The Hague against Croats: You are still accepting the crimes you have committed

The officials of the Hague tribunal criticized the recent reactions of the Croatian government and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to the recent verdict against the six former leaders of so-called "Herzeg-Bosnia" on the meeting of UN. They say from the Hague Tribunal that this is the case of "undermining the court" and the evidence that the "crimes are still accepted". 

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Official Zagreb fiercely criticized a final verdict against Bosnian and Herzegovinian Croat military and political leaders, who were sentenced to 111-years in prison for crimes against Muslims on November 29.

The sentence of the judges is unacceptable for Croatia that it was international conflict and that Croatian leadership at the time participated in the criminal plan of ethnic cleansing of Muslims, reminds Hina.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

The announcement of the verdict was overshadowed by the suicide of Slobodan Praljak in the courtroom, who drank cyanide after he has heard that he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

The president of the Tribunal Carmel Agius, at the meeting in United Nations, dedicated to the end of the work life of the Hague Tribunal, organized by Italy, Uruguay, and Netherlands said that the appeal sentence was "made in circumstances that were stressful for all of us".

- It is sad that some used the tragic situation to undermine the court and its verdicts - said Agius, not mentioning Praljak nor the government in Zagreb. Agius was the president of the Appeals Chambers and the judge who read the verdict in the case Prlic and others, the last one before closing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the end of 2017. 

The tribunal chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz believes that the "irony" of the whole case is that the verdict reverberated in the world precisely because of the events in the courtroom, and the committed crimes and hundreds of thousands of victims who suffered from the misdoings of the convicted six were given much greater significance. 

Foto: Tanjug/AP

- We saw very negative reactions in Croatia and Croatian parts of BiH that still persist - said Brammertz.

Pointing out that the prosecutors and judges emphasized that they were indicting individuals, not nations and states, Brammertz said that "it is obvious that we have not successfully transmitted this message and that the acceptance of crimes is a problem everywhere." For this reason, he thinks that all the findings collected in the 24-year work of the court are one of his most important legacies.

- Verdicts, archives, more than 4,000 witness statements, more than 10 million pages of documents related to wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, opinions of experts ... all will be a reminder to those who deny the crimes that glorify war criminals. All those who want the truth can look at these bases - emphasized Brammertz.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

According to him, many politicians reject the concept of a joint criminal enterprise as legally unfounded, and they do not understand it at all.

Saying that it exists in other international courts, as well as in some national legislation, he said that it was "a very effective tool that our office used to bring leaders criminally responsible for crimes committed by the military, police or paramilitary forces under their jurisdiction control".

- Thanks to this theory, we determined that the war in Bosnia was not only a civil war, but that Belgrade, but also Zagreb had a role in crimes in BiH, which was an international armed conflict - concluded Brammertz.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Tanjug)