GRUBORI NEAR KNIN - MONUMENT TO UNPUNISHED CRIME AND ERADICATION OF SERBS

BELGRADE, AUGUST 24 /SRNA/ - The hamlet of Grubori near Knin, where members of the Croatian special police brutally murdered six local residents of Serb nationality 31 years ago, including a 90-year-old woman, has become a monument to an unpunished crime and the complete eradication of life in a single community, the Veritas Information and Documentation Center announced today.

The statement recalls that on August 25, 1995, members of the Croatian Special Police from the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit, during a "terrain clearing" operation next to the Zagreb-Knin-Split railway—where the "freedom train" carrying Croatian President Franjo Tuđman was scheduled to pass the following day—broke into the village of Plavno near Knin and killed six locals in the hamlet of Grubori, murdering everyone they found. In this cruel pogrom, the following individuals were brutally murdered: Jovan Grubor Damušić /73/, who was burned together with his house; Jovo Grubor /65/, slaughtered in a meadow next to his cows; his mother Marija Grubor /90/, killed and then burned together with her house; Miloš Grubor /80/, shot with two bullets to the head in his bedroom while wearing his pajamas; as well as Đuro Karanović /45/ and Milica Grubor /51/, both killed by firearms in a meadow and found with mutilated faces. On the same day in Grubori, 21 houses were completely burned down, along with all haystacks and barns, while the livestock inside them were burned alive or killed by firearms in the fields. Until August 4, 1995, the hamlet of Grubori was home to 24 families with about 70 residents, the majority of whom fled before the criminal Croatian military-police operation "Storm" /Oluja/. Only 13 elderly residents remained, unable or unwilling to leave their homes. Seven residents went to the village center on that fatal August 25 to register with UNPROFOR, which ultimately saved their lives. Following the crime, in response to UNPROFOR's inquiries, the Croatian authorities at the time sent false reports, claiming that an armed clash with "remaining Chetnik gangs" had occurred in the area, during which one special forces member died, even though not a single bullet was fired at them. The cover-up attempt was disrupted by a UN TV crew, who happened to be in the village for a previously arranged meeting with the locals. They filmed the burning houses and the bodies of the victims, broadcasting those images to the world. In August 1995, a total of 31 local residents of Serbian nationality were killed in the entire village of Plavno. Their average age was over 70, and nine of them were women. To date, a total of eight members of the Croatian military and police have been prosecuted for the crime in Grubori, three of them before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia /ICTY/ and five before Croatian courts. All of them were legally acquitted due to an alleged lack of evidence, despite the fact that there was an abundance of both material and personal evidence regarding the unit that committed the massacre and the clear chain of command, "Veritas" pointed out. The statement indicates that the consequences of this crime and the resulting impunity have been catastrophic for the demographic picture of this region. According to the 1991 census, Plavno had 1,729 inhabitants, of whom 1,708 /or 99.3 percent/ were Serbs. By the 2011 census, that number had dropped to 253, and 10 years later, according to the 2021 census, only 121 residents remained in the village of Plavno. Of those, only five were under the age of 20, while as many as 72 were over 60 years old—without any specification of their national composition. Today, no one resides permanently in the hamlet of Grubori anymore.