Their comments came after the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Carla del Ponte, proposed on Wednesday that the trial of Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin, also known as the Vukovar Three, should be referred to courts in Croatia or Serbia and Montenegro.
The crimes were committed in Croatia and should be tried in Croatia. Serbia and Montenegro had nearly a decade to put the three men on trial, but failed to do so. This fact shows that it would make no sense to refer the trial to the Serbian judiciary, said Dragutin Lesar of the Croatian People's Party (HNS).
On the other hand, Vlado Jukic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) could see no sense in the trial taking place in Croatia. They are not Croatian citizens, they committed crimes on Croatian soil as members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Since it is one of the worst crimes committed in the past war, it would be logical that they were tried by the ICTY. The referral of the case to the Serbian judiciary would mean lack of respect for the victims, he said.
Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) leader Ivan Cehok said he was confident that the Croatian judiciary was capable of ensuring a fair and unbiassed trial and that Serbian courts were not yet ready for that.
Liberal Party (LS) deputy Zlatko Kramaric said that he would not go into assessment whether or not the Serbian judiciary was capable of conducting the trial, but that he believed that the Serbian nation was not yet ready for the trial because it had not gone through the necessary catharsis and the process of denazification.
Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic of the strongest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that it would be best to refer the case to Croatian courts because Croatian judges had received the necessary training and were better prepared for trying war crimes and because Croatia had demonstrated the need for such trials.
The trial should be conducted in Croatia also for the sake of the sense of justice and reverence for the victims from Vukovar, because it has been the practice lately for war crimes to be tried in countries where they were committed, Anticevic-Marinovic said.
Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) said that courts in Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro had not yet demonstrated their readiness to accept such challenges, but added that they would have to become capable of trying the remaining war crimes cases and to cooperate in this field.
Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin are charged with executions of more than 200 Croatian prisoners of war on the Ovcara farm on November 20, 1991, which qualify as crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war. The three are in the custody of the Hague tribunal.
A separate panel of ICTY judges will decide on del Ponte's proposal after considering all the arguments of the prosecution, defence counsel, and representatives of the government of Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro.