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Serbian officials comment on Croatian generals' acquittal

Autor: half
BELGRADE, Nov 16 (Hina) - The executive manager of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre, Natasa Kandic, said on Friday the Hague war crimes tribunal's acquittal of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac "didn't bring justice to the victims" but clearly stated that "there's no responsibility on Croatia's part, there's no joint criminal enterprise and there's no responsibility on their part either."

Speaking to Hina, Kandic said today's ruling by the appeals chamber "disproved the concept of a joint criminal enterprise with regard to Croatia, but one wonders about the many other sentences for participation in a joint criminal enterprise."

Kandic mentioned Judge Meron's conclusion that Gotovina did not take part in the adoption of discriminatory regulations that would have prevented Serbs from returning to Croatia, but said the appeals chamber "disregarded that discriminatory laws are part of a consistent policy, defined and preserved in the Brijuni transcripts and carried out in practice."

She said the crimes committed during and after the 1995 Operation Storm were grave, yet the "ruling reduced them to isolated incidents, so no one will reproach Croatia for not trying war crimes against Serbs."

The head of Serbia's National Council for cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic, said the tribunal "lost all credibility" with the acquittal of Gotovina and Markac.

He said the ruling would not impact Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal but added that the tribunal had not fulfilled its goal, which was to help establish the truth and reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia and ensure moral satisfaction for the victims' families.

Ljajic accused the tribunal of selective justice, saying it made no sense that although nobody denied that crimes were committed during Operation Storm, no one had been held to account yet.

He said Serbia had fulfilled all of its obligations towards the tribunal.

The head of the Veritas Documentation and Research Centre, Savo Strbac, said the acquittal would encourage Croatia to keep on not dealing with "the property, political and all other rights" of Serbs expelled in Operation Storm.

Speaking to Serbian media, he said today's ruling "looks more like a political pamphlet than the ruling of an international court."

Strbac said "this is Meron's ruling. He's American and it's clear he acquitted Gotovina", commending Croatian diplomats for their lobbying efforts.

He said this was the end of the Hague tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, describing the acquittal as "scandalous and shocking ... something not even the most optimistic Croats could have anticipated."

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