Vukovar Massacre - Vukovar Hospital

Vukovar Hospital

During a cross-examination of a witness, defenders of the three men accused for the massacre claimed that members of the Serbian population were mistreated at the hospital, to the point that they were afraid of asking for help in it and wounded Yugoslav National Army soldiers were provided with inadequate care and kept in the hospital as hostages. The witness denied this claim. They also claimed that after the end of the Battle of Vukovar (November 18, 1991), a number of soldiers of the Croatian National Guard went hiding in the hospital, masked as patients or staff. The witness denied this claim as well, although she said it was impossible to be certain of who was dressed how in the mass.

Serbian forces captured the Vukovar hospital with the promise that the JNA would safely evacuate it following an agreement reached together with the Croatian government. Serb militia failed to live up to an agreement with the Red Cross and other international observers to monitor the surrender. When the agreed time approached, an armoured Serb vehicle blocked the observers’ access across a bridge to the hospital while the prisoners were smuggled out in buses in another direction.

They gathered the 300 men, among them wounded combatants and civilians alike, put them in buses and transported them to Ovčara. Many were beaten, until they were taken to a wooded ravine away from the town. The soldiers and paramilitary fighters then killed the majority of men prisoners, executing them by firearms. The bodies were then mostly thrown in a trench and covered by earth (a bulldozer was used to bury them in a mass grave). Among the dead was a French combatant who was regarded as a mercenary.