Documents: In the face of more than 1500 victims between 1991 and 1995.

A new document released by the Documentation Center for Dealing with the Past has revealed preliminary findings indicating over 1,500 confirmed and partially confirmed victims in the Lika-Senj County between 1991 and 1995. The research titled "Human Losses 1991–1995 in Croatia" was published on Monday and highlights the significant number of casualties during this period in the region. According to the report, there were 1,135 confirmed victims whose personal data have been verified using at least three independent sources. In addition, 377 individuals are listed as partially confirmed, meaning their identities or circumstances of death could not be definitively established, but they are known to have died or disappeared.

The victims include 835 individuals of Serbian nationality and 652 of Croatian nationality. Among them, five were Yugoslavs, four Bosniaks, four Czechs, three Muslims, and one each from Slovakia, the Netherlands, Russia, and Ruthenia. For five individuals, nationalities remain unknown. When considering their statuses, the majority—753—are identified as soldiers, followed by 545 civilian victims and 62 police officers. Some victims' statuses are unclear or unspecified.

In terms of gender distribution, 1,246 men and 266 women are recorded among the victims. Approximately 45 percent of the victims were aged between 36 and 64 years at the time of their deaths, while slightly more than a third—36 percent—were between 13 and 35 years old. Eighteen percent were over 65 years of age, and just one percent were children under 12 years old.

The documentation process involved extensive research into all available sources that mentioned the names of victims, ranging from newspaper articles and publications to victim lists, photographs of memorials, autopsy reports, and personal documents. However, many sources were incomplete, providing only birth and death dates, possibly the father's name, place of birth, and location of death.

Božica Ciboci, a researcher from the Documentation Center, emphasized that the list is not final and requires further investigation and collection of additional documentation to confirm unlisted and unverified victims. Vesna Teršelić, director of the Documentation Center, noted that nearly 35 years after the start of the war, there remains no publicly accessible list of all victims, missing persons, and those killed on both sides of the conflict. She described the effort as a civilizational duty to honor the victims and create a factual overview of their suffering.

Boris Milošević from the Serbian National Council called on the Memorial-Documentation Center of the Homeland War to publish its data. He stressed the importance of the center and other state institutions updating the list and making it publicly available to enhance its credibility.

Before presenting the research results, representatives from the Documentation Center and the Serbian National Council visited the cemetery in Medak, then the grave of Milan Lever on the City Cemetery in Gospić, and finally the Monument to Fallen Croatian Defenders and Civilian Victims of the Homeland War on Alojz Stepinc Street in Gospić. These visits underscored the significance of remembering and honoring the victims of the conflict.