SERB VICTIMS OF WAR AND POST-WAR IN THE TERRITORIES OF CROATIA AND   THE FORMER REPUBLIC OF SERBIAN KRAJINA (RSK) 1990-1998:

Introduction

1.    General background
The information contained in this annex is based on the research of the VERITAS Documentation and Information Centre1* , which has been collecting documents on the suffering and plight of Serbs in the territories of Croatia and the former RSK in war time and post-war period, or from 1990-1998, and has been doing so since 1993.
The fragmentation and lack of own state administration has rendered difficult the gathering and collation of information on Serb victims in these territories in the most recent war.
The information presented in this annex shows the situation as established in VERITAS research into Serb victims in the territories of Croatia and the former RSK (United Nations Protected Areas) between 1990 and 1998 as at 31 October  2011.

2.    Methods
By gathering information on killed and missing Serbs on the basis of all known methods and taking into account all available evidence such as information from families; media reports; reports of non-governmental, governmental and international organizations; reports of international peacekeeping forces; memoirs; transcripts; witness interviews; visits to execution and burial sites; comparing lists of missing persons with lists of refugees and the census; publication of lists and information on the missing in the media, VERITAS has made its own records of killed and missing Serbs.
The compiled list contains the names of killed/missing Serbs in the territories of Croatia and the former Republic of Serbian Krajina who were killed or missing in the period from 1990-1998 in the war or post-war period in the territories of Croatia, including the territory of the former RSK or UNPA (areas protected by the United Nations) as well as in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (in the fighting with the Croatian Army, Croatian Defence Council forces and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the border zone or in refugee convoys bombed by aircraft).

3.    Basic criteria
The basic criteria for the compilation of the VERITAS list were:

1. That the victims resided or fought in the territories of Croatia and the RSK;
2. That they died or went missing in the war or in the post-war period in the territories of either the Republic of Croatia or the RSK, or in refugee convoys or in Croatian and Muslim-run camps, prisons or detention camps; and
3. That it is certain or very likely that their death/disappearance was related to the war incidents in 1990-1998 period.
4. 4.    Classification of victims

If the family has confirmed identification (made by using classical methods or DNA tests) and collected the remains or if the family agreed that the remains continued to rest in their primary burial sites, such persons were classified as "killed/buried".
In all other cases, regardless of information of the death, persons were classified as missing. According to this criterion, VERITAS has recorded (internally) missing as three groups:

1. missing persons, if there is no information whether they are dead or alive;
2. missing/killed persons, if there is information on their death but not on their burial sites;
3. missing/buried persons, if there is information both on their death and on their burial sites, but if their remains have not been turned over to their families.

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