The report, which was released on the web site of the human rights organisation today, reads that almost ten years after the end of the 1991-1995 armed conflict in the country, the Croatian authorities have failed to address fully war-related human rights violations and to bring those responsible to justice. There continues to be widespread impunity for crimes committed in that period by members of the Croatian Army and police forces against Croatian Serbs, Amnesty International said.
"The Ministry is surprised with the assessment of the work of the Croatian judiciary and the prosecution of war crimes," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry believes that AI's information is contrary to information and reports of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the president of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Theodor Meron, who have positively assessed the work of the Croatian judiciary and pointed to considerable progress in the prosecution of war crimes.
"In making such assessments, one has to take into account the historical and political context which resulted in the fact that a war of aggression was waged in Croatia, that some areas of Croatia were temporarily occupied and that Croatia led a defensive war to liberate those areas," the ministry said, adding that this context made it understandable why in previous years the number of Serbs tried for war crimes was higher than the number of Croats.
The ministry also states that the proof of efforts by the Croatian judiciary is the fact that after Operation "Storm" 3,792 persons were indicted for various crimes, including war crimes.
"The Justice Ministry does not question the fact that crimes have no nationality and that Croats too committed crimes during the Homeland War, but it also believes that insisting only on the nationality of perpetrators, that is, on the ratio of trials launched against possible perpetrators depending on their nationality, can create a wrong impression about the objectivity of the Croatian judiciary."
The AI report on Croatia was published on the same day European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss setting a date for the start of Croatia-EU membership talks.
AI recalls in its report the division in the European Union regarding Croatia, with Great Britain leading countries which make the start of the membership talks conditional on full cooperation with the UN tribunal, and Germany as the country advocating a scenario according to which EU foreign ministers to attend a summit in Brussels later this week would set an early date for the start of entry talks (in March or April 2005) without setting any specific conditions.