ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - The leaders of Croatian political parties gave different comments on the sentences the Hague war crimes tribunal imposed on Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez on Monday, sentencing them to 25 and 15 years in prison
respectively. The latest sentences confirm that the Hague tribunal is a political institution and that it applies different criteria, is one of the comments. Some politicians expressed hope the sentences would be lessened before a court of the second instance. No punishment would be adequate for people who are responsible for the massacre of one hundred innocent civilians in Ahmici, Istrian Democratic Assembly's (IDS) Damir Kajin said. Kajin believes it is becoming transparent that the Hague tribunal has become a political institution because, he says, it cannot be possible that Tihomir Blaskic is sentenced to 45 years in prison while those responsible for the Ahmici massacre r
ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - The leaders of Croatian political parties
gave different comments on the sentences the Hague war crimes
tribunal imposed on Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez on Monday,
sentencing them to 25 and 15 years in prison respectively.
The latest sentences confirm that the Hague tribunal is a political
institution and that it applies different criteria, is one of the
comments. Some politicians expressed hope the sentences would be
lessened before a court of the second instance.
No punishment would be adequate for people who are responsible for
the massacre of one hundred innocent civilians in Ahmici, Istrian
Democratic Assembly's (IDS) Damir Kajin said.
Kajin believes it is becoming transparent that the Hague tribunal
has become a political institution because, he says, it cannot be
possible that Tihomir Blaskic is sentenced to 45 years in prison
while those responsible for the Ahmici massacre receive a much
smaller penalty.
Croatian Party of Rights' (HSP) Anto Djapic says the verdicts are
better than expected. It has been proven again, he says, that the
Hague tribunal is a political institution because this is a
political verdict, given the harsh qualifications by the Hague
prosecution. It is indeed good that Kordic and Cerkez were not
sentenced to life imprisonment because their verdicts may be
mitigated before a court of the second instance, he said.
Liberal Party's (LS) Zlatko Kramaric thinks one could say, without
being cynical, that the verdicts are almost good news.
Kramaric hopes that after these verdicts it will be possible to
reconsider and change the sentence handed down in the trial of
Croatian Defence Council (HVO) general Tihomir Blaskic.
Croatian Social Liberal Party's (HSLS) secretary-general Dorica
Nikolic believes the sentences are too harsh.
The head of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) parliamentary
bench, Vladimir Seks, is appalled at the severity of the sentences.
Seks believes Kordic and Cerkez are innocent and that the will be
acquitted before the court of the second instance.
Democratic Centre (DC) vice-president Vesna Skare Ozbolt thinks
the sentences are unquestionably harsh but she also believes Kordic
and Cerkez, as well as general Blaskic, will manage to prove before
the court of the second instance all the claims of their defence,
which dismissed all counts of their indictments.
The latest verdicts are not drastic and show that the Hague tribunal
is gradually giving up the broad interpretation of superior
responsibility for crimes against humanity, said a parliamentary
deputy speaker and high Social Democratic Party (SDP) official,
Zdravko Tomac.
He believes the verdicts are a half-way solution because they will
not satisfy the organisers of protest rallies but neither provide
the impetus they would provide if they were life sentences. The
authorities have done much in cooperating with the Hague tribunal,
protecting national interests without entering unnecessary
conflicts with the international community, he believes.
The president of the Headquarters for the Protection of the Dignity
of the Homeland War, Lieutenant Mirko Condic, believes the
sentences pronounced today by the Hague tribunal are a sentence to
the Croat people, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"The political tribunal in The Hague wants to proclaim the victim
the aggressor," Condic said.
The Hague war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) today
reached verdicts in the trial of a former vice-president of the
Croat Community of Herceg-Bosna, Dario Kordic, and a former
commander of the Vitez brigade Mario Cerkez. The gravest charge in
their indictment is responsibility for the massacre of one hundred
Muslim civilians in the central Bosnian village of Ahmici in April
1993. Both men were charged with individual and superior
responsibility for crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the
Geneva Conventions and the law and customs of war.
(hina) sb rml