The Široka Kula massacre was the killing of 41 civilians in the village of Široka Kula near Gospić, Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence. The killings began on 13 October 1991 and continued until late October. They were perpetrated by the Croatian Serb SAO Krajina police and generally targeted ethnic Croat civilians in Široka Kula. Several victims were ethnic Serbs suspected by the police of collaboration with Croatian authorities. Most of the victims' bodies were thrown into the Golubnjača Pit, a nearby karst cave.
Thirteen individuals were charged and tried in connection with the killings, four were convicted in absentia in Belgrade. The other eleven were tried and convicted in absentia in Gospić. One of those convicted by Gospić County Court subsequently returned to Croatia, where he was granted a retrial and acquitted. A monument dedicated to the victims of the massacre was built in the village in 2003.
Background
In August 1990, an insurrection took place in Croatia centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas, including parts of Lika, around the city of Gospić, with significant Serb populations. The areas were subsequently named SAO Krajina and, after declaring its intention to integrate with Serbia, the Government of Croatia declared it to be a rebellion. By March 1991, the conflict escalated into the Croatian War of Independence. In June 1991, Croatia declared its independence as Yugoslavia disintegrated. A three-month moratorium followed, after which the decision came into effect on 8 October.
As the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) increasingly supported the SAO Krajina, the Croatian Police were unable to cope. Thus, the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) was formed in May 1991. The development of the military of Croatia was hampered by a UN arms embargo introduced in September, while the military conflict in Croatia continued to escalate—the Battle of Vukovar started on 26 August. By the end of August the fighting intensified in Lika as well, specifically as the Battle of Gospić continued through much of September.
Killings
SAO Krajina forces occupied the village of Široka Kula in September 1991. The village was located northeast of Gospić in Lika. It had an ethnically mixed prewar population of 536 consisting of Croats and Serbs, but most of the Croat population fled by the end of the month.
On 13 October, the chief of the SAO Krajina police in Široka Kula instructed the remaining Croats in the village to move to two houses before they were evacuated. After the civilians complied with the request, SAO Krajina forces shot at the assembled villagers, while houses owned by Croats were looted and torched by a mob. The attack resulted in thirteen civilian deaths. The victims were killed using shotguns and their bodies thrown into burning houses. Some of the victims were burned to death. Most of those killed were elderly, and at least two of the victims were children (13 and 17 years of age). In the following days, the killings continued. According to a 2013 news report, a total of 41 civilians were killed in the village that month, and most of the corpses thrown into the Golubnjača Pit, 22 of which were retrieved from the karst cave . In November 1992, Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) police estimated that the bodies of approximately forty Croat civilians were thrown into the pit.
In mid-October, SAO Krajina police arrested four Serbian civilians in Široka Kula, Mane Rakić and his three children for allegedly collaborating with Croatian authorities. During the night of 20/21 October, the police searched Rakić's home, and then killed his wife in another house in Široka Kula. Her body was doused with kerosene and torched. By the end of the month, Rakić and his children were also murdered and their remains thrown into the Golubnjača Pit.