SARAJEVO, April 2 (Hina) - Commenting on Friday on the latest indictments from the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal against five Bosnian Croat wartime leaders, nearly all daily newspapers and weeklies in Sarajevo agree that the
indictments might finally shed light on Croatia's role in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
SARAJEVO, April 2 (Hina) - Commenting on Friday on the latest
indictments from the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal against five
Bosnian Croat wartime leaders, nearly all daily newspapers and
weeklies in Sarajevo agree that the indictments might finally shed
light on Croatia's role in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.#L#
The press in the Bosnian capital believes that a sixth indictment has
been issued against Branko Kvesic, former interior minister of the
self-styled Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna, rather than Bozo Rajic
or Berislav Pusic as has been previously speculated.
The Oslobodjenje daily quoted an unnamed source in the Muslim-Croat
Federation government as saying that an indictment against Kvesic had
already been sent to Sarajevo. Kvesic and Federation government
officials declined comment on the allegation.
Kvesic had worked for the Yugoslav State Security Service until the
war started, when he escaped from Sarajevo to Herzegovina, allegedly
taking with him an important collection of microfilms containing
valuable dossiers. Soon after that he became a close aide to
Herceg-Bosna president Mate Boban.
The largest circulation daily, Dnevni Avaz, said that the indictments
meant "justice for Mostar". "With the departure of the chief followers
of the policy of (the late Croatian president) Franjo Tudjman and (the
late Croatian defence minister) Gojko Susak for The Hague, the
illusions of dividing Bosnia-Herzegovina have finally been burnt," the
newspaper said.
"The indictments issued by the Hague tribunal also confirmed that the
Dretelj, Heliodrom, Gabela and other camps had existed, that someone
had fired hundreds of thousands of shells on Stolac, Mostar and Gornji
Vakuf, that the Old Bridge had been destroyed, that hundreds of
thousands of people had not left their homes because they wanted to
and that many were still searching for their dead."
Dnevni Avaz also said that the indictments had confirmed the
involvement of troops from Croatia in the Bosnian war and that this
allegation should finally be clarified.
The Jutarnje Novine daily said that if the above allegation was proved
to be true, Bosnia-Herzegovina should sue Croatia for aggression and
genocide, just as it had Serbia and Montenegro, and demand war
reparations.
The Slobodna Bosna weekly concluded that the five indictments were
"the gravest charges yet against the regime of Franjo Tudjman, who is
blamed along with Gojko Susak and Mate Boban for creating a criminal
organisation in Herzegovina for the purposes of ethnic cleansing and
annexing it to Croatia."
The Dani weekly said that the trial of the five former senior Bosnian
Croat political and military officials -- Jadranko Prlic, Milivoj
Petkovic, Slobodan Praljak, Mile Stojic and Valentin Coric -- along
with the already started proceedings against Bosnian Army generals for
crimes committed in Herzegovina, would help shed light on "the whole
dimension of what was known as the Croatian-Bosniak (Muslim)
conflict." "In other words, the indictments against the entire
military and political leadership of the Croatian Republic of
Herceg-Bosna should put an end to recriminations and the truth
established by the court should come to light."
(Hina) vm sb