ŠPILJSKA ZVJER ILI NEBODERSKI MONSTRUM ?!

Morning paper Mladen Kuka SEA OF SKULL A FAMOUS SPELEOLOGIST DISCOVERED A MASS GRAVE 31 YEARS AGO: 'EVEN TODAY I AM HAUNTED BY 814 SKELETONS ...' All the time I ask myself in the name of what ideology or belief a man can commit such atrocities Author: Vanja NezirovićPublished: July 26, 2020 9:30 p.m. Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail viber WhatsApp "I can't forget what I want, I remember what I won't! When I discovered the Jazovka pit 25 years ago, on January 22 and 29, 1989, I couldn't explain two things. The first is that there is such a horrible place in Žumberak, and second, that there is a kind of "people" in the world who is able to do that.Klaugh 475 (then believed to be so many victims) women, children, men without a single court and throw them into that pit ?! Some were dead, some were half-alive, and there were even living ones thrown to the bottom of this 30-foot-deep pit. All the time I ask myself in the name of what ideology or belief can a man commit such atrocities, and an even bigger question is over my head what kind of unscrupulous beast must he be and live to such an old age with such a crime? Every time I come to Jazovo to pay my respects, I always ask myself the same questions ... ", wrote Mladen Kuka , a speleologist from Karlovac, in a post on social networks , who in the late 1990s first discovered the pit from which the mortal the remains of 814 victims of mass murder during and after the end of World War II.Their identification will not be possible given the condition of the remains, but it will be possible, as Defense Minister Tomo Medved told us , to most likely determine the sex and age of the victims. As a 13-year-old, he says, Kuka started speleology, and in the mid-1970s he heard for the first time in a local cafe in Karlovac about the story of a horrible pit, located not far from the town of Sošice. "In 1975, a drunken local told me that rumor. He said, 'The pile was bloody at the time,'" Kuka recalled, adding that people tended to mystify stories related to caves and pits, so it seemed impossible to him because this river is quite far from the place Sošice. image But then a worm of doubt awoke in him. "I started inquiring about that pit, but people weren't very talkative. It was still in the former state, everyone who knew something was repeating, 'don't talk about it,' 'it's not the time,' 'it's out there somewhere, but don't. 'I had no choice but to start systematically researching Žumberak, literally stone by stone. I wasn't bothered by politics or anything else, just pure curiosity, "Kuka recalls. image Mladen Kuka with the Rev. Ivan Vučak The years passed, and Kuka would go to Žumberak every now and then in search. "I've already become boring to everyone, but it haunted me, I couldn't give up, it became my obsession. I searched sinkhole by sinkhole, stone by stone, and Žumberak wasn't as clear-cut as it is today," says Kuka. However, the rumor got stronger and stronger over the years, meanwhile Kuk heard from many sides that such a pit should exist, but no one knew anything concrete. “And otherwise in life when someone tells me,‘ don’t, you can’t, ’that’s when I pull,” he adds. So it was this time as well. Hook did not give up until 1989, on January 22, fourteen years after he first heard some information about that horrible pit in the mid-1970s. It was, he recalls, an extremely beautiful and warm day for the month of January. "I went with the team to Žumberak, I don't know how many times. I remember it was so nice that we were all in short sleeves. And I don't know how many times we parked at the killing field and went in search. Each to his side, lasted it's been a while, the rest of the team has already given up, they called me for a beer, they stood by the car and talked, they couldn't take it anymore, but it was as if something was pulling me, I didn't want to give up, I sat down at one point to rest , on a rock and I was already thinking of going back when I saw a hole in front of me with another larger stone on it, I held out my hand, carefully, so as not to be bitten by a badger, when I felt the air flow, I threw a pebble .. "It became clear that it was under the caves," says Kuka. But even that didn't mean anything yet, he continues, because they had found caves before. "I tried to remove that stone, but it didn't work, so I went to get the rest of the team. We managed to remove the stone that day, but the ladder wasn't long enough, we went down, but it wasn't enough," Kuka describes. A week later, on January 29, Hook returned to the site. The weather was much uglier then, but they brought more equipment. "That day we went down and saw the horror. You feel strange when you see something like that, when you see a pile of bones. I was overwhelmed by a dull feeling from that endless amount of skulls, arms, femurs, wires, crutches ... We were shocked, not out of fear, but ... No one deserves an end like this, ”says Kuka, who soon found such a discovery in the former state a burden. "There were rumors, even at that time an unknown man called me to suggest that the two of us go to Velebit alone, because if he knew about another pit ... I don't know how it would end, but certainly not good for me, ”Kuka recalls. Meanwhile, the war began, the story of the pit fell into the background. However, in the early 1990s, historian Blanka Matković stated in a scientific article published in 2011 entitled "Taking and liquidating wounded members of the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) from Zagreb hospitals in May and June 1945 through the archives of the State Archives in Zagreb." The crime at that location was pointed out by Branko Mulić from Zagreb, a former member of the Yugoslav Army who came to Zagreb at the beginning of May 1945 with Headquarters X. He waited for the end of the war in the KNOJ units, so immediately after the end of the war, he was sent to the then Zagreb OZNA III on 'Trg N' (today's Trg žrtava fašizma). May, he was called by the party secretary and asked in the presence of three other people if he had a driver's license, explaining that he had been chosen for tomorrow's special assignment.He also received an order to prepare a bus with about twenty seats so that there would be no technical problems. for Radio Sljeme in 1990, Mulić stated that Joža Brnčić, Slavko Urek, Drago Rafaj and several KNOJ officers were present at the meeting . Rafaj ordered him to prepare the bus and signed the minutes. Early in the morning, two trucks and about fifteen KNOJ soldiers came to "Trg N", so the convoy of vehicles, which also included Mulić's bus and a jeep with the leaders of the action, headed to the Sv. A ghost where the wounded are loaded into a bus and trucks. According to Mulic's memory, a total of about fifty wounded members of the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) were boarded. RELATED NEWS VICTIMS FROM THE 40S The remains of at least 814 people were exhumed from Jazovka in the Žumberak area image Mladen Kuka Robert Fajt / Cropix While boarding, Mulić heard an explanation from one of the leaders of the action that the wounded were being taken to another hospital. He also saw Marijan Cvetković at the scene . That the action was extremely important for the principals is confirmed by the fact that the boarding was briefly controlled by a superior, but he, obviously satisfied, did not stay long. The column then set off and arrived in the village of Sošice around noon, and immediately headed for the pit. Vehicles were parked in the meadow and the wounded were unloaded. According to Mulic, the operation began without delay. Two soldiers from the jeep took their places on the left and right sides of the pit, at the opening, then no wider than a meter and a half, and the killing began. The helpless wounded were dragged one by one by the soldiers to the pit opening, where a bullet was waiting in the back of their heads. They were thrown into the abyss individually. Mulić claims that he saw Drago Rafaj near the pit with a gun in his hand, and Živko Vujčić was next to him . Upon his return to Zagreb, Mulić talked to his superior and asked him to release him from continuing the action tomorrow. The superior replied: "Well, Branko, these are the enemies", to which Mulić replied: "For me, the enemy is the one who has a rifle pointed, and these are helpless people". Mulić threatened to kill himself if he was forced to continue driving to Sošice. Thanks to his friendship with the boss, Mulić was released from the task. He believed that the action continued for weeks after that, because he saw trucks coming to "Trg N" every day. According to his memory, one of the executioners signed a list of loaded wounded. Archival documents confirm the important role of the 10th Corps, which upon entering Zagreb "was given the task of making itself available to the Zagreb City Command together with the Zagreb Brigade of the KNOJ, in order to establish and maintain order in the city itself," said historian Matkovic. work. In the late 90's, the pit was inspected by another group of speleologists, led by pathologist prof. Dr. Zdravko Danilović . Then they tried to count the killed and came to a figure of 477 victims. Historian Matković states in her work that according to the lists preserved in Zagreb hospitals, personal data can be identified for as many as 4791 patients in Zagreb hospitals, and in her scientific work she publishes name, surname, year of birth, place of birth, marital status, religion, military rank and day. hospital admissions for all of them. According to him, Jazovka is just one of the places where killed prisoners of war were thrown - patients of Zagreb hospitals. In order to conceal the evidence, a part of the hospital staff was killed, according to historian Matković. image Jazovka Cave "From 2008 to 2011, my colleague Stipo Pilić and I collaborated on the project of the Croatian State Archives on Croatian victims liquidated by the communist regime at the end of the war and in the first months of the war. In that period, we researched in all Croatian and Slovenian archives and prepared a large number of reports and 11 extensive studies which were forwarded to the State Attorney's Office. One of them was Jazovka. One was Kočevski rog and on the basis of that study I testified before the Zagreb County Court in the investigation against Simo Dubajić before he died, but that was the only thing that was initiated then. Other data probably ended up in someone's drawer ", says historian Matković. She says that last week she sent an e-mail to the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs asking if they had those studies at their disposal. "... Because it is necessary to use what already exists and continue further investigation instead of possibly repeating the work already done. They haven't answered me yet. It would be normal for that office in the Ministry to have at its disposal the data of the former parliamentary commission and our data and those worked on by the office that was established in 2011 or somewhere, because it is a huge amount of data that together can facilitate further investigations. historian Matković believes. image Jazovka Cave For years, Kuka tried to persuade the authorities to protect the area and the entrance to the pit in some way, because he noticed that people were throwing garbage inside, he even went down to the pit several times and cleaned it of bottles, flags, garbage. . "I wrote to President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović , to the Ministry ... The years passed, but what is especially horrifying is that the pit is an hour away from Zagreb, and neither the Prime Minister nor the President came to Jazovka. That is why on August 14 last year I organized a prayer ceremony in the pit with the parish priest of the Holy Trinity Parish in Krašić, the Rev. Ivan Vučak . I thought it was something I could do on my own, which I could do, ”explains Kuka, who has had an advisory role in the exhumation of the remains these days. He says that it was done by a team of about 20 experts and that it was done in a professional and systematic way. "The army filled the bags with the bones they pulled out and carried them to the table and sorted them to be sent to forensic medicine. I have lived with that pit one big piece of my life and for me in a way this solution is a mystery. Even if those victims are buried with dignity ... ", says Kuka. Minister Tomo Medved adds that the Jazovka pit is the largest site so far. "The exhumation procedure was extremely difficult because it is a narrow passage pit, but the speleological teams did an excellent job," the minister added. This investigation was conducted by the Directorate for Detainees and Missing Persons of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, and the exhumation began on Monday, July 13, and lasted for a week. "Based on the remains, we will try to determine the sex and age of the victims because identification will not be possible," Medved said, adding that a dignified tomb for the victims would be built later. No one has ever been prosecuted or convicted for the crime discovered in the Jazovka pit