I have asked for the investigation to establish how all that happened, Josipovic said in Zagreb on Wednesday, adding that the appearance of the Sveti Juraj group at the Split concert was "a potentially detrimental event".
Speaking to reporters at a NATO Land Commanders Conference in Zagreb, Josipovic said that Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and he had worked much on Croatia's credibility before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to see that something like that happened just ahead Croatia's admission to the European Union.
The president said that now it should be established whether all of that was just an unfortunate sequence of events.
The benefit concert was held in the southern coastal city of Split on Sunday evening the proceeds of which will be used for legal aid to Croatian generals on trial before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague and those being prosecuted in Croatia. The concert was organised by the Split-Dalmatia County branch of the Association of Croatian Disabled Veterans of the Homeland War (HVIDR) and the National Foundation for the Truth about the Homeland War under the auspices of the City of Split and Split-Dalmatia County. Seventy per cent of the proceeds will go towards legal aid for the Croatian generals on trial in The Hague and 30 per cent for those in detention in Croatia.
The Sveti Juraj group was founded in 2001 within the Croatian Navy with the aim of promoting the Croatian Armed Forces at international meetings of armies in Lourdes, the world-famous Marian shrine in France.