Kupres massacres
The Kupres massacres were acts of mass murder committed against the Serb civilian population of the town and municipality of Kupres during the ethnic cleansing of southwestern Bosnia by HVO and HOS forces during the spring of 1992, at the start of the Bosnian War.[1] On 5th April JNA reached the town of Kupres and heavy fighting began between JNA agents HV and HVO, on 7th April Kupres was captured by the JNA.[2]
| Kupres massacres | |
|---|---|
Kupres on the map of Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
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| Date | Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 665: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
| Target | Bosnian Serbs |
Attack type | Mass killing |
| Deaths | 72 |
| Perpetrators | Croatian Defence Council and Croatian Army |
Background
Kupres is located 43 km (27 mi)[3] from Livno, 127 km (79 mi) [3] from Mostar, 143 km[3] from Sarajevo, 123 km[3] from Banja Luka and 127 km (79 mi)[3] from Split.
Kupres is located at an altitude between 1,120 and 1,250 m (3,675 and 4,101 ft) and averages 55 days a year of snowfall due to its advantageous location in the Dinaric Alps.
Kupres during WW2
The massacres of Serbs in Bugojno and Kupres were carried out on Vidovdan and Elijah day in 1941. The killed and slaughtered were thrown into pits. Fra Mirko Radoš was the main organizer of the Ustaše action against the Serbs in the vicinity of Kupres. The Ustaše crimes committed in August 1941 against the Serbs in the village of Malovan, about 70 people, women and children were killed, were committed mainly at the request of the parish priest Fr. Radoš. During the Second World War, the Ustaše killed 1,038 Serbs in Kupres, of which 255 were children under the age of 10. While the Serbs mostly fought as partisans, around 500 of them died as NOR fighters.[4]
In 1942 during World War 2 the battle of Kupres took place in the Independent State of Croatia between the forces of the Independent State of Croatia and the Yugoslav Partisans in and around the town of Kupres in western Bosnia.[5]
In 1946 in the municipality of Kupres, Serbs made up 70% of the population. According to the 1991 census, in Bosnia, Serbs made up 46% of the population, Croats 43% and Muslims 9%.[6] In the local multiparty elections in November 1990. In Bosnia, the Serbs won the majority in Kupres and formed the government.[4]
Massacres
April 3 1992 in the morning hours from the direction of the village of Malovan, which is 12km from Kupres, detonations and gunfire were heard. Members of the HVO and HV invade Serbian villages in Kupres and killed Serbian civilians they found, or took them to camps: Lora, Ljubuški, Zadar... at the same time they burn Serbian houses. The plague of those villages began.
One of the attacks that took place on 3 April 1992, it was from the direction of the Croatian village of Šujica by members of the HV and HVO units, as well as local Croats in Šujica who wore black uniforms and the "U" sign, like the Ustaše in the Second world war. They caught locals who did not manage to escape and thry were killed in their houses. At least 20 Serbs were killed in Donji Malovan.[9]
The attack on Kupres on April 3, 1992 was carried out by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia, together with paramilitary formations, which was organized by the leadership of the HDZ Kupres, Duvno and Livno, as well as the HSP paramilitary formations. The following units of the Croatian army participated in that criminal campaign:
- 106th Osijek Brigade,
- 101st Zagreb Brigade,
- Student battalion HV "Kralj Tomislav" from Zagreb
- Special unit of HV "Žuti mravi" from Vukovar
- Unit for Special Tasks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Croatia,
- battalion HV "Zrinjski"[10][11]
This attack on the surroundings of Kupres on 3 April 1992 was carried out at a time when Bosnia and Herzegovina was still an integral part of SFRY. It is also important to note that at the beginning of April 1992, there were no JNA soldiers in the area of Kupres.[12][13]
On 6 April 1992 at around 12 o'clock, Kupres was attacked by members of HV and HVO from Kupres. The attack was carried out with heavy artillery, where they destroyed buildings owned by Serbs. They were led by General Slavko Lisica. They captured Kupres and all its villages, and Croatian forces retreat to Croatia. They took several dozen Serbian hostages with them, who were placed in the Lora prison camp.[14]
Aftermath
The commands of the Banja Luka Corps and the 30th Partisan Division launched an action to liberate the municipality of Kupres at the beginning of April. Although the Army of the Republika Srpska was officially founded on 12 May 1992, the fighters and units of the JNA that participated in the operation were almost completely the bearers of the combat operations of the VRS during the following years of the war. After the arrival of JNA units and the liberation of Kupres on 8 April 1992, in Operation Kupres 92, the situation returned to normal. And the General of the JNA, Slavko Lisica, orders to carry out an action to find all the murdered Serbs, who were killed by Croatian units from 3 to 10 April 1992.
Life in the town of Kupres and its surroundings normalized as much as possible because the front line towards the Croatian villages was only a few kilometers away.
An exchange of prisoners was attempted on June 29 1993 in Čelebić near Livno, which was led by Mitar Marić, president of Kupres municipality on the Serbian side, and HVO representatives: Božo Rajić, Jozo Marić, Valentin Ćorić, on the Croatian side, with the mediation of representatives of the EU observation mission.[15]
Already at the end of October 1994, Muslim operations started from the direction of Bugojno towards Kupres.
At the beginning of November 1994, the joint Croatian-Muslim forces (HVO and ARBiH), in the " Cincar 94 " operation, attacked Kupres again and occupied it. On that occasion, the enemy forces were far superior and numbered over 20,000 soldiers, while the Serbian forces numbered around 3,000 VRS fighters. This is the first joint operation of Croatian and Muslim forces in Bosnia after the Washington Agreement.[16]
By participating in this action, the Croatian army created favorable positions for the later execution of operations Summer 95 and Storm.
In the Dayton Agreement in 1995, most of Kupres remains part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina but small part of Kupres was given to Republika Srpska.
References
- ↑ "Obilježena 21 godina od stradanja Srba na Kupresu". 2016-03-04. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ Srpska, RTRS, Radio Televizija Republike Srpske, Radio Television of Republic of. ""Veritas": Navršila se 31 godina od nekažnjenog zločina nad Srbima na Kupreškoj visoravni". BIH - RTRS. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Michelin Linvo-Mostar
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "I-1428". www.slobodan-milosevic.org. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ Leković 1965, p. 427.
- ↑ "Popis 2013 u BiH". www.statistika.ba. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
- ↑ "Genocide over the Serbian population in Kupres". Malovan.net. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ Bezruchenko, Viktor (2022). The Civil War in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-95): Political, Military, and Diplomatic History. Strategic Book Publishing. p. 271–272. ISBN 978-1-68235-712-5. Search this book on
- ↑ Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict. Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Russian and European Analysis. 2002. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-16-066472-4. Search this book on
- ↑ Srna (2013-04-03). "Izvještaj protiv 8 Hrvata za zločine na Kupresu". Nezavisne novine (in српски / srpski). Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ "Zločin na Kupresu: Zbog čega ćute?". BN. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ Babić, Bojan (2023-04-03). "Из атласа злочина - Злочин у Купресу". Републички центар за истраживање рата, ратних злочина и тражење несталих лица. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ Logos, Aleksandar. Istorija Srba 1 - Dopuna 4; Istorija Srba 5, Beograd (ATC) 2019.pdf. p. 147. Archived from the original on 2024-12-03. Retrieved 2025-02-20. Search this book on
- ↑ Bezruchenko, Viktor (2022). The Civil War in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-95): Political, Military, and Diplomatic History. Strategic Book Publishing. p. 272. ISBN 978-1-68235-712-5. Search this book on
- ↑ "Fokus.ba, 02.04.2012, Pokoljem najavili rat | D.I.C. Veritas". www.veritas.org.rs. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ↑ "Малован на Интернету - Разгледница из родног краја - Новости, актуелности, фото-галерије, приче из Малована, наши људи..." 2015-07-24. Archived from the original on 2015-07-24. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- Leković, Mišo (1965). Ofanziva proleterskih brigada u leto 1942 [Offensive of Proleterian Brigades in the Summer of 1942]. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Vojnoizdavački Zavod. Search this book on
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