Witness Statement
1. My name is Mile Sovilj. I was born in the village of Kijani, municipality of Gracac,
Croatia. During the operation Storm I lived in the town of Gracac because I worked at Radio
Television Knin from 1991; I covered events from the Lika region and so, by living in Gracac, I
could travel distances much easier to get to my workplace. I remember that I was in Gracac also
on the night of 3 to 4 August 1995 when Operation St01m began and that a shell fell in the town
centre, near my place, around 5 AM.
2. I remember being in town until around 4 PM on 4 August and that up till then various
parts of the town came under shell :fire. I think that at least 15 shells were lobbed in the part of
the town where I used to live. Dliring Operation Storm there were no military installations or
military personnel stationed in Gracac. So, there was no one to frre back. The local population
began forming a convoy around 2 PM or 3 PM. The convoy was made up of tractors and
vehicles and people headed towards Bosnia. There was no organisation and people thought at
fust that they would reach Donji Lapac and would then be able to get back to their homes, when
the shelling stopped.
3. A few days earlier, I sent my wife and child to Kijane because my mother and father
lived there. I set off to j oin them around 4 PM on the same day and, from what I heard later on,
the shelling of Gracac went on even after I left. In my opinion, the purpose of pounding the town
was obviously to upset the residents and force them to leave Gracac. As far as I know, all the
residents of Gracac at the time were Serbs. I heard that sorne people were killed in the shelling. I
heard this later; I did not see it with my own eyes.
4. Around 80 families or sorne 150 people lived in the village of Kijani, and the village
itself included about 10 smaller harnlets. My father' s house was in the hamlet of Surla. There
were no Serb forces in Kijani or other hamlets, nor had the military retreated there because
Ki jane was deep inside the terri tory and there was no reason for the military to withdraw through
there.
5. On that occasion, I talked to my father who was 65 years old at the time. I told hlm that
he needed to .get ready so that we c6uld.leave. He· replied that he had l;leard Tudjman on the radio
calling upo'n ali Serbs, who had not bloodied their haiids, to stay. Since the Croatian army shelled
the repeater on éelovac (Mt. Velebit), only Radio Zagreb could be listened to at that time, not
even the local radio stations could go on air. I tried to persuade my father to come with us for his
own safety but he told me that Kijane survived even the Second World War, that Tudjman said
that Serbs who had done nothing wrong may stay and that he would stay in his own house.
6. Somewhere around 1 AM, on 5 August, I gathered about a dozen people from two or
three Sovilj families and loaded them into the truck we were using to leave Kijane. We went
along the road via Bruvno, Mazin and reached Dobro Selo, Vrtoce where we replaced the truck. I
wanted to take the road via Sanski Most because I saw that the road in Bosanski Petrovac was
blocked by a large number of vehicles. From there we travelled on un til we reached Novi Sad. It
turned out that we came to Serbià. much faster this way, on the evening of 6 August, while people
who took the road via Bosanski Petrovac travelled for more than a week due to road congestion
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and shelling of convoys. I learned of the shelling of convoys near Bosanski Petrovac later on in
the media, when I arrived in Novi Sad.
7. Once I arrived to Serbia it hadn't even crossed my mind togo back for safety reasons,
because I had by then heard of soi:ne of the c:rimes committed by the Croatian army. I also found
out from sorne of the acquaintances of mine from Gracac who also came to Novi Sad that Croats
mentioned my name saying I would be sorry if I came back to Croatia. I tried for over a year to
hear from my father through ali international organizations and the Croatian Helsinki Committee
and I waited for him to show up because Krajina Serbs would occasionally crop up in Serbia.
Telephone lines were down so I had no one to caU. About a year Iater, after ali attempts at
tracing my father failed, I realized that he was probably dead. My mother, whom I brought with
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month earlier, my wife also died.
8. _ -Later on, I found out that my father was killed by the Croatian forces on 8 August 1995.
Actually, I saw a photo of my father's body when they called me in from the Veritas
organization because they had received photos from the Republic of Croatia of corpses of people
killed in the territory of Gracac. I think it was the year 2002. At that time, on a photo next to one
of the bodies that was in the decomposing stage and it seemed to me that it was previously
torched, I saw a cigarette-case that I bought for my father two years before operation Storm and
that's why it seemed to me that it was the body of my father on the photograph. My father was
not identified until 2004, when DNA analysis in Zagreb confrrmed that the body I saw on the
photo was that of my father, and the date of his death was indicated as 8 August 1995.1 was told
his body was found in Gracac cemetery and I didn't talee over his mortal remains before 2006
and buried them at the cemetery in Petrovaradin. The residents ofKijane who I know were killed
because they did not flee with the others are: Mara Sovilj (around 70 years of age), Mira Sovilj
(around 45 years of age), Radomir Sovilj (around 42 years of age), Danica Sovilj (around 60
years of age), Marija Jeiaca (around 75 years of age), Mileva KolundZié (around 60 years of
age), Dane Boita (around 75 years of age), Smiljana Boita (around 80 years of age), Dusan Kesié
(around 60 years of age), Milica Jeiaca and Branko Jelaca (both around 65 years of age), Ana
Ivanié, sister ofMilica Jeiaca (deaf-mute). The victims were mostly elderly people and civilians
and that is why they stayed behind in the village. I heard of their deaths prirnarily from their
relatjves with whom I was in contact by phone and in person, no~ and then. I think that sorne of
them were also identified through DNA analysis. From Darre Bolta's son I heard that his ·body
was found decapitated, i.e. that his head was severed when he was killed. From Marija Jelaca's
sons I heard that their mother' s body was never found, that her sons saw her bouse which was
bumt down and that they think that she was torched in the house, but they never succeeded in
tracing any human remains of hers. From the families of those .killed I heard that probably ali
people in Kijani were killed the same day, and as I said, I received information that the date of
my father's death was 8 August 1995.
9. I now have information that crirninal proceedings are being conducted in Croatia against
one persan for the murder of my father. Allegedly, it is a persan of Serbian origin but who came
to Kijane as a member of the Croatian army, i.e. Lovinacki odred (detachment). Although these
proceedings have not completed to this day, I have no doubt that the Croatian army entered the
village of Kijane after we fied and that they torched houses when they entered, killing all the
people they found there. A single soldier was unable to kill all the Serbs who remained behind
unless others enabled him to do so.
10. Although there was no army in it, the village where my father was killed is almost totally
destroyed. I saw photos taken by my neighbours, where you could see that out of 80 houses that
existed in the village almost 90% were destroyed. I applied with the Croatian Government for
reconstruction of my family house in Kijani and received a reply that, since my mother died and
I had residence in Gracac, I was not entitled to anything. My father used to have an old and a
new house where he lived, a stable and livestock. Both houses and auxiliary buildings were
torched and looted. In the hamlet of Surla where my father used to live, I think that at present
only one person still lives there and that another family has submitted a for house
11. I appeared in court as a witness during the trial of Croatian generais before the ICTY. On
that occasion, I spoke of what I knew about the murder of my father, but since I didn't know
anything about the circumstances surroilnding his death, the Trial Chamber did not even consider
the murder of my father in the verdict. Relatives of others who were killed in Kijani haven't even
been summoned to give evidence. No one has yet been held accountable for the massacre in
Kijani. I believe it is a great injustice.
I give this statement voluntarily to the Serbian Legal Team before the International Court of
Justice and I agree to appear before the Court as a witness during the proceedings. I have read
through the text of the statement and full y agree with it.
In Novi Sad, 20 March 2013
Signed by Mile Sovilj
Written testimony of Witness Mile Sovilj *