In Grabovac, commemoration for the youngest victim of the Homeland War

On Monday, a commemoration was held in Grabovac for the youngest civilian victim of the Homeland War - a three-month-old infant, as well as for two other young people, who died on September 26, 1991 in exile in that place on the Plitvice Lakes.

On this day in 1991, three month and six day old Ivan Špoljarić and 17 and 18-year-old cousins Dubravko and Josipa Špoljarić were killed by a deadly enemy missile.

At the refugee camp in Grabovac, where exiles, old men and women with children were staying, several shells were fired from the Višnjevača hill above the village of Smoljanac, two of them fell in the immediate vicinity of the Jelena pavilion, and one hit the pavilion, on which occasion three completely innocent civilians were killed by shrapnel.

At the time of the tragedy, their fathers, as Croatian defenders in the village of Korana, were defending their homes against the Greater Serbian aggressors and heard the sad news on a radio program.

Along with the families of the victims, the representative of the Croatian Parliament Speaker and the deputy prefect of Lika-Senj County, Jasna Orešković Brkljačić, the representative of the Prime Minister, General Josip Lucić, and representatives of veterans' and victims' associations and local authorities paid their respects to the victims.

The words of prayer for the victims were led by Father Dino Rupčić, according to a press release from the Lika-Senj County Prefect's Office.

Source: HRT