Western Slavonia
Western Slavonia as well was not immune to such "greater Serbian" ambitions.
The rebellious Serbian populations were entrenched in the sparsely populated villages on
the hilly zones of Papuk, Ravna Gora and Psunj, with a greater concentration of Serbs in
Okucani.
Since none of these struggling villages were big enough to be the base of a new
"Serbian region", they tended to unify them through expansionism. The forced
expulsion of non-Serbs from the adjoining areas also served this purpose. Besides Croats,
other non-Serbs, such as Czechs, were a stumbling block to Serbian ambitions and thus
terrible damage was inflicted on Czech villages, such as Ivanovo Selo.
Near the Sava River, the Posavina region of Western Slavonia, a ring was made around
the villages of Gornji Bogicevci (near Okucani), Novi Varos and Pivare and other villages
between the highway and the Sava River. The settlements of Pakrac and Lipik, which were
equally shared by Croats and Serbs, were also encircled by Serbian forces.
In the mountainous region of the battlefield, genocide was committed on non-Serbs in
the villages of the Podravska Slatina district, which are located in the geographically
isolated river valley of Vocin. Here, on September 3, 1991, 21 Croats were killed. They
were from the following villages: Cetekovac (311 people, 97.1% Croatian), Balinci (295
people, 49.2% Croatian, 47.1% Serbian) and Coljug (86 people, 50% Croatian, 44.2%
Serbian). The fate of these villages attests to the routine action of ethnic cleansing.
Later, around November 20, the same process was repeated in Vocin (1,569 people, 27.2%
Croatian, 64.3% Serbian). The latter village is located among villages with Serbian
majorities and on the mountainous hinterland, where there are located strong terrorist
strongholds.
The ethnic cleansing process of 1991 was a replay of what happened in the region during
WW II, the most illustrative of which is the case of a settlement northwest of Pakrac on
the road to Pozega. Until WW II, the latter area comprised villages populated by 1,300
people - mostly Croatian - (1931 census) and was called Spanovica. During WW II the
Croatian population was forced to flee and after the war the village was renamed Novo Selo
with a completely Serbian population.