"Why are you halting us again?," the NGOs said in the open letter, which Marija Sliskovic read at a news conference in Zagreb on Tuesday.
They recalled that at the start of 1991, when the Serbian aggression against Croatia was being prepared, they asked the international community to prevent the conflict. However, many messages were neither understood nor supported and the war brought destruction and suffering, they said.
The women-witnesses said they would ask for a meeting with the ICTY President, Theodor Meron, and Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, to present them with relevant documents and acquaint them with the fact that the war in Croatia did not start in 1995.
They also wonder whether Del Ponte will resign in case it is proved that the fugitive General Ante Gotovina is not in Croatia.
"We sincerely and resolutely support the position that each crime must be punished, but we are against any indictment which denies the right of the Croatian people and its leadership to defend themselves against the Serbian armed aggression or their right to liberate the country's occupied areas," read the letter.
Zdenka Farkas from the Apel association recalled that Croatia was still searching for 1,168 persons who went missing in the war. So far, 140 mass graves have been unearthed, she said, accusing the United Nations of failing to prevent the aggression against Croatia. However, she thanked international representatives who have helped Croatia.