Saborsko Massacre - Massacres

Massacres

On 28 October 1991, Territorial Defence Forces (TO) units killed seven civilians in the village of Lipovača, located east of Saborsko and Rakovica.

On 7 November 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbian paramilitary units, in particular a special JNA unit from Niš, Serbia, entered the hamlet of Vukovići near Poljanak and executed ten civilians. Poljanak is located southeast of Saborsko but southwest of Rakovica, around 10 km from both Lipovača and Saborsko.

On 12 November 1991, the attackers, consisting of members of "Martić’s Police", the JNA, and the TO, breached the defense lines of the village of Saborsko. After that, they went from house to house and killed peasants (in total 29 of them) that had been unable or unwilling to abandon the village. After that, all houses were plundered.

A Catholic church was blown up and the local graveyard was devastated by the attackers, presumably to remove all traces of previous Croat inhabitants.

Several of the villagers survived by sneaking three days through the forests into Bihać in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they were accepted and then transferred to Croatia by buses, where they were given shelter with other refugees in hotels.

Altogether, in Saborsko, 29 people were killed in this event.

The assailants came from the village of Plaški, located around 10 km northwest of Saborsko.

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