Review article
WAR MORTALITY OF SERBS OF THE (FORMER) MUNICIPALITY OF VUKOVAR IN 1991
Slaven Ružić
Dražen Živić
Abstract
Based on available data from the archival records of the Republic of Serb Krajina, stored and revised in the Croatian Memorial Documentation Centre of the Homeland War, the extent and the structure of war mortality of the Serbian population (members of the Serb Territorial Defense and civilians) of the former municipality of Vukovar are represented and interpreted as a contribution to knowledge of direct and total demographic war losses in the Vukovar area during 1991. According to the present (doubtlessly incomplete) records of the Centre, 350 persons of Serbian nationality who resided in the area of the pre-war municipality of Vukovar died during 1991, including the period of the battle of Vukovar. Of these, 203 persons or 58,0 % were members of the Serbian Territorial Defense of the area of Vukovar and the surrounding villages; 147 persons or 42 % were civilians. In addition to this, the archival records of the Republic of Serbian Krajina contain data on 57 missing persons. The final losses on the “Serbian side” during 1991, particularly in the battle of Vukovar (soldiers of the Yugoslav People’s Army, members of the Vukovar Territorial Defense and Serbian voluntary paramilitary formations, civilians) are still to be scholarly ascertained on the basis of source documentation, in particular of archival records. Hence this paper, based only on currently available data from the archival records of the Republic of Serb Krajina, should be considered solely as a contribution to the research into this very complex and at the same time extremely significant and scientifically relevant issue.
Keywords
Vukovar; war; Serbs; war mortality; demographic losses; Republic of Serb Krajina
Hrčak ID:
116627
URI
Publication date:
1.10.2013.
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