UN Court Frees Croatian Generals Held For War Crimes
(Vatican Radio) The United Nation Yugoslav war crimes court in the Dutch city of The
Hague has acquitted on appeal two Croatian generals who were earlier sentenced
last year to long prison sentences for war crimes.
The acquittal of
Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac came after overnight prayer vigils and demonstrations
in Croatia, which is mainly Catholic.
An appeals court of the UN tribunal
said there was not enough evidence to convict Gotovina, the most senior Croatian military
officer charged with war crimes during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s.
Gotovina,
who was commander in the Split district of the Croatian army, had been jailed for
24 years.
Markac, a Croatian police commander who was serving an 18-year sentence,
also saw his sentenced overturned.
The court ordered, "the immediate release
of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and directs the registrar to make the necessary
arrangements," said Theodor Meron, the president of the five-judge panel which ruled
3-2 to acquit the two men.
The release of Gotovina and Markac, both 57,
came as a major setback for prosecutors.
They maintained that the leaders
oversaw an operation in which 324 Serb civilians and soldiers were killed and "close
to 90,000 Serbs forcibly displaced with the clear intention that they never return"
to the Krajina region.
Serb victims' associations claimed 1,200 civilians were
killed and 220,000 fled Krajina 1995 when Croatian forces crushed Serb nationalist
resistance in an area where the community had roots going back centuries.
Prosecutors
also claimed the shelling of the town of Knin and three other towns was part of a
plan designed to drive out ethnic Serbs in what became known as Operation Storm.
But
there were celebrations in Croatia Friday, where both men are seen as heroes and thousands watched
the final verdict on huge television screens.
Croats even held overnight
prayer vigils and special Masses in Catholic churches across the nation, where
people prayed for the generals release.
Croatian Bishop Vlado Kosic had
urged the faithful to "raise their voice against injustice regarding the generals
and Croatia" and to pray "for a fair verdict."
"A huge weight has been lifted
off my shoulders," Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told reporters in
the capital Zagreb after the verdict.
"This has gone on for 17 years, and
two innocent people can go home," he said. "But that doesn’t mean the war wasn’t bloody
and Croatia will do its part to achieve justice," the government leader added.
The
case closed as the former Yugoslav republic plans to join the European Union in July,
despite still struggling to recover after three years of recession and economic decline.
Amid
EU pressure, Croatia cooperated with the extradition of the generals to The Hague
and supported their defence teams in claiming the generals couldn’t prevent individual
soldiers from committing crimes.
Serbia has condemned the release of the generals.
"The UN war crimes court has lost "all credibility" after it acquitted them, said
Serbian minister Rasim Ljajic,
responsible for the country's cooperation with
the tribunal.
"The UN war crimes court has lost all credibility", Ljajic
told Beta news agency,
adding that "today's decision is proof of selective
justice which is worse than any injustice".
Serbia's war crimes prosecutor
also dismissed the "scandalous decision" of the court.
Ironically the leader
of Serbs of the self declared republic in Krajina, Milan Martic, was sentenced 35
years imprisonment by the UN tribunal in 2007.Martic was found guilty of war crimes
such as murder, persecution, forced displacement and destruction of life and property,
during his leadership from 1991 to 1995.
Listen to the full report
by regional correspondent Stefan Bos: