"The fact that the recordings were released on the 11th anniversary of Operation Storm shows that this is an attempt to tarnish Storm," Kalinic said in an interview in the central news broadcast on Croatian Television on Tuesday.
"On the other hand, we know that in light of the events in the Middle East, Muslim operations are not regarded highly in the world, so this could be an attempt to postpone or eliminate for good the possibility of revising the Dayton peace agreement," Kalinic said, adding that with Bosnia-Herzegovina structured as it was now, it would be impossible to establish a lasting peace in the country.
Commenting on the role of the commander of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina Fifth Corps, Atif Dudakovic, whom the Serbian media have accused of ordering crimes committed during Operation Storm, Kalinic said that the Croatian judiciary did not have jurisdiction over Dudakovic's actions on Bosnian territory.
"But, the Croatian judiciary must definitely investigate what Dudakovic did as commander of the JNA artillery in Zadar in 1991".
Asked if he could say whether the recordings were authentic, Kalinic said that their authenticity could be checked by competent services.
The Croatian State Prosecutor's Office said in a statement on Monday that it requested the Ministry of the Interior to establish all relevant facts after it had received a recording showing military activities of the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina Fifth Corps in the villages of Gornji Zirovac and Donji Zirovac near Dvor na Uni.
The Ministry of the Interior today launched an investigation into the case.
Commenting on the amateur video-recordings showing alleged crimes committed after Operation Storm in the summer of 1995, Croatian government spokesman Ratko Macek told Hina on Monday that it was evident from the section of the recording showing the crimes that Croatian Army members were not involved in them and that the recording had been made somewhere in Bosnia.