Croatian PM Plenkovic defends Croatian pilots accused of bombing Serb refugees: "That's not acceptable"

Photo: Tanjug/AP

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said today in Knin that Serbia's announced indictments against Croatian pilots are not acceptable to official Zagreb, especially because, as he stated, "they come from a country that launched aggression against Croatia and that does not recognize its responsibility in the criminal enterprise of Milosevic's regime."

Recommended

This was Plenkovic's message heard during the marking of the 27th anniversary of "Operation Storm," during which 250,000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia, while 2,000 were killed or remain missing to this day. His statement was welcomed with strong applause from those present at the Dinara stadium in Knin, reports Tanjug.

He said that there are repeated attempts to portray and accuse Croatia of expelling the Serb population from Croatian territory, which he claims is not true, and that it is known that the Serbs were encouraged to do so by the leadership from Belgrade.

"The government will firmly, as always, protect Croatian veterans, pilots and war (crimes) indictees and will not allow them to be called into question in any way or to accuse our war heroes," Plenkovic said.

He accused Serbia of not cooperating on what the called the issues of prosecution of war criminals, Croatian prisoners and the missing.

He assured that Croatia will work on cooperation and peace and will protect the rights of all national minorities, including the Serb ,whose representatives are in the Croatian parliament and government.

The Criminal Chamber of the Higher Court in Belgrade, the Department for War Crimes, on June 3 confirmed the indictment issued by the Prosecutor for War Crimes against the defendant Vladimir Mikac and others accused of committing war crimes against civilians during "Operation Storm."

While examining the indictment of the Prosecutor's Office, the extra procedural council decided that the evidence and data collected in the course of the proceedings so far provide sufficient basis for concluding that there is justified suspicion that the defendants took actions the indictment charges against them with, that is, that the necessary material conditions to raise an indictment in this case have been met.

(Telegraf.rs)