Croat generals on trial for war crimes today

[Tsontos]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...es-Croatia.php

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Three Croat generals still widely regarded as national heroes for leading a 1995 military campaign that seized back land taken over by rebel Serbs in 1991 went on trial Tuesday at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac are accused of orchestrating the killing of at least 150 Serbs and the expulsion of thousands of others in a 1995 offensive known as "Operation Storm" aimed at reclaiming a southern Croatian region known as the Krajina.

"This trial arises from the forcible elimination of Krajina's Serbs from Croatia and the destruction of their community ... and the roles and responsibilities of three men, generals in the Croatian army, in that process," prosecutor Alan Tieger told a three judge panel in his opening statement.

The generals, all wearing suits and flanked by U.N. guards, sat impassively behind three benches of defense lawyers as Tieger began outlining his case.

They have pleaded not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity charges including murder, persecution, plunder and inhumane treatment of civilians. If convicted, they face a maximum of life in prison.
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Prosecutors say troops commanded by the generals rampaged through village after village during the three-month campaign, pillaging and torching homes and killing residents.

"The Serb community was a scarred wasteland of destroyed villages and homes," Tieger said.

"This case is about three men who were instrumental in those crimes," he said.

In their indictment, prosecutors say Gotovina, a former French Foreign Legionnaire, knew what was likely to happen, failed to take steps to prevent atrocities or stop them once they began, and took no action against those who committed the crimes.

Unlike neighbor Serbia, whose path to EU membership is blocked by its failure to hand over key war crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic, Croatia took a major step toward joining the bloc when it cooperated with Hague investigators hunting Gotovina, who went on the run in 2001 after being indicted. Croatia now hopes to join the EU by the end of the decade.

The indictment alleges that Croat forces led by the generals murdered civilians, including the elderly, women and invalids.

"Persons were observed being shot at point-blank range and killed execution style, and many persons had to look on while family members were killed," the indictment charges.

According to the indictment, Operation Storm was a criminal plot hatched by Croatia's leaders, including former President Franjo Tudjman and ex-Defense Minister Gojko Susak, both of whom have since died, aimed at not only driving out Serbs from the southern Krajina region but also using a campaign of terror and pillage to ensure they did not return.

Many Croatians still argue that the campaign was a necessity to win back the self-declared Serb republic.

Davor Ivankovic, a columnist for the Croatian daily Vecernji list, wrote last Thursday that the general's lawyers are not only defending their clients but "also have to defend the dignity and justification of the (1995) actions."

Tieger said prosecutors would not dispute Croatia's right to retake the land, but he said the operation had a more sinister aim.

"Operation Storm encompassed another objective — to drive out the Serb civilian population and ensure their permanent removal," he said.

[pankration]

Although I'm not overly sympathetic to Serbs for the actions they took during this war, I'm glad to see that these Croat generals are getting their's now. The Serbs, in my opinion, were no more guilty of war crimes than the Croats and for that matter, the Bosnians yet somehow they lost the PR battle. Prosecute them all.