On the morning of September 29, 1991, members of the National Guard Corps (ZNG) of the Republic of Croatia launched a general attack on all military facilities of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in the Bjelovar garrison, which had already been under a total blockade for 15 days. At the end of the day, the commander of the 265th Motorized Brigade of the JNA, stationed in the “Božidar Adžija” barracks, Colonel Rajko Kovačević, ordered the cessation of further defense, the laying down of weapons, and the surrender of soldiers and officers. After the soldiers lined up in the barracks yard, around 7:00 PM, members of the ZNG entered the facility, from which no further resistance was offered.
Upon the ZNG entering the barracks, Jure Šimić, acting as the President of the Bjelovar Crisis Staff, ordered the execution of Commander Kovačević and his assistants: Lieutenant Colonel Miljko Vasić and Captain First Class Dragiša Jovanović. The following day, by Šimić's order, the citizens of Bjelovar toured the captured barracks, where the bodies of the murdered officers were publicly exposed.
While the battle for the barracks was ongoing, JNA Major Milan Tepić (34), the commander of the “Barutana” ammunition depot in the village of Bedenik near Bjelovar, detonated the facility with 170 tons of explosives to prevent its surrender. On that occasion, Major Tepić and private Stojadin Mirković (19), who refused Tepić's order to surrender, lost their lives. The Croatian side confirmed the loss of 11 of its soldiers. Following the surrender, the guard commander at the facility, Senior Sergeant Ranko Stevanović from Prokuplje, was executed in retaliation.
In the “Božidar Adžija” barracks, six more JNA members were killed: Zoran Krstić, Šukri Keljani, Ljubiša Lazić, Nedeljko Jovetić, Berdoli Ejup, and Goran Radovanović. Additionally, 59 officers, non-commissioned officers, and civilian employees serving in the JNA, along with approximately 250 soldiers, were captured. Following physical and psychological abuse in camps in Bjelovar, they were exchanged on November 9 of the same year in Bosanski Šamac.
Six captured JNA reservists from the Bjelovar area (Radovan Barberić, Zdravko Dokman, Radovan Gredeljević, Ivan Hosjak, Boško Radonjić, and Milorad Đorđević) were separated and detained at the police station. Four days later, masked uniformed individuals led them away and executed them that night in the Česma forest, near the village of Malo Korenovo. A civilian, Savo Kovač from Bjelovar, survived the execution despite sustaining three gunshot wounds.
No one has yet been convicted for the described crimes against members of the JNA — which at that moment was formally and legally the regular army of the SFRY, of which Croatia was still a legal part. Proceedings were conducted before the ICTY in The Hague, the Military Court in Belgrade, and Croatian judicial authorities.
By a verdict dated October 2, 2019, the County Court in Rijeka non-finality acquitted Jure Šimić of charges that he ordered the murder of the three mentioned JNA officers. This verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia in September 2023.
Croatian courts base the acquittal on the testimonies of Šimić's comrades, who stated that he was present inside the Crisis Staff premises during the takeover of the barracks. Furthermore, the courts accepted the opinion of Croatian forensic and ballistic experts that the cause of death of the officers was explosive injuries, which Šimić was not charged with in the indictment. Conversely, testimonies from JNA witnesses — who stated they saw the officers being singled out immediately before pistol shots were heard — were dismissed as unreliable. Legal experts in the region point out that such an outcome of the trial, where forensic expertise is prioritized over the direct testimonies of a large number of eyewitnesses, casts a shadow over the objectivity of the Croatian judiciary.
The Presidency of the SFRY declared Major Milan Tepić a National Hero on November 19, 1991, making him the final recipient of this title. On December 31, 1999, the President of the FRY posthumously awarded soldier Stojadin Mirković the “Order of Merit in the Field of Defense and Security, First Class,” while the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church awarded him the “Order of Saint Sava, Third Class” in 2014.
Belgrade/Banja Luka, September 28, 2026.
Information Service of DIC “Veritas”
