Gotovina's defence on Thursday submitted to the UN court a confidential brief presenting its strategy. An edited version for the public, without the confidential data, was released later.
According to the brief submitted by attorney Luka Misetic, the Croatian government decided on 4 August 1995 that the Interior Ministry should assume responsibility for peace and order as towns were being liberated from rebel Serbs. On August 7, the government was notified that the Interior Ministry had assumed responsibility in all liberated areas and that the same day the Justice Ministry had said that it was functioning in the liberated areas.
The military was no longer responsible for maintaining peace and order, this became the responsibility of civilian authorities, the defence said, adding that the Interior Ministry had authority over members of the army.
The brief said that during and after Storm Gotovina had taken every reasonable step that an operational commander should take based on the law of war and the international humanitarian law, and that he had issued orders to his subordinates to prevent and stop crimes. The defence intends to prove that Gotovina did not have authority over the military police which had the authority to act with regard to perpetrators of crimes.
The defence dismissed as incorrect that representatives of the international community had been informing Gotovina of crimes, and stated that no Croatian institution responsible for maintaining peace and order in the liberated areas had ever requested Gotovina's help.
The brief said that the Hague tribunal's Office of the Prosecutor misinterpreted Croatian provisions when stating that Gotovina had authority for the immediate punishment of perpetrators.
The defence went on to say that Gotovina had been the commander of joined Croatian Army and Bosnian Croat Defence Council troops and that his headquarters for the entire time covered by the indictment was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and not in Knin as claimed by the Office of the Prosecutor.
The evidence will show that during the relevant time General Gotovina was engaged in Bosnia at the request of the Bosnian and US governments, the brief said, adding that Gotovina was ordered in early July 1995 to lead military operations in Bosnia with a view to defeating Ratko Mladic's troops.
The defence said that in the operational sense Gotovina ceased being the commander with regard to Knin on August 7.