Milena Perčin
Milena Perčin was born in 1949 in the village of Trbounje, in the Municipality of Drniš. She is a nurse. At the beginning of the war in the 1990s she was the head nurse at the Community Health Centre in Drniš. Caring for patients who were accommodated in the Health Centre shelter, she did not join the inhabitants who were evacuated after the attack on Drniš on September 16, 1991. During the period of SAO Krajina [Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina] she lived mostly in Drniš. Together with the rest of the population who remained in the town, mostly of Serb nationality, she was evacuated to Knin. She spent some time in the prison in Knin, in solitary confinement, and she suffered various abuse. Following release from the prison in Knin, she returned to Drniš where she remained until Operation Storm. Her house was plundered, set on fire on several occasions, and Milena Perčin suffered constant intimidation. Her Serb neighbours helped her to survive that period. At the beginning of 1992, her two sons managed to leave the area of SAO Krajina and escape to the Croatian side, where they joined the Croatian Army. Following Operation Storm, she joined the Serb refugee column and set off to Belgrade. She spent some time in refuge in Belgrade, trying to find a way to return to Croatia. During her time in Belgrade she received information that her younger son had been wounded, though in fact he had been killed. Upon returning to Croatia on September 25, 1995 she learnt that he had died as a Croatian Army soldier. The search for his remains took two years. With many difficulties and obstacles, she continued to live in Drniš. After 2000 she became involved with the work of a number of associations and founded the Žena Drniš association, which she heads today.