ANATOMY OF DECEIT
Copyright©
1997 by Jerry Blaskovich. Electronic edition by Studia
Croatica, by permission of the author
Chapter 5:
Post Mortems of Slaughter: The Autopsies
I'd been so
upset that the world turned a blind eye to the realities of this war that I
felt compelled to relate, in some detail, the details of my observations--and
to provide photographic evidence to accompany it. The presented pathology
reports are summaries and only represent what was most typical for the victims
of the slaughter. I will limit myself only to the most salient features of the
pathology. Other incidental pathological
findings, such as associated heart disease or ovarian cystic tumor, which one
patient had, will not be commented upon.
I didn't know
what I was looking at in the first photos handed to me. I stared at them for
several minutes until it dawned on me that the amorphous mass, with a pair of
legs protruding from it, were the charred remains of what was once a human
being. The legs were festooned with heavy linked chain that tied around to what
appeared to be a finely carved table or chair leg.
From the deep
recesses of my mind I recalled what a professor said during a lecture in
forensic pathology class from my medical school days--and what I gleaned from
past discussions with pathologists about burn cases. "Even the most jaded
pathologist cringe when they have to work on burn victims." The mass of
carbon bears no resemblance to human beings as it brings into question the
examiner's entire value system and morality. What had been a living being, with
hopes and dreams of a future, was now reduced to chunks of carbon. Correlating
the photos with the chemical analyses from what tissue was left,
revealed the victims were indeed alive, and therefore aware that they were
being burned. Usually burn victims die of smoke inhalation long before the body
actually starts to burn. But these human beings continued to live and breathe
as the temperatures destroyed them.
I tried to
imagine the agony they went thorough while they were still conscious and when
they started to smell the odors as their own flesh was being barbecued. These
particular victims were chained to chairs, and if the other bodies
found in Vocin is any indication, they were
probably tortured before being killed. They were apparently burned in
increments, since the lung tissue was devoid of smoke particles.
Tomislav Martinkovic ( #28 )
The
pathological examination revealed a carbonized torso lacking arms and the head.
All that remained of Tomislav Martinkovic
was the left pretibia and the lower part of the right
pretibia (shin.) A large linked heavy chain was
wrapped loosely over the right thigh and a wooden leg of a table or similar
type of object. The thighs were totally carbonized but some muscle and bones
were preserved. In examining the thorax and abdomen the left side of the heart
was conserved and sent for analysis. Because of the amount of carbonization it
was impossible to establish if any wounds occurred during life. Spectrophotometric qualitative method of the presented
sample of heart muscle proved the presence of carboxyl myoglobin.
This result established that Mr. Martinkovic was
alive when the flames enveloped him.
Katica Martinovic ( # 29)
All that was
left of her remains that could be identified as something human was a part of
one shin and foot. Tied around the shin was a large linked chain loosely tied
to a wooden leg of a table or some similar object.
The head and
torso were completely carbonized. Both arms were missing. The only tissue that
was found intact in the carbonized mass during the examination of the thorax
and abdomen was a sliver of the left side of the heart. Everything else was
totally carbonized. That tiny piece of heart muscle was analyzed. Spectrophotometric examination found the presence of
carboxyl myoglobin, which established that Mrs. Martinovic was still alive at the time of contact with the
fire.
Marija Simic (#22 ) 57 years old.
Four, almost identical appearing lesions were found on the scalp ---all
were straight, with extremely sharp regular borders. The apex of the wounds penetrated the skull bones and
extended deeply into the brain tissue; all the underlying bones in their
pathways were fractured. They were located on the crown (on top of the parietal
region) in a transversal pattern. Immediately below those wounds was another
similar appearing lesion, nine centimeters in length. Inferior, but closer to
the temporal region, a 3.5 cm. wound was found. The fourth lesion, in the right
temporal-parietal area, was 9.5 cm. in length. When the skin of the calvarium was removed, multiple fractures of the bones on
the vault of the skull were found. The fragments extended deep in the brain
cavity. Subsequent removal of the bony fragments left a defect approximately
the size of a man's fist. Without going into details, the brain tissue findings
were compatible with extravasation of blood
(hemorrhages) and destroyed tissue. I agreed with the pathologist's conclusion that
each wound by itself could have resulted in death. Clearly the wounds were
inflicted by an ax.
Ivan Simic (# 21), born 12/21/32
The victim was
bound with doubled knotted loops of linen cloth on the left wrist and left
ankle. There also was a linen cloth noose wrapped twice around his neck that
was cinched with a single knot. When the noose was removed during the autopsy,
the skin and tissues of the neck showed a deep furrowed impression. Since no
information was available of the circumstances in which the body was found, we
can only surmise that he was tied. But the cause of death was two small stab
wounds at the height of the left nipple, close to the sternum. The wounds,
although deadly, had little external bleeding. The autopsy findings showed one
of stab wounds perforated the lung with resultant massive bleeding of right
lung into the left pleural space. The other, parallel, stab wound penetrated
the third intercostal space, pericardium, heart and finished in the left ventricle. He bled internally
into the pericardial sac. Since there was minimal external bleeding, the
perpetrators apparently were not sure if he was dead ---and proceeded to
tighten and garroted him with a cloth around his neck.
Post mortem
examination revealed the larynx was crushed, but all pathological evidence was
consistent that the damage to the throat tissues occurred after death. The dead
person was one of the few that showed no apparent evidence of torture before
death. Why he was spared is unknown. Perhaps he was forced to witness the
tormentors inflicting torture on others, which is a common phenomena
that I found in other documents ---perhaps witnessing torture of loved ones is
the greatest torture.
The remains of
a married couple, Maria and Franjo Matancic were found in the front yard of their house. They
were the bodies seen laying on the ground that CNN showed during my interview.
The couple was summarily executed with one bullet below each of their eyes. At
first glance the entry wounds seems minor, but the bullets in their pathways
turned the brains to mush and exited in the back of the head as a gaping cavern
filled with clots of blood, bone, and brain tissue. There can be no doubt this
was murder in an execution style--and by no means an "accidental
by-product of war."
Marija and Franjo Matancic (# 15 &16)
She was 64
years old when someone held an AK-47 close to her right lower eyelid and fired.
The seemingly small entrance wound went upwards and backwards, taking off
almost the entire right side of the back of the head. (see
photographs) The exit wound measured 10 x 15 cm.
Her husband Franjo (# 15) met with a somewhat similar fate, except the
entrance wound was the lower left eyelid. The bullet's direction went upward
and toward the right. Once it penetrated the everything
in its pathway was destroyed. It exited in the right parieto-temporeal
area. The large gaping wound was the twin of his wife's.
Stojan Nenadovic (# 27)
The lone
Serbian victim of Vocin, seventy-seven year old, Stojan Nenadovic, was mercilessly
tortured by Yugoslav Army soldiers after having dared to intervene on behalf of
his Croatian neighbors. Nenadovic had attempted to
stop Serb soldiers who were harassing and torturing his Croatian neighbors.
When he persisted, the soldiers proceeded to brand Nenadovic
on at least 100 places. The uniformity of his lesions and their pattern
indicated that lighted cigarettes or a heated metal chain were used to torture Nenadovic. The soldiers also filleted the skin of his lower
extremities. Filleting is not a simple procedure, and requires practiced
expertise.
The skin is
cut in a horizontal slit. The blade is then placed tangential into the
subcutaneous tissues. In a feathering motion, the blade cuts through the
collagen which binds the epidermis and the dermis to the subcutaneous fat. Then
the fingers grasp the edge and the outer skin is tugged. The procedure is
similar to pelting an animal.
Aside from
these injuries, Nenadovic face, as I examined the
evidence, showed multiple bruises, which clearly indicated to me that he was
beaten by fists of a blunt object before dying. Nenadovic
ultimately died of cardiovascular shock.
After
examining the objective laboratory analysis, autopsies, and eyewitness
accounts, even the blind could see or the most naive would have to agree, that
what happened at Vocin weren’t byproducts of war but
concerted, deliberate murders. The only redeeming feature about Vocin is that it was the first Croatian slaughter which
caught the media’s attention after 50 previous slaughters had been ignored. A
cursory review of the journalistic output regarding atrocities, prior to Vocin, reveals the media were either too jaded to report
about them or couldn’t or didn’t want to believe the Serbs were
capable of such acts. But in incidents where the evidence was irrefutable that
the Serbs indeed perpetrated human mayhem, the media’s take was that the acts
were justified. They had completely bought into the notion that present day
Croats are to be equated with Nazi beastiality.
In the global
context, Vocin may seem insignificant, but the
gallons of blood shed there have became part of an
ocean of blood the Serbs caused to be shed in former Yugoslavia. The reasons
that Vocin was important are they transcended
previous injustices and international lies. If the world had paid attention and
reacted to the Serbs’ wanton acts in Croatia in the way it did to Sarajevo’s
breadline and marketplace slaughters it would’ve checked the growth of the
horrendous statistics we’ve seen. I’d like to think the victims of Vocin didn’t die in vain.
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