"There was great pressure to put somebody in detention, the police were under pressure to make somebody out as murderers... The police threatened to send us to The Hague, saying that Croatia would never be admitted to the EU," said Perkovic, a former soldier who was charged with the killing of Serb villagers in Gosic and Varivode in August 1995, but was later acquitted.
The witness did not say who had exerted pressure on the police, nor did he explain how trials for crimes committed during the August 1995 Operation Storm were connected with plans for Croatia's entry into the European Union years before Zagreb applied for EU membership.
A court in the coastal city of Zadar acquitted Perkovic and three of his fellow soldiers of the war crimes charges in 1996. The proceedings were later dealt with by a court in Sibenik, and six years later the prosecutor dropped the charges due to lack of evidence.
The witness today accused the police in Zadar of having abused him physically and mentally in order to force him to admit his guilt because "they were ordered to process crimes".
"Neither the police nor the judiciary did their job the way they should have and they are still not doing it because there are still no verdicts for Gosic and Varivode," Perkovic said, adding that he was forced to leave the army while he was under investigation.
Perkovic said that in no case did any of his commanders order him to commit crimes. Quite the contrary, the commanders insisted all the time on the protection of civilians, the witness said.
The ICTY indicted Gotovina and two other generals, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, for war crimes their troops committed during Operation Storm when the Croatian Army retook central and southern Croatian areas from rebel Serbs.