On 30 September 1991, a horrific crime took place in western Slavonia when Marija and Stanko Šajnović and their seven-year-old son Renato were killed in Bodegraj near Okučani. It was one of many crimes that took place in the region following the occupation of Okučani in mid-August 1991.
The Šajnović family was killed in cold blood on their doorstep and it was not until August 1996 that their bodies were exhumed from a plum grove near their house. Although Milorad Dabić, a member of the Territorial Defense (TD) of Okučani confessed to this and other killings of non-Serbs in the area he was never convicted. An indictment was filed in November 1991 against him and accomplices Boško Krnjajić and Gostimir Milanović in the Yugoslav People’s Army Military Court in Zagreb (then based in Banja Luka) and as the trial was not completed due to the war, it was continued in 2003 in the Municipal Court in Belgrade. Krnjajić and Milanović were acquitted while Dabić was sent for treatment as a psychiatric patient.
After a series of initiatives and 28 years after this terrible crime, the “Wounded Dove” monument was finally unveiled at the site in Bodegraj where the remains of the Šajnović family were found, thus marking it as a mass grave site. On that solemn occasion, Minister of Croatian Veterans Tomo Medved said the following:
It is our duty to continue promoting the truth. Mass graves testify to the horrific crimes that caused tragedy for many families. Just like the Šajnović family, many civilians were killed just because they were Croats.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the tragic story of the Šajnović family during the Homeland War. Nikola Šajnović, the other son of Marija and Stanko and older brother to little Renato, was a member of the 1st Guard “Tigers” Brigade and died while rescuing a wounded comrade on the Ogulin front in September 1993.
Magistar sam povijesti. Radno iskustvo stjecao sam u Hrvatskom povijesnom muzeju i na Hrvatskoj radioteleviziji u emisiji TV Kalendar. Autor sam nekoliko knjiga i filmova na temu Domovinskog rata. Osnovao sam i uređujem Facebook stranicu Dogodilo se na današnji dan – Domovinski rat i portal Domovinskirat.hr. Također uređujem i vodim emisiju Domoljubne minute koja se svakog dana emitira na Hrvatskom katoličkom radiju te emisiju Sve za Hrvatsku i Novi valovi dobrote. Vlasnik sam obrta CroHis kojim promičem vrijednosti Domovinskog rata.
