According to
the official results of the 1991 census, the Vitez district had
27,728 residents:
12,679 Croats
(45,7%)
11,471 Moslems (41,4%)
1,502 Serbs (5,4%)
2,076 others (7,5%)
During the Serbian
aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992), the Vitez district
area was attacked by the former YPA planes on the eve of Low Sunday
(April 26th 1992). A considerable damage was done to residential
and farm buildings. By mid-October 1992, the armed conflicts were
triggered off between Moslems and Croats in the Novi Travnik, and
spread to the Vitez district. The village of Ahmici was demolished,
several Moslem houses were set on fire, mosques in Vitez and Ahmici
were damaged. The conflicts stopped in late October 1992, but were
renewed on April 16th 1993, when B-H Army soldiers launched an attack
on Vitez and the neighbouring district of Busovaca. In this attack
they occupied the Croat populated villages of Gornja Dubravica,
Poculica and Putkovici. At that time more than fifty family houses
owned by the evicted Croat residents were set on fire, while the
Moslem populated village of Ahmici was demolished. In ten months
(between April 24th 1993 and February 8th 1994) of the military
conflicts between Croats and Moslems in the Vitez district area,
B-H Army soldiers massacred and killed 108 Croat civilians, while
many other civilians were deported to the Zenica camp where they
were mentally and physically maltreated and/or killed.
April 24th 1993,
three Croat civilians were killed in the village of Poculica.
June 10th 1993, eight children were killed in the town of Vitez,
by a shell fired from a B-H Army position.
July 1st 1993, one Croat civilian was killed in the village of Gacice.
September 18th 1993, fifteen Croat civilians were killed in the
village of Bobasi.
December 22nd 1993, fifty-two Croat civilians were killed in the
village of Krizancevo Selo.
January 10th 1994, twenty-six Croat civilians were killed in the
village of Buhine Kuce.
February 8th 1994, three Croat civilians were killed in the village
of Nadioci.
Many residential
and farm buildings and sacral institutions were severely damaged
and/or destroyed in the aggression of the B-H Army soldiers against
the free sections of the district.
001 B-H - VITEZ - December 22, 1993
DESCRIPTION
OF REPORTED CRIME: Mass killing of civilians.
TIME AND LOCATION:
December 22, 1993; Krizancevo Selo.
SUMMARY OF REPORTED
CRIME: "On December 22, 1993, members of the B-H Army Muslim
fraction killed 74 Croat civilians in Krizancevo Selo. The crime
was reported to Colonel Williams, the commander of the UNPROFOR
British Battalion, while he was visiting the military headquarters
of the B-H Army 3rd Corps. During his visit to the Vitez district,
Colonel Williams confirmed that two mass graves were located in
the village of Poculica (cca 9 kilometres northeast of Vitez). 38
Croat civilian victims of the massacre, committed by the Muslim
forces, were buried in one grave, while another 8 victims were buried
in the other. On January 2, 1994, an UNPROFOR officer called Gell
confirmed that 15 bodies of killed Croat civilians were spotted
on the so-called demarcation lines. On Tuesday, December 28, 1993,
members of the UNPROFOR British Battalion unit were unable to inspect
the location between Krizancevo Selo and B-H Army post in the village
of Tolovici, due to the continuous attacks launched from the B-H
Army positions. The representative of the EC monitor mission (seated
in Nis), Nick Turballa, reported that their ambassador Martin Garrod
visited the military headquarters of the B-H Army 3rd Corps in Zenica
on Wednesday, in order to ask permission to enter Krizancevo area.
Garrod demanded an explanation from the commander of the B-H Army
3rd Corps, Mehmed Alagic, about the constant breaches of cease-fire,
and drew his attention to the grave position of Croat civilians
in the villages of Talnik and Cajidraz (Zenica district), where
B-H Army soldiers killed three Croat civilians on Christmas Eve
(December 24, 1993).
PERPETRATORS: Members of B-H Army 3rd Corps from Zenica, commanding
officer Mehmed Alagic.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: December 30, 1993 issue of "Vecernji
List" daily, p. 7. Title: "Zlocinci kriju grobnice"
("Criminals Hide Graves"). January 3, 1994 issue of "Vecernji
List", p. 9. Title: "Novi muslimanski masakr" ("Muslim
Forces Committed Yet Another Massacre"). Documents currently
kept in the archives of the Centre.
003 B-H - VITEZ
- January 20, 1994
DESCRIPTION
OF REPORTED CRIME: Killing of civilians.
TIME AND LOCATION:
January 20, 1994; the village of Santici, Buhina Kuca hamlet (cca
3 kilometres southeast of Vitez).
SUMMARY OF REPORTED
CRIME: "The units of the Croatian Defense Council recovered
the houses in one section of Buhina Kuca hamlet, that had been previously
occupied by B-H Army soldiers (the January 9, 1994 offensive). Members
of the Croatian Defense Council found bodies of 11 killed Croats
in those houses. A journalist of the Croatian Television reported
that "Some among the killed were mutilated civilians."
The film footage shows that the victims' hands were tied, which
proves that they were killed without being given an opportunity
to defend themselves.
PERPETRATORS:
B-H Army soldiers.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION:
A witness' written statement currently kept in the archives of the
Centre.
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