ZAGREB, March 28 (Hina) - After the testimony of General Petar Stipetic the Hague war crimes tribunal will have to reinvestigate its data about Stipetic's role in some Croatian Army operations he is suspected of, Stipetic's attorney
Cedo Prodanovic told reporters in Zagreb on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, March 28 (Hina) - After the testimony of General Petar
Stipetic the Hague war crimes tribunal will have to reinvestigate
its data about Stipetic's role in some Croatian Army operations he
is suspected of, Stipetic's attorney Cedo Prodanovic told
reporters in Zagreb on Wednesday. #L#
In the past two days Stipetic was testifying before representatives
of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) who are investigating crimes committed in the course of the
Croatian military operations 'Flash' and 'Storm' and in the Medak
Pocket area.
"This questioning has certainly provided the (ICTY) Prosecutor's
Office with data which will prompt it to reinvestigate its
information regarding the powers Mr. Stipetic had in certain
operations," Prodanovic told reporters after Stipetic completed
his testimony at a barracks in Zagreb's Selska Street.
General Stipetic, Croatian Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff, confirmed
to reporters that he had given his testimony to ICTY investigators
as a suspect.
"I have completed my testimony on the matters I have been accused
of... as a suspect in the Medak Pocket case, and 'Flash' and
'Storm'... we tried to describe my function and the way tasks were
carried out," Stipetic said.
"It was really exhausting and difficult but I have made it and I hope
we can be satisfied," Stipetic said.
Prodanovic said the testimony would continue after the
Government's Office for the Cooperation with the ICTY handed over
some documents requested by ICTY investigators.
"Once they have studied them, the next part of the testimony will
take place and Stipetic is ready to testify either as a suspect or,
now that we have presented new evidence, as an expert witness,"
Prodanovic said.
Present at the questioning along with Prodanovic was Orsat
Miljenic, head of the Government Office for the Cooperation with
the ICTY.
According to what has been reported so far, the ICTY investigators
are particularly interested in how Serb civilians got killed in the
Medak Pocket area in 1993 and in the Okucani-Gradiska and Dvor na
Uni areas during the operations 'Flash' and 'Storm'.
Upon entering the Medak Pocket area in September 1993, UN forces
found almost all houses and the bodies of 18 persons burnt and
judged that this was part of a 'scorched earth policy', carried out
by the Croatian army within an operation aimed at liberating the
area.
As regards the operation 'Flash', the Hague investigators are
reportedly particularly interested in the killing of civilians who
on May 1 and 2 were moving along a road from Okucani to Gradiska, in
an operation 'Storm' air attack on a column of Serb soldiers and
civilians near Dvor na Uni, and in other killings in the area.
The Stipetic media affair erupted last August after it was made
known that The Hague-based war crimes tribunal wanted to
interrogate the Croatian senior military official as a suspect.
(hina) rml