ZAGREB ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - Four intoxicated members of the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) pulled down and damaged the Wall of Pain in Zagreb on Monday afternoon, Zagreb police reported today.
ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - Four intoxicated members of the NATO-led
Stabilisation Force (SFOR) pulled down and damaged the Wall of Pain
in Zagreb on Monday afternoon, Zagreb police reported today. #L#
The Wall of Pain, which surrounds a military barracks on two sides
where international troops are located, was damaged at three
points, police spokeswoman Stanka Saraja said.
She added that the SFOR members had claimed immunity.
Full immunity to SFOR soldiers and partial immunity to civilian
employees in the international forces is provided by the Agreement
on the Status of International Forces which Croatia signed in
1995.
Police have said that they were continuing an investigation in
cooperation with a military police battalion.
The Wall of Pain was built by mothers of missing and imprisoned
soldiers and civilians in 1993, when the UNPROFOR was in the
barracks. The wall is built of bricks, black ones for those killed,
and red ones for those missing during the Homeland War.
The Croatian Veterans' Ministry on Tuesday denounced the act of
vandalism by international forces members.
SFOR headquarters are expected to appropriately punish the
perpetrator/s of this act, the Interior Ministry said.
An alliance of Croatian military war invalids (HVIDRA) on Tuesday
expressed its deep bitterness with the SFOR members' barbarous
act.
HVIDRA asked of the SFOR to punish most harshly the perpetrators of
the act, and of the states whose citizens were the perpetrators to
apologise to the Croatian people.
A spokesman for the SFOR in Bosnia, Yves Vanier, said in Sarajevo on
Tuesday that the SFOR was prepared to cooperate in the
investigation into the incident.
The SFOR wants the case to be fully solved, Vanier said, adding that
he expected firm evidence that SFOR members were involved in the
incident.
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