ZAGREB, March 5 (Hina) - The association of Croatian Homeland War veterans (UHVDR), on Sunday described the verdict in the Tihomir Blaskic case as a heavy blow of the international community to all Croatian soldiers who defended their
homeland as well as to the Republic of Croatia in view of the fact that General Blaskic surrendered voluntarily to The Hague in order to prove his innocence. UHVDR believed that this was a political verdict against an innocent man in order to make Croatia feel guilty for the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. This association along with non-governmental organisations, announced that at the coming 17th conference of the World Veteran Federation, which will take place in the coastal town of Pula, they would ask this respectable organisation to help protect innocent people and adopt a resolution in favour of just rather than political verdicts. An associ
ZAGREB, March 5 (Hina) - The association of Croatian Homeland War
veterans (UHVDR), on Sunday described the verdict in the Tihomir
Blaskic case as a heavy blow of the international community to all
Croatian soldiers who defended their homeland as well as to the
Republic of Croatia in view of the fact that General Blaskic
surrendered voluntarily to The Hague in order to prove his
innocence.
UHVDR believed that this was a political verdict against an
innocent man in order to make Croatia feel guilty for the collapse
of the former Yugoslavia.
This association along with non-governmental organisations,
announced that at the coming 17th conference of the World Veteran
Federation, which will take place in the coastal town of Pula, they
would ask this respectable organisation to help protect innocent
people and adopt a resolution in favour of just rather than
political verdicts.
An association, called the federation of volunteers of the Croatian
defence forces, viewed the verdict in the Blaskic case as
shameful.
Another association of volunteers from the Homeland War (UHDDR)
said the entire process and the shocking verdict in the Blaskic case
were obvious proof that the Hague-based International War Crimes
Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was politicised.
The UHDDR President Miro Laco on Sunday told reporters that the
introduction of the institution of 'objective liability' for times
when virtually there had been no possibilities for superiors in the
commanding chain to control the situation along all front lines was
an attempt to stigmatise all Croats in central Bosnia as criminals.
No one of us would like to justify any crime, Laco stressed, but this
association insists on the individualisation (of the guilt) and
sanctions accordingly, Laco added.
He claimed that central Bosnian Croat had gone to The Hague so that
the Croatian political elite could compensate its errors.
All those associations have called on their members to gather in
front of the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb at 0.4 pm Monday for a protest
rally in the wake of the Hague Tribunal's decision in the Blaskic
case.
(hina) ms