Belgrade begins war crimes trial of four Croatian Air Force pilots accused of firing rockets at Serbian refugee columns in August 1995.
The first main hearing of the trial of four Croatian Air Force pilots who are accused of firing rockets at Serb refugee columns on a road near Bosanski Petrovac and Bosnia and Herzegovina began on Friday in the War Crimes Department of the High Court of Belgrade.
The accused pilots will be tried in absentia, given that they have been unavailable to Serbian judicial authorities since the beginning of the investigation in 2021.
Zdenko Radulj, 70, Željko Jelenić, 69, Vladimir Mikac, 68, and Danijel Borović, 65, are accused by Serbia of carrying out the order to fire the rockets at the refugee convoys from the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) on the Petrovac and Prijedor roads on 7 and 8 August, 1995.
13 people were killed in the shelling of the columns, six of whom were children under the age of 13. Some two dozen others were wounded.
The shelling, dubbed “Operation Storm” came during the heat of the Croatian war of independence which took place between March 1991 and November 1995.
The conflict was ignited after a referendum on independence, which saw significant boycott participation from Croatian Serbs. On 25 June, 1991, the Croatian parliament took the decisive step of officially declaring independence.
In response, the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) announced its intention to break away from Croatia and align itself with the Republic of Serbia, a move that the Croatian government labelled as insurrection.
Armed forces and paramilitaries from the RSK began expelling Croats and other non-Serbs from territories under their control. Simultaneously, Serbs residing in Croatian towns, particularly those near combat zones, faced numerous instances of harassment and violence.
On 4 August, 1995, the Croatian Army, in collaboration with the 5th Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, initiated Operation Storm aimed at reclaiming occupied Croatian territories and ending the siege of the Bosnian city of Bihać, near the Croatian border.
This military action forced approximately 200,000 Serbs to flee towards Serbia. As columns of Serb civilians made their way through the town of Dvor, they came under consistent assault from artillery and small arms fire.
On 7 August, two MiG-21 – Soviet-era fighter jets – aircraft from the Croatian Air Force launched multiple rockets at the refugee convoys on Petrovac road near Bosanski Petrovac, resulting in the deaths of nine civilians and injuries to over 50 others, including four children.
The refugees had recently come from other regions such as Lika, Dalmatia, Kordun, and Banija. Survivors reported that the convoy consisted solely of civilians fleeing the conflict, with no military vehicles or armed forces present.
The following day, on 8 August, another refugee convoy was targeted in a shelling incident near the village of Svodna, also leading to civilian casualties.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch condemned the attacks and abuses carried out during the operation.
Video editor • Malek Fouda
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