RIJEKA, April 13 (Hina) - Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) vice-president and member of Parliament Damir Kajin has said that the tape recorded at a meeting between General Ante Gotovina and Croatian military commanders in Knin on 6
August 1995 will considerably aggravate the position of General Ivan Cermak, who is in the custody of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, and that it blames political structures for the killings and the burning and looting of property that occurred in the wake of Operation Storm.
RIJEKA, April 13 (Hina) - Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS)
vice-president and member of Parliament Damir Kajin has said that the
tape recorded at a meeting between General Ante Gotovina and Croatian
military commanders in Knin on 6 August 1995 will considerably
aggravate the position of General Ivan Cermak, who is in the custody
of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, and that it blames
political structures for the killings and the burning and looting of
property that occurred in the wake of Operation Storm.#L#
"Only naive people can think that (tribunal chief prosecutor) Carla
del Ponte has finished the story of indictments for Croatia after the
emergence of this tape," Kajin told a press conference in the northern
Adriatic city of Rijeka on Tuesday, adding that he believed that the
Hague tribunal would now bring charges against politicians and not
soldiers.
Kajin said that Britain's opposition to a positive opinion on
Croatia's EU membership application until fugitive General Ante
Gotovina surrendered to the tribunal could not not bring into question
the publication of the opinion, but that it could jeopardise the start
of talks on Croatia's admission to the EU.
He said that the appearance of the tape showed that intelligence and
military elements were trying to settle accounts with the government
and that the government was sacrificing soldiers to protect itself.
Kajin said that killings and the burning and looting of property began
after 8 August 1995 when the so-called Sector South and Sector North
were administered by civilian and police authorities, and that after 6
August 1995 General Gotovina was responsible for Bosnia-Herzegovina
and was no longer in Croatia. He nevertheless stressed that the only
place where Gotovina could defend himself was the Hague tribunal.
Gotovina is charged by the tribunal with involvement during and after
Operation Storm in "a joint criminal enterprise" aimed at removing the
Serb population from the Krajina region by force.
(Hina) vm