ZAGREB, Oct 2 (Hina) - The Civic Committee for Human Rights (GOLJP) on Monday said last Thursday's open letter of 12 generals and the September 22 message of Roman Catholic Bishops were in the function of blaming incumbent Croatian
authorities for the criminalisation of the Homeland Defence War. According to GOLJP's opinion, which it published in Monday's letter, the reason for those two messages is the apprehension of some persons who participated in the Homeland Defence War and who are suspects of having committed war crimes during the war. The 12 generals called on the public and institutions to resist the tarnishing of the war. The bishops in their message called on political subjects not to take any step which might jeopardise the state or diminish the war's victims and sacrifice. According to the GOLJP, both messages contain immoral and hypocritical segments. The criminalisation of the Homeland War
ZAGREB, Oct 2 (Hina) - The Civic Committee for Human Rights (GOLJP)
on Monday said last Thursday's open letter of 12 generals and the
September 22 message of Roman Catholic Bishops were in the function
of blaming incumbent Croatian authorities for the criminalisation
of the Homeland Defence War.
According to GOLJP's opinion, which it published in Monday's
letter, the reason for those two messages is the apprehension of
some persons who participated in the Homeland Defence War and who
are suspects of having committed war crimes during the war.
The 12 generals called on the public and institutions to resist the
tarnishing of the war. The bishops in their message called on
political subjects not to take any step which might jeopardise the
state or diminish the war's victims and sacrifice.
According to the GOLJP, both messages contain immoral and
hypocritical segments.
The criminalisation of the Homeland War should have been opposed
when the crimes were committed. The authors of the two messages or
their institutions did not give statements then, but individuals
from their groups took initiative in the public condemnation of
anybody who warned about the crimes at the time, read the letter
signed by GOLJP President Zoran Pusic.
The GOLJP says the only way to de-criminalise the Homeland Defence
War is by condemning that part of the war which represents
aggression against the neighbouring country (Bosnia-
Herzegovina), as well as by prosecuting the perpetrators of war
crimes and robberies who blemished the Croatian Armed Forces' (HV)
reputation.
All of this is too evident for the bishops and the generals not to
realise.
To assert the opposite is either a deliberate distortion of the
truth or an inability to realise that the separation of individual
crimes from the defence character of the war is a debt to justice and
the majority of those who took part in the war, the committee
added.
The GOLJP said it supported the right of every citizen to express
their political stands and write open letters to the public. This
right, however, formally cannot be applied to the police and the
army as they are not allowed to do so by law and as they, for instance
high-ranking officers, can be tempted to use arms for the wrong
purpose.
(hina) jn ms