Communicated on 14 January 2016
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 38383/15
Grujo GOJSAVIĆ and others against Croatia
and two other applications
(see list appended)
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicants are all Croatian nationals of Serbian ethnic origin. A list of the applicants is set out in the appendix.
The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
During 1991 and 1992 Serbian paramilitary forces gained control of about a third of the territory of Croatia and proclaimed the “Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina”. At the beginning of August 1995 the Croatian authorities announced their intention to take military action with the aim of regaining control over Krajina. The operation was codenamed “Storm” and took place from 4 to 7 August 1995. Before the military action, the vast majority of the population of Krajina fled Croatia.
The applicants’ close relatives who stayed in Croatia were killed in August 1995 on the territory of Krajina, allegedly by Croatian soldiers.
It appears that the investigations into the killing of the applicants’ relatives are still pending.
COMPLAINTS
The applicants complain under the procedural aspect of Articles 2 and 14 of the Convention about the lack of an effective investigation into the killing of their relatives and that the fact that they were killed only because of their Serbian ethnic origin was not taken into consideration.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life (see paragraph 104 of Salman v. Turkey [GC], no. 21986/93, ECHR 2000-VII), has there been an investigation in the present cases by the domestic authorities, complying with the requirements under Article 2 of the Convention?
2. Have the relevant authorities complied with their procedural obligation under Article 14 of the Convention to investigate whether there was any motive behind the killing of the applicants’ relatives that might be related to their Serbian origin (see, mutatis mutandis, Šečić v. Croatia, no. 40116/02, § 66, ECHR 2007‑VI)?
Appendix
No
Application No
Lodged on
Applicant
Date of birth
Place of residence
Represented by
38383/15
31/07/2015
Grujo GOJSAVIĆ
28/06/1962
Beograd
Stanislava ĆUKOVIĆ
10/09/1954
Beograd
Slavka SAVANOVIĆ
15/11/1956
Beograd
Luka ŠUŠAK
38524/15
29/07/2015
Nedjeljka BRCKOVIĆ
12/05/1948
Vojnić
Luka ŠUŠAK
38766/15
29/07/2015
Milica MILIĆ
03/02/1945
Concord
Vera ŠUMAKOVIĆ
22/03/1966
Beograd
Nada JURAŠIN
08/09/1968
Dobrinci
Zoran MILIĆ
18/01/1975
Dobrinci
Luka ŠUŠAK
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