FOUR WITNESSES GAVE TESTIMONIES ON CRIME ON THE PETROVAC ROAD

BELGRADE, MARCH 28 /SRNA/ - The trial of four Croatian military pilots, accused of killing ten civilians in a refugee convoy during the "Storm" operation, began today before the War Crimes Court, featuring heartbreaking testimonies from four survivors of the aerial attack on the Petrovac road.

The trial will continue on May 8, when four new witnesses will testify. The first to testify was Mirko Drča, of Srb, who lost his sister Mirjana Dubajić and his six-year-old nephew Jovica in the attack. His mother, Darinka /68/, died of injuries on the way to the hospital. Drča told the court that his son Željko and brother Duško were also injured in the convoy, and that he later learned that his sister Mirjana, who was killed, was pregnant at the time of her death. Milka Vekić testified about the deaths of her father, Branko, and brother Mirko, as well as the tragic fate of her sister-in-law Vedrana. The court heard a heartbreaking testimony about Vedrana's fate from Branko's grandson, Savo Stijelja, who was eight years old in August 1995 when his family set off on their journey as refugees from Zagrade near Benkovac. "The scene that remains engraved on my memory is of my decapitated father, his head on the steering wheel, and my grandfather beside him, dead," Stijelja recalled. He described in detail how his father and grandfather were killed, and how his mother, Vedrana, and his three-year-old sister Aleksandra were wounded. His father and grandfather were in a Mercedes, following a truck, and in it were Savo, his mother, sister, and grandmother, who, a few days before they were expelled from their homes, underwent surgery at the Knin hospital. "We heard the sound of the plane and then the explosions. I didn’t see the plane, I just heard the explosions. My father and grandfather died on the spot in the 'Mercedes,'" Stijelja recalled. The agony of his family continued after the crime on the Petrovac road, as his mother, Vedrana, passed away during childbirth in Novi Sad. He, his three-year-old sister Aleksandra, and the newborn Tanja were adopted by his uncle and aunt. Jovica Piplica from Donji Lapac testified about the deaths of his neighbors from the Vuković and Rajić families in a truck, which was driven by his neighbor and colleague Krstan Vuković. Piplica, who was also wounded, described how Krstan Vuković and his son Darko /13/ died, as well as the children of his other neighbor Spasoje Rajić – daughter Nevenka /12/ and son Žarko /10/. Piplica recalled that he only remembers holding a cellophane from a cigarette pack in his hand at the moment of the attack on the convoy when he saw and felt a flash, and then he remembers nothing else because he lost consciousness. All the victims who testified today confirmed in court that they would join the criminal prosecution of the accused Croatian pilots and seek compensation for the damages they endured. Croatian Air Force officers Vladimir Mikac /67/ from Ptuj, Zdenko Radulj /69/ from Osijek, Željko Jelenić /69/ from Pula, and Danijel Borović /64/ from Varaždin are accused of the crime on the Petrovac road. The Croatian officers, accused of ordering the bombing of refugee convoys from the Republic of Serbian Krajina on the Petrovac Road and in Svodna near Novi Grad, are being tried in absentia because they have not been available to Serbian judicial authorities since the start of the investigation in 2021. The crime on the Petrovac Road was committed on August 7, 1995, when several civilians, including children aged six to thirteen, were killed in a bombing of a refugee convoy from an aircraft during the criminal operation "Storm."