In order to achieve this the HVO soldiers mainly acted as follows: they terrorised the civilians by intensive shelling, murders and violence; they systematically torched and destroyed their private homes and places of worship usually after looting them; they slaughtered the livestock and seized agricultural reserves; and finally, they arrested and detained in camps, then finally exchanged or expelled Muslim civilians towards territories under the control of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The ICTY Trial Chamber notes that the Kiseljak authorities created an official commission responsible for driving civilians out of the region.
[…] In my mind, it was clear, and even more so in retrospect, that the operations that were carried out in the Vitez and Kiseljak pockets constituted ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population living there.
Milivoj Petković ordered Ivica Rajić to take HVO forces and seize control of the situation in Vareš town and the surrounding area.
[6] The HVO units under Ivica Rajić command, including the Maturice and Ban Josip Jelačić Brigade, had participated in earlier operations against Bosnian Muslims villages in Kiseljak municipality and committed crimes against Bosnian Muslims, including murder, rape, destruction of property, arbitrary arrest and physical assault.
[8] On 23 October 1993, the head of the HVO Main Staff, Slobodan Praljak, ordered Ivica Rajić and others to "sort out the situation in Vareš showing no mercy towards anyone.
Slobodan Praljak's order was known by local HVO commanders and soldiers and further escalated the highly charged and aggressive attitude against Bosnian Muslims in the Vareš area.
[9] Stupni Do is a village located in the hills about one kilometre south of the town of Vareš, at a height of 1074 metres, with one principal road leading to it through a tunnel.
[7] Bosniaks had no chance to resist Croatian attack due to the fact local Bosnian Territorial Defense unit was poorly equipped, armed with 40 rifles (majority for hunting) with no military training: most wore civilian clothing.
The HVO attack on Stupni Do resulted in the deaths of at least thirty-seven Bosnian Muslim men, women, elderly and children (approximately six of whom were combatants).
[1] In terms of the Bosnian Muslims who died in the attack, at least the following were murdered: Three men and one woman were executed by being shot or having their throats cut; One woman was taken into a house by an HVO soldier where she was executed; Two elderly women, one of whom was an invalid, were found burned inside a house; One man was shot several times at close range after he refused to give an HVO soldier his money; When a group of Bosnian Muslims (one man, nine women and three children) attempted to flee, the man was shot and killed (his half-burned body was later found at the same location where he was shot), and two of the women and all three children were murdered in front of their house; Three of the young women who escaped the initial encounter with the HVO soldiers were then found hiding in a small cellar and murdered; Seven members of the same family (two men, three women and two children aged 2 and 3 years old) were found burned inside their shelter; One man, who had been severely wounded in both legs, was carried into a house which was later set on fire by HVO soldiers; (The man's burned body, together with another burned body, was later found inside the house.)
The first, Rolf Weckesser, was an ECMM monitor who tried to get to the village on the morning after the attack but found the HVO blocking the road and refusing entry: the soldiers appeared to be drunk and were yelling and said: "We did not like this job, but we had to do it, and we do not like our leaders."
[14] In Vareš town, HVO including members of the Apostoli and military police units, rounded up more than 250 Bosnian Muslim men and detained them in the "Ivan Goran Kovačić" and "Vladimir Nazor" schools.
During the process of rounding up the above-mentioned men, the HVO commanders and soldiers entered houses and physically and mentally abused the inhabitants and persons present and robbed them of their valuables.
[15] On 23 October 1993, Ivica Rajić reported to Dario Kordić, Milivoj Petković, Tihomir Blaškić and Mario Bradara (commander of the Ban Josip Jelačić Brigade): "I made an assessment and in the morning hours I carried out an attack on Stupni Do and Bogoš [...] The town of Vareš has been mopped up and all Muslims of military age placed under surveillance.
[16] On the instructions of his HVO superiors, including Milivoj Petković, Ivica Rajić participated in a cover-up concerning the crimes committed in and around Vareš town and Stupni Do.
[17] On 27 December 1993, Ivica Rajić informed HVO authorities, including Milivoj Petković, that, as ordered, he was changing his name to Viktor Andrić.
[19] On 1 November 2010, Miroslav Anić, a former member of the 'Maturice' Special Purposes Squad with the Croatian Defence Council that's suspected of having committed war crimes in Vareš, Kiseljak, and specifically the Stupni Do massacre, surrendered to authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.