ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The association of special police who fought in the Homeland War on Monday fully supported its war-time commander Mladen Markac, stressing that the general was not a war criminal and that he did not carry out
ethnic cleansing, which the ICTY has charged him with.
ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The association of special police who fought
in the Homeland War on Monday fully supported its war-time commander
Mladen Markac, stressing that the general was not a war criminal and
that he did not carry out ethnic cleansing, which the ICTY has charged
him with. #L#
"We know that you are innocent and we are confident that you will
return to your homeland Croatia honorably and very soon," association
president Zeljko Sacic said.
Sacic said at a news conference that during the Homeland War "we never
received verbal or written command from General Markac which would
encourage violating international humanitarian law, the law of war or
the Croatian Constitution and laws".
On the contrary, the war-time command of the Interior Ministry's
special police and General Markac himself gave commands to strictly
respect all norms of the international humanitarian law and the law of
war, as wells as the norms of Croatia's legal system, Sacic said.
General Markac is not a war criminal nor did he carry out ethnic
cleansing, Sacic said. He is a modest and courageous Croatian patriot,
humanist, a man with a great heart, ready to sacrifice himself for his
friends and the entire Croatian people," Markac's fellow-fighters
said.
"This trial is not aimed only against Croatian generals. This is a
legal battle for the truth about the Homeland War, a battle for
Croatia which was the victim of a brutal aggression that was stopped
by the courage of Croatian Homeland war soldiers," Sacic said,
stressing that the association also supported generals Ante Gotovina,
Rahim Ademi and Ivan Cermak, also indicted by the ICTY.
(Hina) it sb