A little after noon on October 1991, XNUMX, in the area of the Konavo village Popovići near Čilip, in front of several hundred witnesses from the ranks of Montenegrin reservists in JNA uniforms, the "Gazelle" helicopter of the Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defense crashed.
There were four people in the crushed aircraft that fell from a height of several tens of meters and stopped in the vineyards, but did not catch fire and explode - three were seriously injured, and one was already dead, according to official information.
The commander of the ninth Military-Naval Sector of the JNA based in Kumbor, Rear Admiral Krsto L. Đurović (61), lost his life.
On his uniform were the insignia of the rank of battleship captain, because he had not yet learned that the day before, by decree of the Presidency of the SFRY, this native of Cetinje had been extraordinarily promoted to the rank of rear admiral.
By the irony of fate, the same decree signed by the Vice-President of the Presidency of the SFRY Branko Kostić, Dr. Branko Kostić, was extraordinarily next to Đurović, who was already clearly showing that he was against the war in Croatia, from the rank of infantry colonel to the rank of major general, and later for evil in Croatia and BiH famous Ratko Mladić....
Just a few minutes after the crash of the helicopter, the young Montenegrin reservist Dejan Bogojević was also killed, who was the first to run towards the downed helicopter to try to help its crew.
According to unofficial information, he was killed by the so-called "friendly fire" that was randomly opened from the position of the Montenegrin reservists towards the place where the helicopter fell. To this day, almost 25 years after this tragic event, all the circumstances of Rear Admiral Đurović's death have not been fully clarified.
For Montenegro Croatia shot down the plane
As far as the official Montenegro is concerned, the official version that was announced on October 6, 1991 by the Supreme Command of the JNA, which was already heavily involved in the civil war raging in Croatia, is still in force:
"On October 5, 1991 at 15.15:XNUMX p.m. in the wider area of the Čilipi airport, at the height of the village of Popovići... a 'Gazelle' helicopter was hit and shot down in which... there were Lieutenant General Jevrem Cokić and the captain of the battleship Krsto Đurović. Tom the captain of the battleship, Krsto Đurović, was seriously injured and died from his wounds... Lieutenant General Jevrem Cokić and crew members, captain Nervin Tobunčić, pilot and sergeant and class, Ilija Radulović, co-pilot, were injured and are out of danger" .
For the Yugoslav military leadership, the fire that brought down the "gazelle" undoubtedly came from the Croatian side. "It was very difficult for us - as people, as elders, and as subordinates. But, in this situation, it seems to me, it gave an additional impetus to the operation. When comrades and elders die in such a way, the stubbornness of the fighters to persevere is even greater", reported the words of Major General Branko Stanković, "coordinator of actions in the sector around Čilip", already the day after Đurović's death, the warmongering newsletter "War for Peace" ” of Titograd daily "Pobjeda".
The journalists of "Pobjeda" gave a eulogy to the late admiral as a skilled soldier who, in five days of war, did not lose a single soldier, but he himself fell as the first victim from the ranks of the 9th VPS.
Not started military investigation
The helicopter that General Cokić and Rear Admiral Đurović used to fly over the area was shot down, however, in an area that the Montenegrins already largely controlled and where there were no Croatian forces on October 5.
In that region, from October 1, 1991, units of the JNA, reservists, Territorial Defense and the MUP of Montenegro crossed the border at Debela Brijeg and attacked Konavle, and for five days they fought with Croatian defenders.
An official military investigation was never initiated - Đurović was buried with military honors, Cokić spent a year at the Belgrade VMA recovering from his injuries, and was retired in 1995 as an 80 percent war invalid.
General Pavle Strugar and Admiral Miodrag Jokić succeeded the two at the head of the Second Operational Group, i.e. the 9th VPS, and the military operations against Dubrovnik and its hinterland were immediately significantly intensified and reached their peak in the bombing of the besieged city on December 6, 1991, and because of which Strugar and Jokić were later sentenced to several years in prison before the Hague Tribunal.
Hajdarpašić: I believe he was against the aggression against Dubrovnik, so he had to be removed
Former JNA lieutenant Ahmo Hajdarpašić, who in 1991 served in the 179th mountain brigade based in Nikšić, told "Vijesti" an interesting story about who was to blame for the downing of Đurović's helicopter.
Hajdarpašić, whose unit also participated in war operations on the Dubrovnik-Herzegovina battlefield, which he speaks of with disgust and disgust, broke his ankle at the end of August 1991, and in the fall of that year he ended up in rehabilitation at the Meljine Military Hospital.
"I stayed there for a few days and met the pilot of the downed Gazelle, Captain Nedžib Tabučić, who was completely broken. Tabučić was in Meljine with his wife and a swastika, otherwise Fočak was born. Since we were of the same opinion on the issue of aggression against Croatia and BiH, a friendly relationship developed between us, so we talked a little more openly about the tragedy that befell our country and its peoples. Then he expressed his doubt that it was not shot down from the Croatian side, because according to all knowledge at the time, the Croats did not have any anti-aircraft weapons in the Konavle area. Then he told me that he believed with a great deal of certainty that "ours" shot him down, most likely with anti-aircraft three-barreled 20 mm guns. He told me that if he saw the place where the helicopter fell and the position on the ground, he would be able to determine with 100 percent certainty who shot it down," Hajdarpašić told "Vijesta".
According to him, he and pilot Nedžib Tabučić (and not Nervino Tobunčić, as the SSNO incorrectly stated), agreed in principle that when they left the hospital, they would drive together in Hajdarpašić's car to the place where the helicopter crashed, "because it was then a "liberated" territory."
"I remember that he told me then that only his helmet was returned from his personal belongings, and that the "rescuers" kept his gun and other personal belongings. He told me that he lost consciousness when he fell and that he does not remember the details of the rescue. Due to circumstances, I left the hospital earlier and returned to Nikšić, so our idea of going to the accident site remained unfulfilled. Maybe it was a lucky circumstance, because the devil only knows how our journey would have ended, given the "patriotism" that ruled the Montenegrin reservists and most of the command staff. Today, from this distance, and a very clear picture of the dark days, Montenegrin history and its tragic and shameful campaign on Croatia and BiH, reading the stories of accomplices and colleagues of the late Krsto Đurović, the painful story of his wife, I believe with 99 percent certainty that the late admiral Đurović was against the aggression against Dubrovnik and Croatia in general, and as such, he had to be removed by any means," said the former JNA officer, who today lives and works in Switzerland.
According to his opinion, the reconnaissance flight on which the "gazelle" was with Đurović was, if there was a conspiracy, an ideal opportunity to kill the disobedient officer, because, as he says, in such circumstances, other people can be sacrificed in order to remove him. the one who in any way represents an obstacle in some task, so that the story about "Ustasha executioners" would be more convincing, and the real goal and intention would be more effectively concealed.
Croats deny involvement and say they value Đurović
On October 6, 1991, "Dubrovački Vjesnik", in the style of then-understandable war propaganda, reported on the "great victims of the aggressors", crediting the Croatian side with the downing of Đurović's helicopter:
"Among the many dead (according to Radio Belgrade) is the captain of the battleship Krsto Đurović, the commander of the VPS Bok, and the seriously wounded lieutenant colonel Jevrem Cokić, the commander who is responsible for the destruction of Konavalo and Župa Dubrovnik. The brave defenders shot down their helicopter while it was flying over the airport.”
Croatian officials, however, later denied that Croatian forces had any part in downing the "Gazelle."
According to data published after the war, the Croatian forces in the Dubrovnik operation only had three 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, none of which were anywhere near the place where Đurović's helicopter crashed on October 5, 1991.
"The helicopter crashed on Saturday 5 October 10, around 91:12.45 in the area of Pridvorje. He fell near Draganjska Pala. He was flying from the direction of Cavtat towards Boka Kotorska. The aircraft was shot down by Montenegrin reservists with an anti-aircraft gun from the town of Livjera, because our forces were (unfortunately) not there. The JNA accused the Guardsmen from Popović of shooting down the helicopter, so the whole day after that they fired mortars at the village from which the helicopter was allegedly fired at," is the official Croatian position.
The mayor of Dubrovnik at the time, Petar Poljanić, presented his knowledge and suspicions that Đurović was actually killed by JNA men, testifying before the Hague Tribunal in the trial against Slobodan Milošević, where, among other things, he said that Đurović once told him in confidence just before the outbreak of war : "As long as I am the commander of VPS Bok, you can be sure that no shell will fall on Dubrovnik".
General of the Croatian Army Nojko Marinović, during the 1991 war, commander of the defense of Dubrovnik, once stated in the Croatian media that "due to the events of 1991, which resulted in the aggression against Croatia, Đurović requested his dismissal and dismissal from the JNA".
Then Đurović allegedly invited Marinović for a conversation during which he told him that "he spent his working life in Croatia, married a Croatian woman, and that his two sons and their families live in Croatia and that as long as he is the commander of the 9th VPS, Croatia will not be attacked." .
Marinović even asserted that "according to the information that reached the Croatian army, Krsto Đurović died as a result of severe physical injuries inflicted on him by brutal beating by members of the security service, because he refused to command the attack on Croatia" and that the helicopter crash was actually just a show for the public and misleading the tracks.
Koprivica convinced that the officer lost his head because of Dubrovnik
The eyewitness to the incident in which the admiral was killed was the well-known Montenegrin journalist Veseljko Koprivica, then forcibly mobilized as a JNA reservist and sent to the Dubrovnik battlefield, about which he later wrote an extremely emotional and detailed confession entitled "Everything was a target".
So far, Koprivica has dealt with the case of Rear Admiral Đurović and his mysterious death the most of all in Montenegro.
He is convinced that the reason for this is that, an officer loved by the soldiers and respected by the people, he lost his head because he strongly opposed the attack on Dubrovnik and the intention to bombard the city and practically occupy it.
"While the Montenegrin reservists were resting near the village of Popovići in Konavo, suddenly a helicopter appeared, which at first was suspected to belong to the Croatian army. However, a new surprise followed within a few moments: the aircraft faltered and fell into a nearby vineyard. A young man from Podgorica immediately ran there and disappeared in the vineyard, and soon a large group of reservists fired in that direction... A little later, we received two sad news: the captain of the battleship Krsto Đurović and the young reservist from Podgorica were killed, and the pilot and several other passengers were injured…. Pobjeda published an obituary stating that the young reservist "died heroically at the hands of the Ustasha". Due to this detail and the fact that the helicopter fell, and that no one had heard a shot before that, nor could there be Croatian troops in that area, which was controlled by Montenegrin reservists and members of the JNA days before, the veracity of the official announcement of the Federal of the Secretariat of National Defense about the helicopter accident. That doubt persists even today," Koprivica wrote.
Kačić resents that the Hague Tribunal did not investigate the case
Former Croatian politician, respected international lawyer and former member of working groups for the separation of Croatia from the SFRY, Dr. Hrvoje Kačić, publicly expressed his displeasure at the fact that the Hague Tribunal, after hearing Poljanić at the Milosevic trial, did not investigate the circumstances of "this crime" in more detail.
Kačić stated that on one occasion the former Montenegrin Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikola Samardžić, told him that "members of the JNA liquidated Admiral Đurović, but he warned me that we should not mention it in public, because some who were direct witnesses of that event, violently killed.”
According to Kačić, Đurović was given the task of putting under full control the road from Trebinje via Grab and Mrcin (Dubravko) to Boka Kotorska for strategic and security reasons. "He, as the commander of all units in the southeastern area of Dubrovnik, undertook that task and started that operation on October 1, 1991. On October 5, those units occupied the area where that road passes through Konavle. He reported to the command in Belgrade that the task was completed, but he received an order that he had to continue advancing all the way to Plata, because water and electricity were to be supplied from there to the barracks on Prevlaka. However, the commander of the 9th VPS Đurović refuses to carry out that further task, because he was an opponent of the attack on Dubrovnik and that was the reason for his murder. The leadership in the military top refused to carry out any investigative actions, but the leadership of the former SFRY and Montenegro also wanted to cover up the circumstances of this crime. The reasons for such behavior of Serbia and Montenegro are quite clear, but I do not see any reason by which the competent bodies of the Hague Tribunal can explain such silence. When on October 29, 1991, at a meeting in the House of the Yugoslav Navy in Tivat in the presence of distinguished diplomats from Italy, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Greece, I interrupted Admiral Jokić's monologue, because he was telling falsehoods about the start of the operation on Dubrovnik, since he assumed command only on October 7, 1991, I clearly pointed out that the former commander Đurović was killed under extraordinary circumstances," wrote Dr. Kačić.
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