"We are outraged by the fact that former members of 'Beli Orlovi' and reservists from Trebinje, pilots and others, who were convicted in Croatia (of war crimes) and then released in line with the Amnesty Law or were exchanged, have turned into credible witnesses in the trial against Croatian military policemen," a local leader of war veterans, Miro Moro, said at the rally.
Beli Orlovi (White Eagles) were notorious Serb paramilitary units, while the town of Trebinje in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina was perceived a stronghold of local Serb nationalists.
Moro announced protest rallies on a large scale and said that "Split's Riva can reoccur," alluding to a 2000 protest rally in that Adriatic city when tens of thousands people gathered in support to retired Croatian General Mirko Norac, who was later convicted of war crimes in Gospic.
Moro rejected objections that this rally could be interpreted as a form of pressure on the judiciary.
He countered with a statement that Nenad Puhovski was the first to exert pressure on the judiciary in Split with his documentary on Lora war crimes which claims, Moro said, that as many as 70 Serb civilians were killed in Lora.