly bombed the refugee convoy, which contained no military equipment apart from medical vehicles, tractors and people in cars, from an altitude of 1,500 metres. "It is unacceptable that Croatia committed a war crime against Serb civilians and violated the airspace 20 kilometres deep into the territory of BiH, and that no one has been held accountable for it," Kecman said. He concluded that the younger generations in Republika Srpska and Serbia should nurture a culture of remembrance for this terrible crime and gather in prayer every year at the memorial cross in Janjile and Svodna near Novi Grad, so that such a crime may never happen to anyone again. According to the data of the Documentation and Verification Centre Veritas, those killed on the Petrovac Road and in Svodna near Novi Grad were Darinka Drča /68/, Mika Kovačević /83/, Krstan Vuković /45/, Branko Stijelja /72/, Mirko Stijelja /34/, pregnant Mirjana Dubajić /21/, six-year-old Jovica Drča, Darko Vuković /13/, Nevenka Rajić /12/, Žarko Rajić /10/, Marta Galogaža /60/, Rade Galogaža /40/ and Mile Malobabić /42/. Those wounded were Josipa Drča, Dušan Drča, Duško Ivaneža, Milica Ivaneža, Jovica Piplica, Ante Vitas, Dušan Beslać, Mara Beslać, pregnant Vedrana Stijelja, Obrenko Vuković, Dušan Drakulić, Vida Galogaža, Zorka Galogaža, Soka Malobabić, Suzana Ljubišić, Smilja Lajšić, as well as the children Željko Drča /13/, Duška Drča /nine/, Zorica Beslać /eight/, Rajko Galogaža /10/, Goran Galogaža /12/, Miloš Malobabić /14/ and Nikolina Krajčinović /11/. The indictment charges Croatian pilots Željko Jelenić, Danijel Borović, Vladimir Mikac and Zdenko Radulj with ordering the shelling of the refugee convoy on the Petrovac Road on August 7 and 8, 1995. Their trial began in March this year before the War Crimes Department of the Higher Court in Belgrade. The criminal operation Storm began on August 4, 1995, with an offensive by the Croatian Army and police, as well as HVO units, in the areas of Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia, during which more than 220,000 Krajina Serbs were expelled from their ancestral homes. The updated records of Veritas contain the names of 1,904 Serbs who were killed or went missing during and after this operation, including 1,250 civilians, around three-quarters of whom were older than 60. Among the victims were ten children under the age of 14 and 566 women, around four-fifths of whom were older than 60, which, according to Veritas, represents a particular "black record" of the civil wars of the 1990s in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. In its February 2015 judgment, the International Court of Justice classified Storm as ethnic cleansing, but not as genocide, although international experts in the field of genocide studies claim that the operation had all the characteristics of genocide.