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According to
the official results of the 1991 census, the Kotor Varos district
had 36,670 residents:
10,640 Croats
(29,0%)
11,161 Moslems (30,4%)
13,986 Serbs (38,1%)
883 others (2,5%)
On June 11th 1992, the former YU-Army Knin and Banja Luka Corps
and armed local Serbs - members of the Serbian Democratic Party
- occupied Kotor Varos, after which time the Croat and Moslem civilians
were arrested and deported in one of four newly formed camps (the
building of the Stari Sud (Old Courthouse), Pilana (the Sawmill),
a secondary school, and the camp in the village of Moslovare).
June 12th 1992,
the village of Hrvacani was razed to the ground by heavy artillery;
June 14th 1992,
more than ten Croat and Moslem civilians were killed in Kotor Varos;
June 25th 1992,
six civilians were brutally murdered in the Kotor-Kukavice suburb
development, several civilians were killed on the bridge over the
Vrbanja River and their bodies were thrown in the Vrbanja River.
Several men sustained injuries by an excavator near the "Mladost"
football stadium, after which time the bloodhounds were set on them
and tore them to pieces. The number of the dead Croats and Moslems
reached 30 that day. On the same day, near the hospital, Serbs shot
a group of civilians whom they had previously "dragged"
out of their flats.
There are at
least two mass graves in the district area (in the Donji Varos suburb
development - at the cemetery, and in the village of Vrbanci - by
the road). The former YPA planes systematically bombed the villages
of Vecici, Visevice, and Sokoline in the period between June and
September 1992. The village of Sokoline was occupied in early October
1992, after a long resistance to the Serb aggressor. The surviving
non-Serb population (Croats and Moslems) were evicted from the district
area, while more than 200 men were deported to Serbian camps.
The entire Croat
and Moslem sacral, cultural and historic heritage was destroyed.
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