BELGRADE, December 18 /SRNA/ – It is 26th anniversary since the crime in the village of Masicka Sagovina, near Novska in Croatia, was committed, when Croatian soldiers killed 55 Serbs who celebrated the St. Nicholas day, which noone has ever been held responsible for either before the local or international courts, the Documentation-Information Centre “Veritas” announced.
The members of the Croatian National Guard /ZNG/ “Zenge” raided the village on the night between December 18 and 19, capturing and then killing Serbs, among whom there were 31 civilians and Territorial Defence members from Masicka Sagovina, and the rest were military volunteers from Serbia.
The bodies were so mutilated /smashed heads, broken limbs, noses and tongues cut, nails stabbed under the finger nails … / that they have not been identified yet, but were buried at the Lesce cemetery /near Belgrade/ as unknown, where they are still lying.
Vinko Stefanek, who is today the Brigadier General of the Croatian Army, commanded the attack. Members of the Croatian Defense Council /HVO/ who were arrested and prosecuted last year for war crimes committed against a large number of Serbs in the area of Orasje were under his command, too.
Under the order of the Croatian Army, 28 bodies were buried in Masicka Sagovina, most of them were known and were collected and buried by their relatives, among whom Cvetanka Milosavljevic was, who had to bury her two sons Tihomir /20/ and Dragan /23/.
At least five bodies were exhumed individually from this site and handed over to the Serbian side until 2013, and were identified afterwards and taken over by their families.
In early January 1992, at least five bodies of the people killed during this event, were handed over to JNA members and underwent the autopsy in the MMA /the Military Medical Academy/.
The remains of 19 victims, of which 13 were identified, were exhumed in October 2013 from the graveyard in Masicka Sagovina, that was organized by the Croatian Administration for Captured and Missing Persons, which operates within the Croatian Ministry of Veterans Affairs, with the presence of members of the Serb Missing Persons Commission.
Among the identified in the past year are the remains of Tihomir Milosavljevic /46/, buried at the Lesce cemetery in Belgrade and the couple Savka and Antalo Borbelj, buried at the Gorica cemetery – Dragalic in Croatia.
The place of burial of the rest is unknown.
According to the population census in 1991, there were 209 residents living in Masicka Sagovina, of whom 189 Serbs /90 percent/, 16 Croats /seven percent/ and four Yugoslavs.
Two decades later, according to the 2011 census, seven persons were listed as residents in this village, two men and five women without a national identity.
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