ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina) - The government does not bring into question its further cooperation with the Hague-based tribunal, but the government finds that the failure of the tribunal's indictment against Janko Bobetko to be in
compliance with the Croatian constitution is in its description of the context of the military action in the Medak Pocket, in the description of the basic criminal act and in the description of the character of that act, a Deputy Prime Minister, Goran Granic, said in the parliament on Friday.
ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina) - The government does not bring into question
its further cooperation with the Hague-based tribunal, but the
government finds that the failure of the tribunal's indictment
against Janko Bobetko to be in compliance with the Croatian
constitution is in its description of the context of the military
action in the Medak Pocket, in the description of the basic criminal
act and in the description of the character of that act, a Deputy
Prime Minister, Goran Granic, said in the parliament on Friday.
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At the beginning of the parliamentary discussion on the
implementation of the constitutional law on cooperation with the UN
war crimes tribunal following the issuance of the tribunal's
indictment against Bobetko, Granic explained about which sections
of the indictment the government would ask the Constitutional Court
to give its opinion and assess whether they were in compliance with
the Constitution.
The government believes that the context of the indictment claims
that there was the conflict between Croatian Serbs and the Croatian
military forces and that it was "Croatia's attack on the Republic of
Serb Krajina and on the civilian population."
This was used for drawing a conclusion, Granic said, that the Medak
Pocket military action was planned, prepared and carried out with
the objective of the persecution of Serb civilians on a political,
racial and religious basis.
Granic stressed that the Constitution defined Croatia as "a unitary
and indivisible" state and the Medak Pocket operation had referred
to a part of the Croatian territory where there had been
terrorists.
The Constitution binds the country's Armed Forces to protect
sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Croatia, he
added.
The army chief-of-staff, and Gen. Bobetko held this office at the
time of the Medak Pocket action, had the constitutional and legal
obligation to launch that military action to liberate the Croatian
territory, protect the property and people in the said area, Granic
told MPs.
He said that 88 persons had lost their lives in that anti-terrorist
action, and 71 percent of the victims were military persons and 29
percent civilians.
That is why the government will ask the Constitutional Court to give
its opinion on that section of the indictment.
He recalled that the Sabor had ordered that Croatia's duty was also
to punish war crimes perpetrators.
"How much have we, as a law-based country, succeeded in tackling
this issue?" Granic asked.
He added that to the disguising of war crimes was possible through a
failure to act and a failure to create a serious and responsible
atmosphere in society as well as through inefficiency of those
whose duty was to process war crimes.
(hina) ms sb