On Monday, the 31st anniversary of the crime committed against Serbian civilians on 28 September 1995 was marked in Varivode, a village in the Kistanje municipality in Šibenik-Knin County. The crime occurred less than two months after Operation Storm.
That night, nine elderly Serbian civilians were killed in their homes and courtyards: Dušan Dukić (59), Špiro Berić (55), Jovo Berić (75), Jovan Berić (56), Radivoj Berić (69), Marija Berić (69), Milka Berić (67), Marko Berić (82) and Mirko Pokrajac (84). A tenth body, that of Uglješa Ilijašević (54), was found later, but it is unclear whether this case was linked to the crime in Varivode.
No one has yet been held accountable for the crime, and no one has been convicted to date. Croatian authorities initially claimed that the state was not responsible for these crimes, but that they were committed by armed civilians dressed in military uniforms. Following criticism from European Union countries and the United States, Minister of the Interior Ivan Jarnjak and his deputy Marijan Benko announced on 18 October 1995 that the perpetrators had been brought to the detention centre of the County Court in Zadar.
Between 1996 and 2002, two trials were held before Croatian courts. An indictment was filed in 1996 against four individuals, who were acquitted by the court in Zadar. The acquittal was overturned on appeal, and the case was transferred to the court in Šibenik in 2002. The state attorney in Šibenik dropped the charges, concluding that there was no reliable evidence against the accused. The crimes in Varivode were also included in the indictment against generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markač and Ivan Čermak, filed in 2001 before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Around a hundred people gathered in Varivode on Monday, including residents, local and national politicians, representatives of Serbian minority associations, and three members of the Honour Guard Battalion of the Croatian Army. Wreaths were laid, candles were lit, and speeches were delivered. Varivode now has around 50 inhabitants, and the number is declining rapidly.
Jovan Berić, who lost his father Radivoj, mother Marija and an uncle in the massacre, with six of the victims being his neighbours, was working as a truck driver at the time of the killings and was driving towards Banja Luka. In 1993, he exchanged his house in Zadar, which was burned on the day of Croatia's recognition, for one in Banja Luka. He and his family received 540,000 Croatian kuna in compensation from the state in 2013.
Croatian investigative authorities buried the victims at the Knin cemetery, and no autopsy was ever performed apart from an external examination. The police contacted Jovan Berić two days after the killings. The UN spokesperson in Knin at the time was Alun R. Roberts. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković attended the commemoration in Varivode in 2020.
The director of the Centre for Confronting the Past Documenta is Tena Banjeglav, and the SDSS parliamentary representative and deputy president of the Serbian National Council is Anja Šimpraga.
