Doboj massacre
Encyclopedia
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, wanton destruction and ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
, committed against Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
and Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
in the Doboj
Doboj
Doboj is a city and a municipality in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, situated in the northern part of the Republika Srpska entity on the river Bosna. Doboj is the largest national railway junction; as such, the seats of the Republika Srpska Railways, and the Railways Corporation of Bosnia and...
area by the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
and Serb paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
units from April until October 1992 during the Bosnian war
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. The Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo
Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo
The Research and Documentation Center is an institution based in Sarajevo, which aims to gather facts, documents and data on genocide, war crimes and human rights violations, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It describes itself as an independent, non-governmental, non-profit, professional and...
registered over 2,300 dead or missing people in the area during the war.
On 26 September 1997, Nikola Jorgic
Nikola Jorgic
Nikola Jorgic is a Bosnian Serb from the Doboj region who was the leader of a paramilitary group located in the Doboj region. In 1997, Nikola was convicted of genocide in Germany. This was the first conviction won against participants in the Bosnian Genocide...
was found guilty by the Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) on 11 counts of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
involving the murder of 30 persons in the Doboj region, making it the first Bosnian Genocide
Bosnian Genocide
The term Bosnian Genocide refers to either the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995 or the ethnic cleansing campaign that took place throughout areas controlled by the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War....
prosecution. Jorgic's appeal was rejected by the German Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court) on 30 April 1999. The Oberlandesgericht
Oberlandesgericht
The Oberlandesgericht is one of the 'ordinary courts' in Germany...
found that Jorgic, a Bosnian Serb, had been the leader of a paramilitary group in the Doboj region that had taken part in acts of terror against the local Muslim population carried out with the backing of the Serb rulers and intended to contribute to their policy of "ethnic cleansing".
Takeover of Doboj in 1992
Doboj was strategically important during the Bosnian WarBosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. In May 1992, the occupation of Doboj by the Serbian forces began. The Serbian Democratic Party took over the governing of the city. What followed was a mass disarming and subsequently mass arrests of all non-Serb civilians (namely Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
and Croats
Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina form one of the three constitutive nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.There is no precise data regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina's population since the last war. Ethnic cleansing within Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s saw the vast majority of Croats move and take...
).
Serb forces were implicated in the systematic looting and destruction of Bosniak and Croatian
Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina form one of the three constitutive nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.There is no precise data regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina's population since the last war. Ethnic cleansing within Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s saw the vast majority of Croats move and take...
homes and villages during the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. Women were raped and civilians tortured and killed. Widespread looting and destruction of Bosniak homes and property took place daily and the Bosnian Muslim mosques in town were destroyed. Many of the non-Serbs who were not immediately killed were detained at various locations in the town, subjected to inhumane conditions, including regular beatings, torture and strenuous forced labour. A school in Grabska and the factory used by the Bosanka company that produced jams and juices in Doboj was used as a rape camp. Four different types of soldiers were present at the rape camps including the local Serbian militia, the Yugoslav army (JNA), police forces based in the Serbian-occupied town of Knin (or "Marticevci" as their commander was Milan Martic
Milan Martic
Milan Martić is a Serbian politician, former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina...
) and members of the "White Eagles" (Beli Orlovi) paramilitary group who wore an insignia bearing three eagles and a "kokarda" on their hats.
ICTY convictions
In its verdict, the ICTY stated that Biljana PlavšićBiljana Plavšic
Biljana Plavšić is a former president of Republika Srpska and war criminal. She is the highest ranking Bosnian Serb politician to be sentenced. She was indicted in 2001 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war crimes committed during the Bosnian war...
and Momčilo Krajišnik
Momcilo Krajišnik
Momčilo Krajišnik is a Bosnian Serb former politician convicted of murder and other crimes against humanity during the Bosnian war .He co-founded the Bosnian Serb nationalist Serbian Democratic Party with Radovan...
, acting individually or in concert with Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
and others, planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation or execution of the destruction, in whole or in part, of the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such, in several municipalities, including but not limited to Doboj. Plavšić was sentenced to 11 and Krajišnik to 20 years in prison. Plavisic's indictment related to genocide charges in Doboj specifically included but were not limited to the following killings:
- the killing on or about 10 May 1992 of thirty-four Bosnian Muslim /Bosniak and/or Bosnian Croat civilians of the village of Gornja Grapska - Doboj municipality.
- many of the Bosnian Muslims /Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats who survived the attacks and forced marches were taken to these camps and detention facilities, including but not limited to: Bare ammunition warehouse from 1 May 1992, Spreca prison from 1 May 1992, the SUP station from 1 May to 31 July 1992, Percin’s Disco from 1 May 1992, Sevarlije JNA barracks from 1 May to 30 June 1992, and the JNA hangars near the Bosanska plantation from May 1992, all in the Doboj municipality.
Other incidents currently under investigation include:
- the execution of 15 civilians from the Spreca Central Prison in Doboj in May 1992;
- a series of mass executions of non-Serbs on the banks of the river Bosna on June 17–19, 1992;
- a series of mass executions in the "July 4th" military barracks in the village of Miljkovac on July 12, 1992; and
- the use of civilians as human shields against a Bosnian Army advance the same month.
As of 2011, Jovica Stanišić
Jovica Stanišic
Jovica Stanišić is a former head of the State Security Service now BIA within the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. He is facing trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina...
and Franko Simatović
Franko Simatovic
Franko "Frenki" Simatović was the head of the Serbian secret police of Slobodan Milošević, the Special Forces of State Security of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was the founder of the "Special Operations Unit"....
are still on trial, among others for war crimes in Doboj.