KARLOVAC, Feb 12 (Hina) - Miljan Strunjas, indicted for war crimes against civilians in the area of Slunj in 1991, was put on retrial at the Karlovac County Court on Wednesday.
KARLOVAC, Feb 12 (Hina) - Miljan Strunjas, indicted for war crimes
against civilians in the area of Slunj in 1991, was put on retrial at
the Karlovac County Court on Wednesday. #L#
In February 2002, a panel of judges presided by judge Mladen Kosijer
sentenced Strunjas to 12 years in prison, but the Supreme Court
quashed the decision in October and ruled a retrial with the
explanation that the indictment was not precise.
County prosecutor Ljubica Fiskus Sumonja changed a part of the
indictment in line with the Supreme Court's ruling. The defendant's
attorney Anto Nobilo today requested that judge Kosijer be exempt
from the trial because he was born in the Slunj area. The trial was
adjourned and is expected to resume in March.
The definition of war crimes against civilians in the indictment
has remained the same but the indictment is no longer based on
Protocol 2 of the Geneva Convention, which defined the war in
Croatia as a non-international conflict.
The changed indictment is based on Protocol 1 under which all crimes
committed since October 8, 1991, when the Croatian parliament
adopted a decision on the country's secession from Yugoslavia, are
considered war crimes and the conflict an international one. Under
the same protocol, Strunjas, a commander of units of the so-called
Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina, should have prevented the
persecution of civilians.
Attorney Nobilo said Strunjas's conviction would be the first case
where a commander is punished not for ordering, but for failing to
prevent his subordinates from committing crimes and to punish
them.
Nobilo said that the verdict did not distinguish between direct and
command responsibility and that it did not provide an explanation
as to which regulations of the Geneva Conventions his client had
violated.
(hina) rml