Croatia-Serbia missing persons and war crimes disputes

Efforts to resolve the fate of missing persons from the Homeland War continue to drive tension and calls for cooperation between Croatia and Serbia. The human rights organization Documenta has urged Serbia to release protocols regarding victims from the Vukovar hospital and share information on unknown graves, while calling on Croatia to provide requested location data. In Croatia, the unresolved fate of 1,725 persons remains a central issue, with Documenta criticizing the State Attorney’s Office for unprofessional conduct during identification ceremonies.

Political friction has also emerged in Croatia, where the Homeland Movement (DP) has questioned the effectiveness of SDSS president Milorad Pupovac in securing Serbian archives. Pupovac has responded by accusing the DP of conducting a campaign against Serbs.

Regarding war crimes, the group Veritas reported that no prosecutions have occurred 33 years after the attack on Mirlović Polje, which allegedly resulted in the killing of seven Serbian civilians by Croatian forces. Meanwhile, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković reported that since 2016, investigations of 444 locations have led to the discovery of seven mass graves and 46 individual graves, resulting in the identification of 343 people.