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There are no
valid data of the 1991 census for the Kupres district area.
The Serbian attack on the Kupres district and Kupres plateau was
exceptionally well planned and organised. In summer of 1991, when
YPA soldiers camped on the Kupres plateau, they secretly armed local
Serbs, who in turn occupied the section of the district called Kupreska
vrata (Kupres gate), in a blitz attack in April 1992. In this way
one of the most important strategic points in Bosnia-Herzegovina
was occupied.
The former YPA
tanks were rejected by the defenders of Kupres for a while, who
in this manner enabled to the majority of the district's population
(Croats and Moslems) to find shelter in the neighbouring districts
of Bugojno and Tomislavgrad.
April 10th 1992,
soldiers of the two armoured corps of the former YPA - the Knin
Corps and the Banjaluka Corps - took reprisals against all non-Serb
residents and destroyed their property. A handful of Kupres defenders
were crushed (they were either killed or captured and deported in
the Knin camp), and only few of them managed to withdraw. The villages
in the Kupres district (Rasticevo, Zloselo, and Osmanlije) were
demolished and burnt down, and a number of their villagers were
immediately killed, while few of them ended up in the Knin prison.
Many residential
and farm buildings were either damaged or destroyed, as well as
the entire Croat sacral, cultural and historic heritage.
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