The atrocities of war.

We are staying in a tiny village about 5 minutes from Krka ( pronounced Kirka) National Park. This area definitely has the scars of war which are very apparent. We are in the area of Krajina and the town of Knin  would be  about 45 minutes drive away. On the road out of Knin  the streets were filled with many derelict buildings  that really made you sit up and take notice. In the country side  around there are many derelict and abandoned buildings.  You can see bullet holes in the sides of buildings and all around are  new cemeteries. I have seen one Beware of land mines sign and other areas with restricted access.

Krka is closer to the coast but still in the province of Krajina. Knin is very close to the Bosnian border and was very much a Serb area. In December 1990 after a general election which the Croatian Democratic Party won over the old Communist party. The new Croatian government then changed the status of Serbs to national minority.  When Croatian declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991,  this area, a Serbain enclave, proclaimed its independence from  Croatia. The Yugoslavian forces mostly Serbs stepped into the area on the grounds of protecting the Serbs  which set about the campaign of ethnic cleansing.  Heavy fighting broke out with 180,000 soldiers and 2000 tanks.  The good guide book says 43,000 Croats lost their lives with only approx 1000 remaining. 

Ian bought a book about the Plitvice Lakes and inside was a page telling much the same story. The Serbs felled trees into the lake, slaughtered Croatian stock and generally disposed of the local people. I had read also a comment "don't expect to see too many old men in the villages, they  were rounded up and suffered the atrocities of war". This seems a very valid observation.

 

However as one would expect the Croats were none too happy about this situation and in 1995 mounted a huge  assault in the town of Knin that pushed the Serbs back into Northern Bosnia. As the tide turned in favour of the Croats wide spread looting and burning of Serbian  houses and villages created yet another change in the population demographics. Oh the realities of war. While its  a wow moment to see your first abandoned building, or the bullet holes the whole area makes you stop and think. The countryside is then littered with the signs of a war that happened less than 20 years ago, and that becomes rather sobering.