Dusan Trivuncic reburied in Novi Sad after exhumation
The remains of a Croatian parliament deputy killed in 1991 were moved from Jasenovac to Novi Sad, the Union of Serbs from the Region says. His family did not feel safe in Croatia.
The remains of Dusan Trivuncic, a deputy of the Croatian Parliament killed in 1991, were exhumed in Jasenovac and buried in Novi Sad on November 6, 2026. Miodrag Linta, president of the Union of Serbs from the Region, announced it on November 7. The statement does not say which Novi Sad cemetery he now rests in.
For Serbia, the case also raises the question of how Serb families from Croatia are treated: the family moved its relative’s remains to Novi Sad, and the Union ties the case to Croatia’s rule-of-law obligations as an EU member state.
Why did the family decide to move the remains out of Jasenovac?
According to Linta, the burial took place on November 6, following the family’s decision to have the remains exhumed in Jasenovac and taken to Novi Sad. The Union gives this reason: the family did not feel welcome in Croatia, or safe.
Linta also said that one of the key reasons for the decision was that, in all these years, the family never saw justice for his killing. He added:
“That is a devastating message about the position of Serb families who lost loved ones, and whose suffering Croatian institutions have ignored for decades.”
Linta recalled that only a handful of people gathered at Trivuncic’s funeral in his native Jasenovac in 1991, while his wife and children did not attend for security reasons.
Who was Dusan Trivuncic?
Trivuncic was an agronomist from Jasenovac and, as Linta describes him, a respected and esteemed citizen of the town. In the first multiparty elections in spring 1990, he was elected to the Croatian Parliament on the SKH-SDP list. As a child he survived the Jasenovac camp, where his mother died.
Abduction from the family home, according to the Union
According to Linta, Trivuncic was forcibly taken from his family home in Jasenovac on September 17, 1991. His body, Linta says, was found two days later near Novska, with multiple gunshot wounds.
Linta relies on the testimony of Trivuncic’s wife and daughter: four uniformed men arrived in a white van outside the house, searched it, handcuffed him and drove him away in an unknown direction. According to what the family has learned, members of the HOS took part in the abduction and killing. These claims come solely from the Union’s statement and from the family’s testimony; there is no independent confirmation in the available sources.
What does Linta say about the investigation and the rule of law?
Linta claims that the Croatian judiciary has not uncovered, let alone convicted, those who ordered and carried out the crime. He also stated:
“He was killed only because he was a Serb and one of the most respected people in his area. No one has been held accountable for this monstrous crime to this day, even though the names of those who took part in his abduction and killing are known.”
In his words, the case is still at the investigation stage with the Croatian state prosecution after 35 years. Linta sees this as one of many pieces of evidence that Croatia is failing to meet its basic rule-of-law obligations, one of the founding values of the EU. He said many other Serb families whose members were killed during the war in Croatian cities and in the territory of the former Republic of Serbian Krajina have not seen justice either.
The Union’s statement contains no response from Croatian institutions, and the claims about the course of the investigation and the lack of accountability come from Linta.
