ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - Retired general Mirko Norac wants to be brought to justice but is prevented from doing so by people around him, a senior government official, who wanted to remain anonymous, told a news conference on Saturday.
Norac was contacted indirectly, namely through an attorney and an investigating judge with the Rijeka County Court, but his whereabouts remain unknown, the official said. An arrest warrant has been issued for Norac this week in connection with 1991 war crimes against Croatian Serb civilians in the central town of Gospic. The government official said Norac had departed Zagreb for the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka but that on the way he was taken into another direction. Norac is suspected in connection with direct and not commanding accountability, the official said. Norac has merits but is also suspected of direct participation in the killing of civilians, and it is up to the judic
ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - Retired general Mirko Norac wants to be
brought to justice but is prevented from doing so by people around
him, a senior government official, who wanted to remain anonymous,
told a news conference on Saturday.
Norac was contacted indirectly, namely through an attorney and an
investigating judge with the Rijeka County Court, but his
whereabouts remain unknown, the official said.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Norac this week in connection
with 1991 war crimes against Croatian Serb civilians in the central
town of Gospic.
The government official said Norac had departed Zagreb for the
northern Adriatic city of Rijeka but that on the way he was taken
into another direction.
Norac is suspected in connection with direct and not commanding
accountability, the official said. Norac has merits but is also
suspected of direct participation in the killing of civilians, and
it is up to the judiciary to establish the truth and the
circumstances, the official added.
Speaking about the structure of people surrounding the retired
general and what is happening in the field, the official said
organised crime had a hand in the latest developments.
The government is in possession of information to the effect that
somebody has paid 82,000 kuna ($9,880) for a train which will
transport people from Zagreb to a protest rally in support of Norac,
announced for Sunday in the Adriatic city of Split, about 300km
south of the capital, said the official.
The government will allow every rally and police have been
instructed to help with the organisation, including that of the
Sunday rally in Split, he added.
The official said road blocks, however, were not allowed. Those
setting them up give legitimacy to people who were subverting the
Croatian state in the 1990s, he stressed.
He added an intensive connection had been established between the
Croatian Democratic Union, the strongest opposition party, and
what was happening at the moment.
The government official also pointed to the big economic damage the
road blocks were causing but said no decisions had been made yet on
measures to remove them. This will be done if it is established that
the road blocks endanger the normal functioning of the state, he
said, but added he was confident common sense would prevail and that
the protests would take the direction of legal ways of expression.
(hina) ha sb