STATEMENT
1. My name is Ilija Babic. 1 was born in the village ofMokro Polje, municipality ofKnin, and
1 am a Serb as to my ethnicity. My family lived there for generations, and my father and
grandfather lived, died and were buried at Mokro Polje.
2. 1 have two sons and a daughter. I lived and worked in this village since I was born. So, 1
was there in 1995, tao, just before the launching of the operation "Storm". I had a family
house at Mokro Polje, and in the center of the village we had a shop run by my younger son
and daughter-in-law. Before the "Storm", Mokro Polje had a population of 1,500. They were
ail Serbs, and the village was not on the front-line but deep inside the territory. Mokro Polje
i cluded around 39 small hamlets scattered over the mainly rocky terrain, and had an area of
around 70 square kilometers. 1 was a messengeffoTMokro Po ue m:unrctpa 1 y an =tliat-iswJïyu·=···,---,-,---~--,-=-c-l
I knew in persan great many local residents, where they lived and what they did for a living,
and not only the locals ofMokro Polje but also people living inthe surrounding hamlets and
villages where I used to deliver mail.
3. When Operation "Storm" started, on 4 August 1995, it was Friday, as 1 recall, convoy after
convoy of refugees passed through Mokro Polje. On Friday evening and until Saturday
moming, the shelling coming from the direction ofGrahovo could be heard. My sisters-in-law
and my seven grandchildren, as weil as many other residents of Mokro Polje, joined the
refugee convoys fleeing Mokro Polje, in passenger cars, in the evening on 4 August. I didn't
want to leave with my sisters-in-law before finding out where my sons were. My two sons,
who were on the front-line, left their posts and carne to our family house, one during the night
and the other on the moming of 5 August.
4. My sons tried to persuade me to go with them, but nevertheless 1 decided to stay at home
and to not leave my property and animais. As a little boy, during World War Il, I survived the
persecution and aH the sufferings of !ife in exile and did not want ta go through that ordeal
ever again or leave the graves of my ancestors. On the other hand, at my age 1 did not want to
accept the fact that no one remained in the village to witness the events that would follow.
5. On Saturday aftemoon, I met with Mirko Muzdalo, Manda Kanazir, Jandreja Kostic, who
also remained behind at Mokro Polje, and we agreed to check who of the residents rernained
in the village. We fa und out that about 64 residents stayed in the village and they ali spent the
night hiding in their homes.
6. On the morning of 6 August, one of the local residents who remained behind, Jovan
Japundzic, told me that the Serbs who were fleeing in a convoy broke into my store in the
center of the village, so we set offto see if any food supplies remained on stock the re. On that
moming, the village was eut off from the supply of electricity. In the center of the village,
around ll a.m., I saw Ruza Babic (born in 1926), who also remained behind because she had
undergone a surgery and used crutches and could hardly walk. She begged me to take her with
me but l did not have a car, so l told her that I would come the following day, if I managed
somehow.
7. On Sunday afternoon, on 6 August, l sighted the Croatian army approaching our village
from the direction of Knin and I saw fire and smoke coming from that direction, more
precisely from the village of Padjene which was in front of Mokro Polje. I could see that the
ho use of Milica Japundzic was the first ho use set on fire at the entrance to the village. Around
5 p.m., I saw Croatian tanks come up to the wood very near my house. Sava Babic (born in
1921) and I hid in a smoke house with a double ceiling which served as a shelter. From there,
l heard Croatian soldiers saying that they had found the keys to my house but that there was
no one there.
8. When I heard the tanks advancing to the centre of Mokro Polje, I came out of the shelter
and headed towards the center of Mokro Polje, still hiding. When I came to the village centre,
I saw Croatian soldiers firing at a yellow tractor which was descending into the village.
Soldiers in camouflage uniforms captured three people unknown to me, and led them to the
center of the village. At nightfall, I retumed to my house where I spent the night.
9. On the moming ofMonday 7 August Manda Kanazir, whose house was. in the center, came ·· to my fionie to teil nie tliàf Ruza Baoic was killed alorig with-another persan in rr'(fsliopand
that the ir bodies were burned down. When I reached the centre, I saw the body of Ruza Babic
right at the entrance to the hall ofher house and the body of Stevan,.Sucevic lying on the street
near the home of Stana Sucevic. Inside my shop there were bumt bodies on the wooden
pallets, but I could not say how many ofthem and who these killed people were. Later on, I
found out that among these people there were Steva and Ruza Manojlovic and Sava Trazivuk,
whose bodies were found after the war at the Knin cemetery.
10. That same Monday morning, Croatian soldiers were in the village ofPopovic. I found this
out when Mirko Muzdalo came to my house on Monday night and told me that Stana Popovic
and her sick son Mirko were killed in their home in that village that moming, while Obrad
Popovic, Stana's husband was wounded. Immediately after the Popovic family was killed, the
remaining residents of that and surrounding village hamlets, about 23 of them, sought shelter
at the UNPROFOR base, where the Kenyan contingent was stationed in Supljaja. r also beard
from my neighbor that the bouse of Demir Milan was set on fire and that he was killed near
the house, which was located in Boltica Ograda. We didn 't have time to bury him properly
and just put the tent canvas over his body and piled up soil over it. Ail these murders l have
described occurred duri).1g the first few days after the Croatian forces entered. At that time,
around 40 residents, out of 1500, of Mokro Polje remained behind (of approximately 60
whom we counted on the first day when 20 people fled from Popovic) including those killed.
The survived residents mostly hid in their homes and in the woods, as I did, and I think that is
why t~ey were not kilted ..
11. The next time 1 saw Croatian soldiers was a few days later; they put up a checkpoint in
the centre ofMokro Polje. Then, 7 Croatian soldiers came to my house and I was forthcoming
to them. They searched my house inside out on that occasion. UNPROFOR soldiers arrived
around 15 August and I, together with them, searched for and collected corpses in severa!
villages, and we communicated with the help of their interpreters. The neighbors told me that
UNPROFOR troops were not allowed in before and that they came when people were already
dead and their houses burned down. Around this time, the members of the Croatian forces
collected corpses from the village and as l recall, Manda Kanazir, who was there, told me that
it was only then that the 6 burnt bodies that l saw a few days earlier, were taken out of my
shop.
12. On the Feast of the Assumption, 28 August 1995, the Croatian police inquired about Sa va
Babic and I took them to her house where, in the front garden, in a "Pica" car, we found the
body of Sa va Babic (born in 1913), and 1 saw that she had two gunshot wounds to her head.
13. On 19 September 1995, with the assistance ofUNPROFOR, we found Jeka Kanazir (born
in 1928); her corpse was in a well near her house in the hamlet of Kanazir. In the hamlet
Zavode, we found the body of Ilija Bjedov (born in 1930), and an unidentified body, who we
first thought was a man from Benkovac. They were buried on 21 September 1995. I don't
know exactly the cause ofilija Bjedov's death, but the unidentified body was hit by a shell or
a bullet put through the head because the head was fully open.
14. I know that during and after the operation 'Storm" 53 residential properties and about 15
commercial buildings were burned down, and as I estimated, thousands of goats and sheep
and hundreds of pigs were killed and laid ali over the places for days, after the "Storm". Ali
the animais started to rot and smell as weil as the refrigerators in the houses because
electricity was out in the who le village, and the Croats began collecting animal carcasses only
. arounèl 15 August, a ft er the bodies had be en taken out of my store. It wa.s ëmly a year later tfiat
electricity was reconnected to the village. Sorne of the hamlets near Mokro Polje were
destroyed even more extensively than Mokro Polje itself, Iike the hamlet of Prevljes which
was com·pietely burned and destroyed. There was no military facility or installation in or
around Mokro Polje.
15. On 7 August 1995, when I saw soldiers in camouflage uniforms, I did not see their
insignia but I saw, during those days, written in large letters by paint "4th Guard Split
Brigade" on the wall of my shop. Later, when they occupied the center of the village, the
soldiers told me that they were from the Split Brigade of the Croatian Army.
16. Today, there are fewer than 10 people living in Mokro Polje, of those who remained
behind and survived the operation "Storm".
I am giving this statement out of my free will to the Agent of Serbia before the International
Court of Justice and I agree to appear as a witness in the proceedings before the Court. I have
read the statement and accepted it as my own.
In Surcin, Belgrade, 4 March 2013
Signature: (signed)
Written testimony of Witness Ilija Babič *