The largest massacre of the Croatian War of Independence, in which ~260 prisoners were executed at Ovčara farm and buried in a mass grave.
Key Facts
- Date of massacre
- 20 November 1991
- Remains exhumed (1996)
- 200 sets of remains
- Additional graves (Croatia's estimate)
- 61 individuals
- Mass grave discovered
- October 1992
- Memorial centre visitors by 2014
- ~500,000 tourists
- JNA officers convicted by ICTY
- 2
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the fall of Vukovar to the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Croatian Territorial Defence forces, and Serbian paramilitaries, a negotiated evacuation of the Vukovar hospital was agreed upon with European and Red Cross oversight. The JNA violated this agreement by blocking ICRC access and removing approximately 300 patients, hospital staff, and fighters from the premises.
On 20 November 1991, around 300 prisoners removed from the Vukovar hospital were transported first to JNA barracks, then to the Ovčara farm. After being beaten for several hours, the JNA withdrew, leaving the prisoners to Croatian Serb Territorial Defence forces and Serbian paramilitaries, who shot them in groups of ten to twenty and buried them in a mass grave.
The mass grave was discovered in October 1992 and guarded by UN peacekeepers. The ICTY exhumed 200 sets of remains in 1996 and convicted two JNA officers; several paramilitary members were also convicted by Serbian courts. In 2015 the International Court of Justice ruled the atrocities did not constitute genocide. A memorial centre opened at Ovčara in 2006.