The Belgrade-based Documentation and Information Centre Veritas has accused Croatian authorities of carrying out exhumations of ethnic Serb victims of the 1990s war without publicly announcing the operations, alleging unequal treatment in efforts to identify people still missing from the conflict.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Veritas said exhumations had taken place in September and October at two known burial sites: the New Cemetery in Knin and a cemetery in Daruvar.
According to the organisation, the exhumations were not announced on the official website of Croatia's Ministry of Croatian Veterans.
Veritas said it learned about the operation in Knin after a relative of one of 12 unidentified Serb fighters killed on the Miljevci Plateau in June 1992 visited their burial site on October 28 and discovered that the graves had been excavated.
The remains of the 12 victims had originally been recovered from a pit in Drinovci in August 1992 and subsequently buried at the Knin cemetery.
The organisation said two sources had confirmed that Croatia's Directorate for Detained and Missing Persons had transferred the remains to Zagreb for bone sampling and DNA identification.
It added that families of 11 of the 12 victims had already provided reference blood samples and had been awaiting identification for years.
Veritas also reported that a burial site in Daruvar had been excavated in September, following an earlier request from the Serbian side.
Allegations of unequal treatment
The organisation contrasted the lack of public announcements with a November 6 visit by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Veterans Minister Tomo Medved to Petrovacka Dola, a waste disposal site near Vukovar where searches for missing persons have been conducted.
During the visit, Croatian officials reaffirmed their commitment to locating missing persons and accused Serbia of withholding information about burial sites.
Veritas alleged that exhumations involving Croatian victims receive significant political and media attention, while those involving Serb victims are conducted without comparable publicity.
According to the organisation, Croatia's official records list 1,725 people as missing from the 1991–1995 war. Veritas claims that more than half are ethnic Serbs.
Its own database lists approximately 1,460 missing Serbs from Croatia and the former self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, nearly one-third of whom, it claims, are absent from Croatia's official records.
These figures and allegations have not been independently reconciled with Croatian government data.
Veritas urged Croatian authorities to accelerate DNA identification procedures and provide families with transparent information about the remains recovered in Knin and Daruvar.
The unresolved fate of people who disappeared during the wars accompanying Yugoslavia's breakup remains a major humanitarian issue across the Western Balkans, more than three decades after the conflicts.
