SIROKA KULA, April 15 (Hina) - We are not against the establishment of the truth but we ask that Hague Tribunal investigators bring perpetrators of crimes against Croats in Siroka Kula, Lovinac, Podlapaca and Bukovac (a broader Gospic
area) to justice as well, said protesters at a rally in Siroka Kula (some 10 kilometres of the town of Gospic, central Croatia), on Saturday. The rally, which drew about 1,000 people, was staged in Siroka Kula following the recent arrival of ICTY (International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia) investigators in Gospic who are to launch a probe into alleged mass graves of Serb victims. ICTY representatives have been conducting preparations and marking possible sites of mass graves in the Gospic area for seven days in order to investigate allegations about killings of Serb civilians in 1991. Families of killed Croats and the village's leaders organised th
SIROKA KULA, April 15 (Hina) - We are not against the establishment
of the truth but we ask that Hague Tribunal investigators bring
perpetrators of crimes against Croats in Siroka Kula, Lovinac,
Podlapaca and Bukovac (a broader Gospic area) to justice as well,
said protesters at a rally in Siroka Kula (some 10 kilometres of the
town of Gospic, central Croatia), on Saturday.
The rally, which drew about 1,000 people, was staged in Siroka Kula
following the recent arrival of ICTY (International War Crimes
Tribunal for former Yugoslavia) investigators in Gospic who are to
launch a probe into alleged mass graves of Serb victims. ICTY
representatives have been conducting preparations and marking
possible sites of mass graves in the Gospic area for seven days in
order to investigate allegations about killings of Serb civilians
in 1991.
Families of killed Croats and the village's leaders organised the
protest rally on Saturday afternoon to express their requests for
investigations of mass graves where Croats were buried.
Recalling Croat victims in the defence of the country against the
Serbian aggression, organisers of the rally forwarded an open
letter to top Croatian officials and the Hague-based Tribunal's
Prosecution, insisting on bringing perpetrators of crimes against
Croat to justice.
"During the Homeland War in 1991 Chetniks (Serb nationalist rebels)
killed 29 Croats and five (5) Serbs who opposed the war and the
policy of a Greater Serbia," said Stipan Niksic, a local resident on
behalf of families of Croat casualties.
The Siroka Kula protest rally was supported by authorities of the
town of Gospic and Lika-Senj County, representatives of
association of Homeland War veterans, a delegation of the Croatian
association of political prisoners - victims of Communism and the
head of the Croatian Victimological Society.
(hina) ms