The Kijani killings refers to the mass murder of elderly Serb civilians from the village of

Kijani Kijani ( sr-cyr, Кијани) is a village in the Gračac municipality in Croatia. History At least 14 Serb civilians were killed by the Croatian Army in the village during and in the aftermath of Operation Storm }) was the last major bat ...

near the town of

Gračac Gračac (; ) is a town and municipality in the southern part of Lika, Croatia. The municipality is administratively part of Zadar County. Gračac is located south of Udbina, northeast of Obrovac, northwest of Knin and southeast of Gospić. Settl ...

by members of the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( hr, Hrvatska kopnena vojska or HKoV) is the largest and most significant component of the Croatian Armed Forces (CAF). Role and deployment The fundamental role and purpose of the Croatian Army is to protect vital national i ...

(HV) during and following

Operation Storm }) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a front against the self-declared proto-state R ...

Background

By March 1991, tensions between Croats and Serbs escalated into the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...

. Following a referendum on independence that was largely boycotted by Croatian Serbs, the Croatian parliament officially adopted independence on 25 June. The

Republic of Serb Krajina The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sh, Република Српска Крајина, italics=no / or РСК / ''RSK'', ), known as the Serbian Krajina ( / ) or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, ...

(RSK) declared its intention to

secede Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a polity, political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former republics of ...

from Croatia and join the

Republic of Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

while the

Government of the Republic of Croatia The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...

declared it a rebellion. Between August 1991 and February 1992, the RSK initiated an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive out the Croat and non-Serb population from RSK-held territory, eventually expelling as many as 250,000 people according to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

. Croatian forces also engaged in ethnic cleansing against Serbs in Eastern and Western Slavonia and parts of the Krajina on a more limited scale. On 4 August 1995, the Croatian Army (HV) launched

to retake the Krajina region which was completed successfully by 7 August. The Operation resulted in the exodus of approximately 200,000 Serbs from Krajina while those Serbs who were unable or unwilling to leave their homes, primarily the elderly, were subjected to various crimes. The

ICTY The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

puts the number of Serb civilians killed at 324.

Killings

According to reports, at least 14 Serb civilians were killed in the village of Kijani near the town of Gračac, in the aftermath of Operation Storm. The victims included nine women. The youngest was 50 years old and the oldest was 90. According to testimonies for the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

by villagers who managed to hide in a forest, women were raped and at least one victim was beheaded.International Court of Justice; Witness statement
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Trial

In 2014, Rajko Kričković, an ex-soldier was indicted by Croatia for the murder of three of the civilians. He was accused of shooting 73-year-old Mara Sovilj and her 43-year-old son Radomir, and killing his 45-year-old sister Mira by burning her alive in their house. In 2019, Kričković was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Rijeka County Court in Croatia.

References

{{Serbian minority institutions and organizations in Croatia 1995 in Croatia Mass murder in 1995 Croatian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence Massacres in Croatia Massacres of Serbs History of the Serbs of Croatia August 1995 events in Europe September 1995 events in Europe