Medak Pocket Massacre: Ustasha Savagery Replay

Medak Pocket Massacre

 

Canadian soldiers testify about the Medak Pocket Massacre (YouTube):

• The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 1

 

The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 1

• The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 2

he Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 2

 

• The Ghosts of Medak Pocket - Part 3

 

 

 

 

Regular Croat Army left the Serb-populated Medak Pocket, which was under the UN protection, completely devastated (image from the publication about the Medak Pocket assault by the Veritas Center; for more images of Medak Pocket region stormed by the Croats and horribly tortured and disfigured Serb victims visit the Veritas publication web pages)

Medak Pocket Massacre: Ustasha Savagery Replay

Today is 15 years since the savage Croat Army attacked Serb populated towns in the lower Velebit region called Medak Pocket (Medacki dzep), which was under the UN protection. In the villages Divoselo, Pocitelj and Citluk, Croat Army butchered 88 Serbs, including 6 policemen and 36 civilians, among which were also 18 women. 26 of the killed Serb civilians were over 60 years of age.

After the massacre, Croats have handed 52 bodies to Serbs. UNPROFOR members, Canadian and French peacekeepers stationed in Croatia at the time, have found another 18 tortured and butchered corpses. In May 2000 another 11 bodies of the Medak Pocket Serbs were found shoved in a sewage pit in the formerly Serbian part of the town of Gospic.

Until now the bodies of 84 Serbs have been found, 8 of which are still unidentified. The remains of another four Croatia Serbs killed at Medak Pocket are still searched for.

According to the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti, President of the documentation-informative Center Veritas Savo Strbac said that the Medak Pocket assault of the Croat Army, which lasted from 9-17 September 1993, was an introduction to the later tragedies Serbs from Slavonia and Republic of Srpska Krajina in Croatia were exposed to.

God Save us from the Plague, Hunger and the Croats (German Saying)

“Monstrosity in the ways crimes against the Serbs were committed at that time, murders which had a ritualistic character, were aimed at degrading a man to the level of an animal, but also to send a message to the compatriots of the killed, showing what awaits them if they stay put in front of the Croat forces”, Strbac said at the press conference.

Strbac reminded that Serbs in Medak Pocket were killed in an exceptionally cruel way, citing an example of a woman whose two sons were in the Croat Army, who was impaled alive. Most of the Serb women, victims of the Croat assault on Medak Pocket, were burned alive. One young man who was mentally ill was hung upside-down by the Croat Army and killed as a knife-throwing target.

In a statement published by Kurir, Veritas Center chairman reminded that there were no wounded in Medak Pocket — no one and nothing was allowed to live:

“This very fact and the results of the autopsy of the Serb victims points to the conclusion this was a systematic murder of the imprisoned and wounded. Their heads were cut off and their skulls were crushed, while the women were being thrown into their own burning houses. The most poignant testimony to the Croat savagery are the words by Cedric Thornberry, Assistant UN Secretary General (and Deputy Chief of the UN Protection Force - UNPROFOR - at the time), who said that after searching the region the whole day all he was able to find alive was one chicken”, Strbac said.

Memorial services for the Serb victims of Medak Pocket assault will be served in Banja Luka and Belgrade, in memory of the victims of the horrific crimes of the regular Croat Army which labeled this action as a “Scorched Earth” project.

French General Jean Cot, United Nations commander in Croatia, wrote with regret that the French and Canadian UN battalions “could not prevent the slaughter of the Serbs by the Croatians, including elderly people and children”, and that the Croat Army “didn’t leave a cat alive” in these villages.

“I have found no sign of human or animal life in the several villages we passed today. The destruction is total, systematic and deliberate,” General Cot informed through the UNPROFOR Press Release, published on September 19, 1993.

A report fully confirmed by the Canadians, who testified that “all livestock had been killed and houses torched”.

Canadian peacekeeper Tony Spiess was one of many Canada’s soldiers who suffered nightmares after witnessing the devastation left by the savage Croat troops.

“The Croatian militia had been trying to keep the Canadian troops from uncovering their ethnic cleansing of a Serbian village, Spiess says, confirming accounts recreated in the 2004 book by Carol Off, titled The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada’s Secret War.

“When the shooting, bombing and mayhem were finally over at Medak Pocket — with no Canadian deaths — one of the things Spiess remembers most was the odour of death, everything from horses to humans.

“The smell will never go away,” he said.

“As Spiess and his Canadian comrades walked into the destroyed Serbian village that the Croatians had tried to stop them from seeing, burning corpses were everywhere.

“Spiess perhaps most vividly remembers the bodies of two teenage Serbian girls hanging limp on chairs, their arms tied to the chairs behind their backs.

“They were still smouldering,” Spiess said. “It was total f—in’ devastation.”

“A chill sets in as he speaks.

“The girls had been raped. Then shot. Then set on fire.”

No Punishment for the Slaughter by the Croat Army

According to Jane Defence Weekly (10 June 1999), Brigadier General Agim Ceku (afterward in charge of the KLA, and then promoted to a politician and a Kosovo-Metohija province “prime minister”) also “masterminded the successful HV [Croatian Army] offensive at Medak” in September 1993.

Instead of trying the Croat Army generals who have ordered and led their troops to this massacre, The Hague tribunal transferred the monstrous case to the Croat judiciary, where Agim Ceku wasn’t even indicted, while general Mirko Norac was convicted to the seven years imprisonment, and (another Albanian) Rahim Ademi was freed of all charges and released.

“Ademi, who at the time was a deputy commander for the Gospic region, was acquitted even though he issued more than 80 orders for the preparation and execution of this assault, while Norac was convicted based on the war crimes committed against the civilian population and the prisoners of war”, Strbac said.

He stressed that the minimization of the victims was obvious during these court proceedings, explaining the two Croat Army generals were tried for the murder of only 23 civilians and 5 soldiers, taking into consideration exclusively the facts for which there was direct evidence, and not the entire behavioral modus……………………….

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TURNING POINTS OF HISTORY IX | THE BATTLE OF MEDAK POCKET

The Battle of Medak Pocket tells the compelling story of a stand off in September 1993 between the heavily armed Croat troops and the men of the Second Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

Their bravery and determination saved the mission, forcing the Serbs to lay down their arms, pushing the Croats out of the area, and earning the men of the Princess Patricia’s 2nd Battalion a rare UN unit citation.

The events at Medak Pocket helped crystallize an ongoing debate in the world community over the effectiveness of the original UN tradition of “peace keeping” and the need to replace it with a more effective but dangerous doctrine of “peace making.”

16 Years Since the Medak Pocket Massacre

 

September 9 marks 16 years since the massacre Croat forces committed in the villages and hamlets south and southeast from the town Gospić in Serbian Krajina, called Medak Pocket (Medački Džep) — a UN safe haven — mutilating, raping, setting on fire and killing 88 Serbs. Memorial services to the victims were held throughout Serbian lands, and in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade. Marking the event, Documentation Center Veritas reminded Croats left no wounded behind in the Serb-populated villages.
The only survivor, Ivanka Rajčević, gave a following testimony:
“My son and I were asleep in the house. It was around 6 a.m. when the first grenade hit one of the houses which immediately burst into flames. I called my son. He said: ‘Mam, we won’t leave the house because they are bombarding’.
“I heard one Ustasha circling around the house. He came to the window and saw me inside. He activated a hand grenade and threw it inside. When it exploded he stood back up to see if it killed me. I was only wounded, but I pretended to be dead. He went behind the house and fired an automatic rifle (…) The other ones came in front of the house afterwords, in a transporter and on the tank. They didn’t stay long, but four Ustasha stayed in front of the doors. They did not speak our language, I believe they spoke German [they probably spoke Dutch, another Germanic language, as it was established that 13 Dutchmen also took part in the massacre]. When two Ustasha joined them, they asked the interpreter to translate. He said: ‘This is a Serb village, slit all throats, even the cats! Kill everything, nothing must stay behind, including children.’
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Dieser Eintrag wurde am 10.9.2008 um 22:11 verfasst und befindet sich in Geschichte - History, Balkan (Englisch). Sie können alle Antworten zu diesem Eintrag über den Feed RSS 2.0 mitverfolgen. Hinterlassen Sie eine Antwort oder einen Trackback-Link zu Ihrer eigenen Homepage.