ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The amended indictment against retired Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina, which the war crimes tribunal in The Hague released on Monday, charges him with seven counts of crimes against humanity and war
crimes committed after 1995's Operation Storm, and of participation in a joint criminal enterprise whose goal was the forcible and permanent removal of the Serb population from the Krajina region.
ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The amended indictment against retired
Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina, which the war crimes tribunal in
The Hague released on Monday, charges him with seven counts of crimes
against humanity and war crimes committed after 1995's Operation
Storm, and of participation in a joint criminal enterprise whose goal
was the forcible and permanent removal of the Serb population from the
Krajina region.#L#
Unlike the initial indictment of June 2001, the amended one contains
one charge less, namely for murder as crime against humanity. Gotovina
is still charged with the killing of 150 people, and the indictment
focuses on 32 cases. The amended indictment says tens of thousands of
Serbs left Krajina after Operation Storm, while the initial indictment
spoke of between 150,000 and 200,000.
The amended indictment also accuses Gotovina of participation in a
joint criminal enterprise.
It says that during and in the wake of Operation Storm Gotovina,
alongside Ivan Cermak, Mladen Markac and the late Croatian President
Franjo Tudjman, participated in a joint criminal enterprise which was
aimed at the forcible and permanent removal of the Serb population
from Krajina.
This objective was achieved through plunder, the damaging or total
destruction of Serbs' property with a view to discouraging or
preventing them from returning to their homes and continuing to live
there, the amended indictment says.
Gotovina is accused on individual and command responsibility in his
capacity as commander of Croatian troops deployed during Operation
Storm in the south of Krajina, including the municipalities of
Benkovac, Gracac, Knin, Obrovac, Sibenik, Sinj and Zadar. The
indictment covers the period between 4 August and 15 November 1995.
In the first count Gotovina is charged on individual and command
responsibility with the persecution on religious, political and racial
grounds as a crime against humanity, which included the murder of at
least 150 Serbs.
The other six counts accuse him of murder, deportation and persecution
as well as other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity, and of
plunder, random destruction of towns and villages as violations of the
laws and customs of war.
The indictment says that Gotovina, as operations commander de facto
and de iure, commanded and controlled Croatian troops during and after
Operation Storm deployed in south Krajina.
He is charged on command responsibility with crimes committed by his
subordinates if, as the indictment says, he knew or had reason to know
that his subordinates were preparing to or committed crimes and as
their superior did not take the necessary measures to stop or punish
them. The indictment notes that international representatives kept
Gotovina up to date with the crimes committed by his troops.
(Hina) ha sb