Documenta – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: Luka Misetic Responds As Serb Denials Of Crimes Take New Form

August 2, 2015 by inavukic 45 Comments

Luka Misetic
Photo: Davor Puklavec/PIXSELL

Well, July was a disquieting month for justice at the UN Security Council. Serbia’s lobby with Russia had resulted in Russia’s veto on the British instigated motion to call the 1995 Srebrenica massacres genocide! And so, the verdicts delivered by the UN Security Council appointed International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) officially became as valuable and as respected as a veto of one member state of the Security Council is worth! Denials can take one far these days, it seems!

In line with the appalling Serb denials of genocide and the horrendous crimes they committed in the aggression against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1990’s it was to be expected that Croatian Serbs and their wicked supporters were going to stage some outrageous display of denials ahead of the 20th Anniversary of Operation Storm that liberated Croatia from Serb occupation and aggression in August of 1995; just as they did with the 20th commemoration of Srebrenica genocide in July.

And so, it came – the ugly beast of denials, political corruption, lies and attempts to pervert the truth in the form of launching an interactive narrative named “Storm in the Hague” (webpage)! Those responsible for this launch on Friday 31 July 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia, are the Documenta association in Croatia (an organisation supposedly dealing with confronting the truth of history but in reality twists that history to promote bias and lies against Croatia), the Serbian National Council (led by Milorad Pupovac) and, as I and multitudes see it, the ultimately biased and politically corrupt SENSE Agency – Centre for transitional justice.

The ICTY concluded the following:
1. There was no Joint Criminal Enterprise from the Croatian side.
2. Krajina Serbs were not deported from Croatia by the Croatian
authorities but left Croatia out of other reasons
not associated with any Croatian officials’
illegal behaviour;
3. Not only that the Croatian authorities did not permit crimes
against
Serbs and Serbs’ property,
but they were actively
against those crimes;
4. It’s confirmed that 20,000 houses were not burned
after Operation Storm. The number is probably closer to 5,000,
and that, in both Sectors, North and South.
5. The judgment has found that a total of 44 civilians
were killed by the Croatian forces, not 320 as the Prosecution claimed,
not 600 as HHO claimed and
especially not 2,000 as claimed by „Veritas“ i Savo Strbac.
6. There were no politics of non-investigation of crimes by the Croatian
authorities.
7. The housing laws after Operation Storm were not
in a collision with the international humanitarian law.

Many in Croatia and abroad consider (rightfully) that the interactive narrative “Storm in the Hague” is an attempt to belittle and nullify the ICTY Appeal Chamber verdict of 16 November 2012 in the case of Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, which had found that as far as the Croatian war efforts were concerned there was no Joint Criminal Enterprise, no excessive artillery shelling and no ethnic cleansing of Serbs.

I would think that the saddest thing about this twisting of the final verdict in the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to suit the Serb denials of crimes and their aggression is that the Croatian taxpayers fund to a large extent the work of these organisations that twist the truth

Mr Luka Misetic, Ante Gotovina’s US based defense lawyer at the ICTY trial promptly addressed on his blog and in the Croatian media concerning and disquieting aspects of this launch of the interactive narrative “Storm in the Hague”. I have translated into the English language Mr Misetic’s address and here it is:

“Today (31st July), in Croatia, there was a SENSE Agency and Serbian National Council launch of the presentation “Storm in the Hague”. As it was to be expected the presentation purposefully covers up that which the Hague Tribunal found in its judgments in the case of Gotovina (Ante Gotovina, Croatian General).

HOW DID THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL ANSWER TO ALL THESE QUESTIONS?
1. Were Serbs deported from Croatia?
2. Did the Croatian authorities purposefully permit crimes such as murders, plunder and arson in order to deny the Serbs the possibility of returning to Croatia?
3. Were there more than 20,000 homes burned after Storm in the Southern part of the liberated territory?
4. Did the Croatian forces kill more than 600 Serbs during and after Operation Storm?
5. Did the Croatian judicial authorities and the police practice the politics of non-investigation of crimes?
6. Have illegally discriminatory housing laws been introduced?
7. Finally, did the Joint Criminal Enterprise exist in Croatia?

1. WERE SERBS DEPORTED FROM CROATIA?

Firstly, we need to correct some misunderstandings regarding the Trial Chamber judgment in which General Gotovina received a 24 year prison sentence. The Tribunal had concluded that Krajina Serbs were deported ONLY from 4 towns: Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac and Gracac. So, only from those four places.

The Tribunal had concluded that Serb civilians from all other places in the so-called Krajina had left Croatia out of other reasons not associated with any illegal treatmen by the Croatian authorities. Those legal reasons for leaving were:
• “Serbian Republic of Krajina” officials had called upon the population to leave the areas (Trial Chamber judgment paragraph 1762);
• The fear of aggression usually associated with armed conflict (Trial Chamber judgment paragraph 1762);
• Generalised fear from the Croatian forces and disstrust in Croatian authorities (Trial Chamber judgment paragraph 1762); and
• The fact that other Serbs were leaving had caused the effect of some civilians deciding to leave with them (Trial Chamber judgment paragraph 1754, 1762).

Hence, the Hague Tribunal had even in its Trial Chamber judgment found that a huge majority of Serb population from the so-called Krajina had left Croatia out of its own reasons, and that the Croatian authorities were not responsible for that. Only the four said towns were questionable for the Trial Chamber.
2. DID THE CROATIAN AUTHORITIES PERMIT CRIMES:

The Trial Chamber had explicitly rejected the claims that the Croatian authorities had purposefully permitted crimes such as arson, plunder and killings in order to deny the Serbs the possibility of return:

2321. The Trial Chamber found that the common objective of the so-called Criminal enterprise did not amount to, or involve the commission of the crimes of persecution (disappearances of people, wanton destruction, plunder, murder, inhumane acts, cruel treatment, and unlawful detentions), destruction of property, plunder, murder, inhumane acts, and cruel treatment.

Moreover, the Court tribunal did not only find that Croatia did not permit such crimes, but it also found that the Croatian leadership had actively opposed the perpetration of such criminal acts:

2313. However, the evidence, in particular the statements made at meetings and in public reviewed in chapters 6.2.2-6.2.5, does not
indicate that members of the Croatian political and military leadership intended that property inhabited or owned by Krajina Serbs should be destroyed or plundered. Further, it does not indicate that these acts were initiated or supported by members of the leadership. Rather, the evidence includes several examples of meetings and statements (see for example D409, P470, and D1451), indicating that the leadership, including Tudjman, disapproved of the destruction of property. Based on the foregoing, the Trial Chamber does not find that destruction and plunder were within the purpose of the joint criminal enterprise.

3. Were 20,000 homes burned in the South Sector?

This claim was thoroughly discredited at the hearing. This hypothesis, which has constantly been repeated in the past 15 years, is based upon wrong claims made in the 1999 report by the HHO (Croatian Helsinki Committee) on Operation Storm in which HHO claimed that the Canadian General Alain Forand, UN forces chief commander based in Knin, stated that 22,000 houses were burned in the South Sector. The reality is that Forand stated that a total of 22,000 houses in South Sector were inspected, and not that they were burned. The truth regarding the number of burned houses in the liberated area is most likely closer to the report by the UN General Secretary in December 1995: about 5,000 of houses and stables in Sectors North and South were burned after Operation Storm.
4. Did the Croatian forces kill 600 civilians during and after Operation Storm?

This also is a usual claim perpetuated all the time in the media. However, the Prosecution had claimed that about 320 civilians were killed in Sector South, and not 600. The Trial Chamber had found that out of these 320, 44 were killed by members of the Croatian armed forces. The number of Serb civilians killed by Croatian forces is closer to 44 than 600.

5. Did the Croatian judicial authorities and police practice the politics of non-investigation of crimes?

The Court Tribunal had rejected this allegation, which is being repeated in the media all the time, even today, and, after the Appeal decision. In paragraph 2203 of its judgment the Trial Chamber found the following:

The evidence reviewed indicates that some investigatory efforts were made, but with relatively few results. Moreover, there are
indications in the evidence that at the political level, these efforts were motivated at least in part by a concern for Croatia’s international standing rather than by genuine concern for victims. In light of the testimony of expert Albiston, the Trial Chamber considers that the insufficient response by the Croatian law enforcement authorities and judiciary can to some extent be explained by the abovementioned obstacles they faced and their need to perform other duties in August and September 1995. In conclusion, while the evidence indicates incidents of purposeful hindrance of certain investigations, the Trial Chamber cannot positively establish that the Croatian authorities had a policy of non-investigation of crimes committed against Krajina Serbs during and following Operation Storm in the Indictment area.
These are the main findings of the Trial Chamber. As we all know, some parts of this judgment have remained disputable given that General Gotovina was sentenced to 24 years (and General Markac to 18) due to Trial Chamber’s conclusion that General Gotovina had executed illegal artillery attacks against the towns of Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac and Gracac.

That’s why we needed to wait for the final verdict by the Appeals Chamber regarding the disputed matters left from the Trial Chamber judgment, and that final judgment arrived on 16 November 2012. (Acquitting the Croatian generals of all charges).

Appeals Chamber verdict

6 and 7. Joint Criminal Enterprise and housing laws

There was no Joint Criminal Enterprise on the Croatian side. The Appeal Chamber had quashed Trial Chamber judgment on that count, concluding that the Krajina Serbs were not deported from Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac and Gracac, and with that, the Croatian authorities did not deport the Krajina Serbs nor did the Joint Criminal Enterprise involving the Croatian leadership, especially Franjo Tudjman, Gojko Susak, Zvonimir Cervenko, Ante Gotovina, Jure Radic and Mladen Markac – exist.

Furthermore, after the Appeal Chamber verdict, it can be concluded that the Croatian leadership did not pass discriminatory housing laws after Operation Storm (see firstly the Government regulation and then the Temporary assumption and administration of certain property Act/Government Gazette NN 073/1995). That is, the Trial Chamber had found that those housing laws were in breach of the international law as they were introduced after the Serbs from Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac and Gracac were deported from Croatia. However, given that the Appeals Chamber had quashed the finding that the Serbs were displaced, that is deported, the conclusion that housing laws passed after Operation Storm were in contravention of the international humanitarian law must also be quashed.

Croatia’s Capital Zagreb
Prepares For The 20 Anniversary
Of Operation Storm and
Liberation From Serb Occupation
Military Parade and Celebrations of Independence
to be held 4th August 2015
Photo: FAH

TO SUMMARISE

The ICTY concluded the following:

1. There was no Joint Criminal Enterprise from the Croatian side.

2. Krajina Serbs were not deported from Croatia by the Croatian authorities but left Croatia out of other reasons not associated with any Croatian officials’ illegal behaviour;

3. Not only that the Croatian authorities did not permit crimes against Serbs and Serbs’ property, but they were actively against those crimes;

4. It’s confirmed that 20,000 houses were not burned after Operation Storm. The number is probably closer to 5,000, and that, in both Sectors, North and South.

5. The judgment has found that a total of 44 civilians were killed by the Croatian forces, not 320 as the Prosecution claimed, not 600 as HHO claimed and especially not 2,000 as claimed by „Veritas“ i Savo Strbac.

6. There were no politics of non-investigation of crimes by the Croatian authorities.

7. The housing laws after Operation Storm were not in a collision with the international humanitarian law.”

Written and Translated from the Croatian language by Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb), B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ante Gotovina, Croatia, Croatian Homeland War, Documenta, Franjo Tudjman, ICTY, International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, joint criminal enterprise, Knin, Luka Misetic, Milorad Pupovac, Mladen Markac, Operation Storm, Savo Strbac, SENSE Agency for transitional justic, Serb denial, Serbia, Serbian National Council, Veritas

Croatia: Taxpayer and EU Funds Help Promote Distortion Of Historical Facts

August 24, 2013 by inavukic 49 Comments

Reblogged from Luka Misetic blogspot

By Luka Misetic
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
More Disinformation from Milorad Pupovac & Co.
As Croatia celebrated the 18th anniversary of its liberation in Operation Storm, the Serbian National Council in Croatia issued a press release through its leader, Milorad Pupovac, in which it declared that to date, “none of the direct perpetrators was held responsible” for murders of Serb civilians committed during and after Operation Storm. Vesna Terselic of the Documenta center and Mladen Stojanovic from the Center for Peace in Osijek made similar claims.

These claims are incorrect. Several people–members of the Croatian Army–have been convicted for murder of Serb civilians after Operation Storm. Here are just a few examples (there are more, but I will not list them all here):

1. Mario Dukic, member of the Croatian Army’s 134th Homeguard Regiment, was sentenced to six years imprisonment on 10 January 1997 for the murder of Petar Bota committed on 28 September 1995;

2. Ivica Petric, member of the Croatian Army’s 15th Homeguard Regiment, was convicted on 27 May 1997 for the murder of Djurad Čanak in mid-August 1995, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment;

3. Zeljko Sunjerga, member of the 15th Homeguard Regiment, was convicted on 29 November 2002 for the murder of Manda Tisma sometime in the first half of August 1995. He was sentenced to four years and eleven months in prison;

4. Veselko Bilic, member of the 15th Homeguard Regiment, was convicted on 2 December 1996 for the murder of Dara Milosevic in September 1995 and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.

I have provided only a sample of the criminal prosecutions. There are many other examples. There is no question that many other murders committed after Operation Storm have still gone unpunished, but there are many reasons why this is the case. Milorad Pupovac continues to make gross misstatements of fact in an effort to perpetuate the myth that the Croatian State intentionally refused to prosecute crimes committed after Operation Storm. Even the Trial Chamber that initially convicted Generals Gotovina and Markac rejected this claim (See Gotovina Trial Chamber Judgement, paragraph 2203).

It is time that Mr. Pupovac and others stop distorting the historical record.

Luka Misetic Photo: Darko Tomas/Cropix

About Luka Misetic: Lawyer, based in the United States of America. Luka Misetic represents clients in state, federal and international litigation, including commercial, civil, white-collar criminal and international criminal cases. In business litigation, Mr. Misetic represents corporations and partnerships, as well as their directors, officers and partners in breach of contract and fiduciary duty claims, regulatory matters, trade secrets claims, fraud and negligence suits, and a variety of other claims. Mr. Misetic represented Croatian General Ante Gotovina before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands

___________________________________

_COMMENT_________________________

Serbian National Council (SNV) in Croatia is elected political, consulting and coordinating body acting as a self government of Serbs in the Republic of Croatia concerning the issues of their human, civil and national rights, as well the issues of their identity, participation and integration in the Croatian society. It is an institution of the minority ethnic self-government of Serbs in Croatia, and finally by virtue of the Constitutional Law on the rights of national minorities in the Republic of Croatia. As such it enjoys the funds from Croatian taxpayers, i.e. the government budget.

Documenta (Center dealing with the past) is also an NGO in Croatia that enjoys financial support from Croatian taxpayers (via government budget/ Ministry of culture etc.); it also enjoys financial support from the EU, among other international bodies.

It’s time that the EU and Croatian government assess the work these two organisations do and appraise their support of their work, for, I am confident, no public institution that releases funds to NGOs should tolerate its name being associated with deliberately misleading political grandstanding and blatant distortions of truth and historical records these particular NGOs evidently promote. I say this in the hope that the world has moved forward and away from the days after WWII and totalitarian regimes (such as communism) when history was written with exclusions of important facts. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ante Gotovina, Croatia, Croatian Operation Storm, distortion of historical facts, Documenta, Luka Misetic, Milorad Pupovac, Mladen Stojanovic, Serbian National Council, Vesna Terselic, war crimes

Atonement for wrongs against Franjo Tudjman and Croatia’s War of Independence

November 26, 2012 by inavukic 19 Comments

Franjo Tudjman

On November 16, 2012, the ICTY Appeal Chamber acquittal of Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac also acquitted the first president of Croatia dr. Franjo Tudjman of war crimes.

Those that criticise this ICTY Appeal Chamber decision criticise it in ways that have nothing to do with justice for the individuals convicted by ICTY Trial Chamber in April 2011 and acquitted by ICTY Appeal Chamber.

Certainly Serbian politicians and media as well as some convincingly pro-communist Croatian NGOs (e.g. Documenta – Centre for Dealing With the Past), when referring to the ICTY Appeal Chamber’s acquittal of Croatian Generals, keep pounding about how there were crimes committed during and after the Operation Storm in Croatia. It would seem that criminal justice, defined by the due process of presumed innocent until proven guilty, means nothing to these peddlers of communist propaganda.

They just do not seem to have the decency and patience to isolate their unnamed individuals who breached Dr Franjo Tudjman’s and his leadership’s orders not to commit crimes and who have or may have committed war crimes, and simply concentrate on those individuals as criminal justice should. These crimes perpetrated by their unnamed individuals have nothing to do with Croatia’s defense policy and practice at time of Serb aggression and liberating occupied territory. Despite that fact, these peddlers of injustice keep pestering the world into thinking that aggressor was the same as victim during the 1990’s Croatia’s war of Independence.

Swanee Hunt: “The bloody Serb incursion into Croatia and Bosnia happened while I served as U.S. Ambassador to Austria in the mid-1990s. In Vienna, I hosted symposia and negotiations to stop a war in which 90 percent of atrocities were committed by Serbs, although the percentage of indicted war criminals didn’t approach that balance. The Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian war in 1995. Perhaps heartened by their reward of almost half the country (when they comprised one-third of the population), the Serbs enjoyed their role as the neighborhood bully until 1999, when NATO intervened with air strikes to protect the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo”.

As the deceptive political dust from Serbia and some Croatian NGOs that maintains hollow and baseless rhetoric of a Croatian joint criminal enterprise in 1995 Operation Storm continues much of the rest of the world – including myself – sees fragments of atonement for wrongs done to the first President of Croatia, dr. Franjo Tudjman and his leadership circle. The atonement may be discrete or invisible to the naked eye at this time, but it’s emerging nevertheless.

The 15 April 2011 ICTY Trial Chamber judgment against the Croatian Gotovina and Markac wasted no time in including the already deceased Franjo Tudjman (who had no opportunity to defend himself in court) in its utterly unjust ruling in which it “found that Tudjman, who was the main political and military leader in Croatia before, during, and after the indictment period, was a key member of the joint criminal enterprise. Tudjman intended to repopulate the Krajina with Croats and ensured that his ideas in this respect were commander of the armed forces…”

ICTY Appeal Chamber finding of November 16, 2012, also acquitted Dr Franjo Tudjman and his leadership of this horrible conviction by the Trial Chamber.

Credible sources claim that Zarko Puhovski (the co-founder of the first alternative Yugoslav political organisation UJDI [Udruženje za Jugoslavensku demokratsku inicijativu/Association for Yugoslav Democratic Initiatiative] in 1988), Sasha Broz (granddaughter of Josip Broz Tito, long-time leader of Communist Yugoslavia) and Vesna Terselic (leader of controversial and highly political NGO the Documenta – Centre for dealing With the Past, in Croatia) went to Belgrade in 1998 and, in collaboration with Savo Strbac (rebel Serb politician), compiled the main thrusts of ICTY Prosecution charges against Croatia, i.e. Operation Storm and, hence, those charged for war crimes in relation to it, including the Croatian Generals. These trips to Belgrade occurred around the times when Croatia’s former President Stjepan Mesic appeared secret witness for the Prosecution at the ICTY.

These were the times when public vilification against Franjo Tudjman took a ferociously accelerated path.

Be it as it may, justice is slow and truth revealed in the end. As for dr. Franjo Tudjman, the thoughts that settle the heart of Independent Croatia after the ICTY Appeal Chamber acquittal could be summarised by Ian McEwan quote from ‘Atonement’:

“I’ve never had a moment’s doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.”

Although there’s no mention of Tudjman’s name, the atonement for wrongs done against him seeps through the words of Doris Pack, German member of the European Parliament and its rapporteur on Bosnia, who said during the past couple of days:

“it would be good for the Serbian public to realise as soon as possible that the 1995 Operation Storm was a legitimate operation by the Croatian army, regardless of the fact that crimes were committed…Croatia fought a justified war to reclaim one-third of its territory that had been lawlessly occupied by Serbs and from which Serbs had expelled all Croats … the Hague war crimes tribunal’s recent acquittal of Croatian general Ante Gotovina meant that he was not responsible for war crimes in any way.

The perpetrators of the crimes committed by the Croatian side in the war are on trial and sentences are being handed down … crimes were committed against Serbs in the war as well but the perpetrators were convicted… The Hague’s acquittal of Croatian generals was a signal to everyone that the tribunal (ICTY) was working correctly and that it was not biased … Gotovina’s acquittal had helped Croatia close an unhappy chapter of its history.”

The world would indeed be a nicer place if Serbia and those that support its wicked and false stance on Operation Storm were to heed Doris Pack’s above words. After all, Doris Pack was part of the European Union power brokers that served hardships and fired vilification against Dr Franjo Tudjman and Operation Storm during 2000’s and now have enough courage to admit a wrong. But, sadly, the pro-Communist threads run deep and there’s much still to be done for peace and reconciliation.

Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)