SAVKA MACURA: CROATS BEHEADED MY FATHER-IN-LAW AND CUT OFF THREE OF HIS FINGERS

During that 12-day journey from Obrovac to Serbia, we felt as if we were embalmed. We felt no fear at all, Savka emphasizes.

Interviewed by: Vesna ŠURBAT BELGRADE, JULY 30 /SRNA/ - Savka Macura from Obrovac told SRNA how 30 years ago she was forced to leave her apartment with her two children and travel for 12 days to Serbia in a convoy of Serbs fleeing the Croatian military operation Storm. She only later found out that Croats had killed her 72-year-old father-in-law, Nedeljko, on the doorstep of his home in the village of Žegar; they beheaded him and cut off three of his fingers. On that August morning in 1995, when Savka told her two underage sons to take out their schoolbooks and pack only old clothes and sneakers, they had no idea it would be the last time they saw their home. Savka was 38 years old when she, her husband Stanimir, a member of the Republic of Serbian Krajina Assembly, and their two children were awakened by shelling and gunfire. "I got up and started packing, and my husband said, `Where are you going?` I said, `I'm going to pack something, at least for the children.` At that moment, the phone rang - the mayor of Obrovac was calling my husband to come urgently to the municipal building. So he left. And I didn't know what to do, what was going on," said Savka, who, together with her husband, worked before the war at the Dalmatian Bauxite Mines. When the phone rang again, it was her husband on the line asking where she was, and she replied that she was still in the apartment. "He told me, `You've packed what you've packed. The driver is coming to pick you up.` I asked, `Where are we going?` He said, `I don't know.` I told the children to take the books out of their backpacks, bring some old clothes, old sneakers, and that we were probably going to a village. I packed one suitcase with the clothes I wear every day," Savka recalls, adding that she didn’t see her husband again until they reached Serbia. She says with sorrow that she didn't bring any photos because she didn't know they wouldn't return. They took only some clothes and their documents. A CROWD GATHERED AT KRUPA MONASTERY, UNAWARE THAT THEY WOULD LEAVE FOREVER Buses from her company, full of women and children, took her and her kids to Krupa Monastery, where a large crowd had gathered. No one knew what was happening or that they would be leaving forever. At that time, there were no mobile phones, so Savka could not contact the rest of her family or her husband. Since her husband was from the village of Žegar, she asked the bus driver to take her and the children there, to her father-in-law's and mother-in-law's house, where her sister-in-law was also staying; she had a small baby and was pregnant. "We were in Žegar, not knowing what was happening, only hearing the thunder of explosions. Night had fallen. It was already dark. My father-in-law and mother-in-law had gone to bed, I had put the children to sleep, but I couldn't fall asleep. Around 23:00, since the house was on a hill, I saw convoys of cars down below," Savka recalls. She asked her sister-in-law to make some coffee, and they sat in front of the house, from where they could see that something was going on; buses that had brought them from Obrovac were starting to move. Savka remembers how her sister-in-law tried to calm her and prevent her from panicking. WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN A CONVOY, NO WATER OR FOOD, NON-STOP SHOOTING All of a sudden, Savka recalls, they saw a car stopping on the driveway to the house, and a man getting out. It wasn’t her husband, but an acquaintance named Stanko. "This is Stanko. I saw his face turn pale. He said, `Girls, come upstairs.` We followed him without asking questions, realizing something was wrong. We woke up my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and the children. Stanko said we had to keep moving," Savka recalls. At two o'clock in the morning, in the company van, carrying only women and children, they joined the main convoy from Knin, Lika, Gospić, heading towards Bosnia. "When I think about it, I get goosebumps. My husband stayed behind; I didn't even know where he was. The convoy consisted of only women and children; no men, except the drivers. There was no water or food. It wasn't hard for us, but for the children... Someone gave us half a kilo of sugar, and somewhere we managed to get a liter of water. We sweetened the water with sugar to give the children at least something," Savka says, visibly shaken. She says that when they reached Bosanski Petrovac, they hoped the situation would calm down, but as soon as they arrived in Banja Luka, they realized there was no turning back. "We didn't know who was alive or who was dead. The convoy was bombed from the air over Bosnia. There was nonstop shooting," Savka says. They were tired, so the convoy stopped near a forest to rest a bit. But less than an hour later, someone informed them they had to leave urgently because Muslims and Croats were attacking. CROATS BEHEADED FATHER-IN-LAW AND CUT OFF THREE OF HIS FINGERS "Croats, Ustaše, killed my father-in-law. They beheaded him and cut off three of his fingers," Savka says. She adds that her father-in-law's daughter lived in Zadar and was married to a Croat, and that 21 days after the start of Operation Storm, she came to Žegar and found the body of her father, Savka's father-in-law, in front of the house. "It was August, and the body was already drying out. He didn't want to leave; he couldn’t abandon the house. After all, he was a 72-year-old man. His name was Nedeljko Macura. His head was severed along with three fingers. That's the information we received," Savka testified. She added that his daughter buried him in a cemetery in Zadar because she wasn't allowed to bury him in the village where the family grave was located. Only after several years, Savka says, did the mother-in-law go to bury him, and after the entire exhumation procedure, Nedeljko Macura was finally laid to rest in the family grave in Žegar. WE FELT AS IF WE WERE EMBALMED; ONLY LATER DID I FEEL NAUSEOUS AND BEGAN TO CRY Savka notes that they crossed from Republika Srpska into Serbia over the Pavlovića Bridge, continuing to Stara Pazova, still unaware of her husband’s whereabouts. A relative from Zemun came to pick them up when she found out her husband was alive and staying with his aunt in Grocka, near Belgrade. That same evening, he arrived in Zemun, and they were reunited. "During those 12 days of traveling from Obrovac to Serbia, we felt as if we were embalmed. We didn’t feel any fear. It was only when I arrived in Serbia, not knowing where I was or where my husband, sisters, brother-in-law, father-in-law, and mother-in-law were, that a wave of nausea hit me, and that’s when I finally cried," Savka recalls in a trembling voice. SHE MANAGED TO OVERCOME HERSELF AND NOT LOOK BACK, OTHERWISE SHE WOULD HAVE GONE CRAZY "After everything, I managed to overcome my feelings and not let myself look back. I believe that otherwise, I would have gone crazy. You have everything, and then suddenly, you have nothing," Savka says. She points out that she cannot say she has completely suppressed everything, because from time to time, all those memories come back to her mind, especially when she meets relatives she hasn’t seen for a long time. "When we meet with our people, what else could the topic be but this? But I managed to overcome myself, not to dwell on the past so much, but to look forward, to work, create, and stay healthy. I am 68 now, and my husband is 70. I keep busy around the house, and I don’t look back, only forward to the future," Savka says. Savka lives with her husband in Belgrade. They have never revisited Croatia, but their children have twice. Savka was a technical draftsman and worked alongside her husband at the Dalmatian Bauxite Mines. They had an apartment and lived decently. At the time of Operation Storm, their older son had just started secondary school, while the younger one was in elementary school. "My husband and I have never revisited Croatia. Our mayor went there 18 times and was arrested on the 19th," says Savka, who, in her testimony for SRNA, confirmed the unfortunate fate of every Serb refugee from Croatia.