Baćin massacre

The Baćin massacre was a war crime committed by rebel Croatian Serbs' forces on October 21, 1991 on a location near village of Baćin, near Hrvatska Dubica, in central Croatia, during the Croatian War of Independence.

During the Croatian War of Independence, Dubica was located in the area contested by the Serb rebels. Most of the civilians fled the area during the attacks of the Serb forces that started in September 1991. These forces were controlled by the convicted war criminal Milan Martić, and consisted of units of Yugoslav People's Army, Territorial Defence, and the so-called Militia of SAO Krajina. Around October 7, 1991, these forces took control of the entire wider area of Hrvatska Kostajnica.

Around 120 Croatian civilians, mostly elderly people and women, were left in the adjactent villages of Hrvatska Dubica, Cerovljani and Baćin. In the morning of October 20, 1991, the Serb forces captured 53 civilians in Dubica and held them in the fire department building. During the day and the following night, ten of them were released on the basis that they were Serbs, or had connections with Serbs.

According to the initial indictment against Milan Babić, on the following day, October 21, 1991, the paramilitaries took the remaining 43 people to a location near the village of Baćin. At least thirteen other non-Serb civilians were brought to the same spot from Baćin and Cerovljani. All 56 civilians were then shot there. Their bodies were exhumed from the mass grave in 1997 and 37 of them have been identified. Most of the victims were between 60 and 90 years of age.

Around the same time, rebel Serb forces also removed another 30 civilians from Baćin and 24 from Dubica and Cerovljani, and killed them at an unknown location.

Altogether, 110 people were killed.

The events were described by witnesses at the trial of Slobodan Milošević and others at the ICTY. Milan Martić was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the crime.