This Wednesday, November 20, 2024, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) commemorates the victims of the crime committed at the Ovčara farm near Vukovar. On this day 33 years ago, members of the local Territorial Defense (TO) and Serbian volunteers under the command of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) killed 265 Croatian civilians and prisoners of war.
As soon as they took control of Vukovar on November 20, 1991, members of the JNA removed the wounded, the sick, civilians, and members of the Croatian armed forces from the Vukovar hospital and transported them to the hangars at the Ovčara farm, located about five kilometers southeast of Vukovar. In the presence of members of the JNA Military Police, the Croatians detained at Ovčara were beaten, abused, and humiliated by members of the Vukovar TO and the “Leva Supoderica” paramilitary unit. In the evening, on the orders of Colonel Mile Mrkšić, JNA troops withdrew from Ovčara, leaving the detainees at the mercy of the Vukovar TO and the “Leva Supoderica” unit. During the night of November 20/21, 1991, the detainees were taken from the hangar in groups of 10 to 20 people to the Grabovo site, where they were executed in front of a pre-dug mass grave. The victims killed at Ovčara included wounded members of the Croatian armed forces, as well as civilians, including two women and three minors: Ružica Markobašić (32), who was heavily pregnant at the time, Janja Podhorski (60), Dragutin Balog (17), Igor Kačić (16), and Tomislav Baumgertner (17).