KECMAN: CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT ON THE PETROVAČKA ROAD

BANJA LUKA, JULY 18 /SRNA/ – Retired Colonel Janko Kecman said that the Croatian air force committed a war crime against Serb civilians by bombing a refugee convoy from Kninska Krajina in Janjile near Bosanski Petrovac in 1995, for which no one has been held accountable even after three decades.

"At that time, two Croatian military planes were active in the area; one flew over the convoy and headed towards Zagreb, while the other mercilessly bombed the refugee convoy, which contained no military equipment except for an ambulance, tractors, and people in cars, from an altitude of 1,500 meters," Kecman told SRNA. According to him, it is unacceptable that Croatia committed a war crime against Serb civilians and violated airspace 20 kilometers deep into BiH territory. Kecman, who during the past war was a major in the Republika Srpska Army and a helicopter pilot, testified that ten years after the crime, together with a friend, he visited the area where they found a white Mercedes with two human corpses inside. "This shows the attitude that the FBiH authorities had towards Serb victims in Operation `Storm` because it did not occur to anyone to take care of the bodies," Kecman pointed out. Kecman believes that the commanders and perpetrators of this crime will eventually be held accountable before the judiciary of Serbia. According to Veritas data, those killed on the Petrovačka 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/, Jovica Drča /6/, 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 children Željko Drča /13/, Duška Drča /9/, Zorica Beslać /8/, 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 Petrovačka road on August 7 and 8, 1995. Their trial began this March at the Special War Crimes 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. The next day, August 5, the Croatian army entered the almost deserted Knin and raised the Croatian flag, while convoys of refugees moved through Serb territories in BiH towards Serbia. According to Veritas data, during the Operation Storm more than 220,000 Serbs were expelled, and there are 1,893 names on the record of killed and missing Serbs from this operation and its aftermath, of whom 1,236 were civilians, or 65 percent, and about three-quarters were over 60 years old.