October the 29th, 2025 – It has now been confirmed that the remains found in a mass grave in Ovčara belong to French volunteer Jean-Michel Nicolier after they were identified.
The remains of three individuals were unearthed in a mass grave in Ovčara, where Jean-Michel Nicolier was taken after being removed from Vukovar hospital where he was receiving treatment for injuries he had sustained in Sajmište. The Frenchman had remained in the hospital after being initially wounded on the 9th of November, 1991, and he awaited the fall of Vukovar there.
During the early hours of the morning on November the 20th, 1991, Jean-Michel was taken from the hospital to Ovčara and brutally murdered by the occupying Serbs.
The recently discovered remains had been transported for pathological analysis and identification and until that point it was unknown whether or not any of them belonged to the tragic Jean-Michel Nicolier.
It has since been confirmed that the remains discovered in the mass grave are indeed those of Jean-Michel Nicolier following the due process to have them identified. The Frenchman gave his life for Croatia and has since become a symbol of the determination and grit of the many selfless foreign volunteers who readily came to Croatia’s defence against Serbian aggression.
“I knew it would be difficult, but I didn’t think it would be so terrible, especially for civilians. I came to Vukovar as a volunteer. That was my choice, for better or for worse,” is the statement the brave Jean-Michel Nicolier gave to HRT shortly before the fall of Vukovar and the premature and devastating end of his short life at the hands of Serbian barbarism.
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