Belgrade opens war crimes trial of Croatian Air Force Pilots

The first main hearing of the trial of four Croatian Air Force pilots who are accused of firing rockets at Serb refugee columns on a road near Bosanski Petrovac and Bosnia and Herzegovina began on Friday in the War Crimes Department of the High Court of Belgrade.

The accused pilots will be tried in absentia, given that they have been unavailable to Serbian judicial authorities since the beginning of the investigation in 2021.

All of Zdenko Radulj, 70, Željko Jelenić, 69, Vladimir Mikac, 68, and Danijel Borović, 65, are accused by Serbia of carrying out the order to fire the rockets at the refugee convoys from the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) on the Petrovac and Prijedor roads on 7 and 8 August, 1995.

13 people were killed in the shelling of the columns, six of whom were children under the age of 13. Some two dozen others were wounded.

The shelling, dubbed “Operation Storm” came during the heat of the Croatian war of independence which took place between March 1991 and November 1995.

The conflict was ignited after a referendum on independence, which saw significant boycott participation from Croatian Serbs. On 25 June, 1991, the Croatian parliament took the decisive step of officially declaring independence.

In response, the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) announced its intention to break away from Croatia and align itself with the Republic of Serbia, a move that the Croatian government labelled as insurrection.

Armed forces and paramilitaries from the RSK began expelling Croats and other non-Serbs from territories under their control. Simultaneously, Serbs residing in Croatian towns, particularly those near combat zones, faced numerous instances of harassment and violence.

On 4 August, 1995, the Croatian Army, in