On October 29, 1991, at exactly 12:00 p.m., members of the Civil Protection and police forces of the Republic of Croatia began implementing an Evacuation Order targeting all residents of 26 villages with exclusive or predominant Serb populations. These villages were located in the Požega Valley, at the foot of the Papuk and Psunj mountains. The decision had been issued a day earlier, on October 28, by the Crisis Staff of the Slavonska Požega Municipality.
According to the written order signed by Ante Bagarić in his capacity as President of the Crisis Staff, which was publicly posted in prominent areas, the evacuation was officially justified as a measure “to protect the lives of citizens” and to enable a more effective defense of Croatian positions against the Yugoslav Army and local Serb units. A 48-hour deadline was given for the execution of the order. According to the official 1991 census, a total of 2,120 individuals lived in the targeted villages.
The majority of the population complied with the order and left their homes. Some found temporary shelter with relatives in nearby areas, while a smaller number moved to locations designated by Croatian authorities as assembly centers.
Although the civilian population received guarantees that their property would be protected, the systematic burning and destruction of residential and commercial structures began immediately after the villages were emptied, effectively preventing the displaced population from ever returning. Elderly and infirm residents, who due to health issues or personal choice remained in their villages, perished inside their homes during these actions. The Croatian authorities at the time attempted to justify the destruction of the region to both domestic and international audiences by claiming that the Serbs had burned their own property during their withdrawal.
Faced with the loss of their property and severe security risks, the majority of the evacuated Serbs fled to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from where they continued toward Serbia or Eastern Slavonia. A smaller number of residents found refuge in the villages of Gornji Vrhovci, Vučjak Čečavski, and Šnjegavić. These locations refused to comply with the evacuation order, and local residents organized village watches within the framework of the Territorial Defense.
At dawn on December 10, 1991, the 121st Brigade of the Croatian Army from Nova Gradiška and the 123rd Brigade from Slavonska Požega launched a military assault on these three villages. Following the entry of Croatian forces, the population and local defense units withdrew toward Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to documentation compiled by the DIC “Veritas,” 71 individuals of Serb ethnicity were killed during this military operation and the subsequent clearing of the terrain in the aforementioned and several neighboring villages. Among the victims, 34 women and 42 individuals over the age of 60 were identified. Following the displacement of the population, members of the Croatian Army looted and completely destroyed 616 residential and 590 auxiliary buildings, leaving 1,492 individuals homeless.
In December 2000, the remains of 13 individuals were exhumed from a mass grave in the village of Šnjegavić. To date, 11 have been identified as pre-war residents of Šnjegavić and Vučjak Čečavski. Thus far, families have recovered and buried a total of 27 victims of these events, while 44 individuals remain officially registered as missing.
The existence of an official, written order issued by a local government body to displace a population makes this case one of the rare documented precedents of its kind in modern European history. Despite the material evidence, the fact that 23 villages were completely erased from the geographical map, and the official reports submitted to competent judicial bodies, no single individual has been prosecuted before either international or domestic courts for the forced displacement and crimes committed in the Požega Valley.
Belgrade/Banja Luka, October 28, 2026
Information Service of the DIC “Veritas”
