Nearly two months after the conclusion of the Croatian military operation codenamed “Storm” against the western parts of the RSK-which were under UN protection at the time (Sectors “South” and “North”)-nine residents of Serb nationality were murdered in the village of Varivode, then in the municipality of Knin, on September 28, 1995. The victims were: Jovan Berić (75), Špiro Berić (55), Radivoj Berić (69), Marija Berić (69), Mirko Pokrajac (84), Dušan Dukić (59), Marko Berić (82), Milka Berić (67), and Jovan Berić (56). Around the same day, a tenth resident of Varivode, Uglješa Ilijašević (54), was also killed, and his body was later found in a water cistern near the village. The average age of the victims was 67.
In the nearby village of Gošić, on August 27 of the same year, seven residents, also of Serb nationality, were murdered, with an average age of 70.
All those killed in both villages were civilians, and there were no military operations in the area either during the war or at the time of the murders. They remained in their villages because they either could not or did not want to leave their homes, and some trusted the public appeals of Franjo Tuđman, who guaranteed property and personal safety to those who had “not bloodied their hands”. All were killed in their own yards, on their doorsteps, or inside their homes, by firearms shot at close range. The only exception was Uglješa Ilijašević, whose body was discovered in October in a nearby cistern with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Despite knowing the identities of the victims, the Croatian police secretly buried them at the Knin cemetery under the label “unknown” in an attempt to cover up the crime. In the spring of 2001, their bodies were exhumed by ICTY investigators among 301 mortal remains buried at that cemetery, all dating from the time of Operation “Storm” and its aftermath. The families identified them in 2002 using the DNA method, after which they were buried in their home villages. The Municipality of Kistanje and the Serb National Council erected monuments for them, which have since been desecrated multiple times.
Under pressure from the international community and human rights organizations, these murders were prosecuted relatively quickly. Consequently, the County State Attorney's Office in Zadar raised an indictment as early as 1996 against six former Croatian soldiers (Nikola Rašić, Ivan Jakovljević, Pero Perković, Ivica Petrić, Zlatko Ladović, and Nediljko Mijić) for the felony of murder out of self-interest.
Although four of the defendants confessed to the crime during the investigation, the County Court in Zadar acquitted them later that year due to a lack of evidence. This verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court, and the case was remanded for a retrial.
During the retrial before the County Court in Šibenik, the prosecution withdrew the indictment against all defendants on February 13, 2002, stating that information had emerged regarding other potential perpetrators of the murders in both villages, and announced a new investigation. However, even three decades after the crime, no one has been indicted or convicted for the murders of civilians in Varivode and Gošić, nor for many other murders of Serb civilians in neighboring villages in the post-”Storm” period.
According to the 1991 population census in the Republic of Croatia, 477 residents lived in Varivode: 472 Serbs, two Yugoslavs, one Croat, and two others. According to the 2021 census, 61 residents lived in the village, with no ethnicity specified. Among them, there is no one under the age of 25, 31 residents are older than 65, while only four are under the age of 40.
Belgrade / Banja Luka, September 27, 2026
Information Service of DIC “Veritas”
