Bosnia and Herzegovina – Croatia, the War, and the Future

ICTY And Vicious Political Battles Against Survival Of Croats In Bosnia And Herzegovina

April 5, 2017 by inavukic 15 Comments

From left: Jadranko Prlic, Milivoj Petkovic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Berislav Pusic, Valentin Coric
Photo: AFP

If there was ever a more revealing moment of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s putrid Dayton Peace Accords lined political stage, it appears to be now. Whether staged, coincidental or not, the current boiling-point political crisis has intensified in the very month of ICTY Appeal Chamber hearing for six Herceg-Bosna Croats convicted for war crimes in 2013. In the whirlpool of the current political crisis in BiH that boils one day and simmers the next, the Croat leaders find themselves forced to balance between the needs of their own kin and the state they ostensibly represent (BiH). Despite their secessionist tendencies, the Serbs in BiH are riding this storm in costumes of some sort of champions of unity in times of twilight. Continuing the twilight zone-themed crisis, the Croats find themselves in an ‘unholy alliance’ with war-time enemy Serbs as they resist increasing Bosniak hegemony. A quarter of a century ago Bosniaks and Croats paraded the streets together, celebrating independence from Yugoslavia, fought against Serb aggressor together only to split into fighting against each other as the Bosniak hunger for supremacy grew vicious against Croats. Twenty-five years later, Croats are estranged in their own lands, Bosniaks are frustrated by their inability to govern despite their majority, while Serbs live on in a country they fought to divide.

It commenced on March 20th 2017 and it represents the last and biggest-ever case before the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Appeals Chamber. The case concerns six high-level leaders of the Bosnian Croat wartime entity Herceg-Bosna and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić were convicted by the Tribunal’s Trial Chamber on 29 May 2013 for crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions committed between 1992 and 1994. The Trial Judgement (appealed), issued on 29 May 2013, comprised over 2,600 pages, including separate and partially dissenting opinions by Judges Jean-Claude Antonetti and Stefan Trechsel.

With the appeal hearing now completed the Appeal Chamber judgment is expected November 2017. The judgment is particularly of interest and importance to Croatia as the 2013 Trial Chamber ruled that the “Herceg Bosna Six” (named above), together with Croatia’s leadership (including dr Franjo Tudjman) had participated in a joint criminal enterprise against Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) – all as part of some Greater Croatia expansion.

The Prlic et al. trial was one of the Tribunal’s largest and most complicated. Trial proceedings began on 26 April 2006. The Prosecution completed its case on 24 January 2008 after presenting the evidence of 249 witnesses, while the Defence cases commenced on 5 May 2008 and closed on 17 May 2010 after presentation of the evidence of 77 witnesses. The total number of trial days amounted to 465, with closing arguments heard between 7 February and 2 March 2011. The Trial Judgement, issued on 29 May 2013, comprises over 2,600 pages, including separate and partially dissenting opinions by Judges Antonetti and Stefan Trechsel.

Moving to present day Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), whether politically triggered by the ICTY Appeal hearing for the Herceg-Bosna Six, it is of relevance to note long-standing political crisis in BiH had almost reached a boiling point in March 2017, showing a dangerous, politically volatile reappearance of increased tensions between the three constitutional ethnic groups/people (Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs). The Bosniak representative of the tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, submitted a request for revision of the ICJ’s (International Court of Justice) ruling on BiH’s suit against Serbia for genocide (which in essence said there was no genocide committed by Serbs in BiH even if, in the same breath, the court ruled that the mass killings in Srebrenica in 1995 constituted genocide), without approval of either the parliament or the Serbian and Croatian presidents. This created a new crisis in BiH that saw the Croat representative on BiH Presidency, Dragan Covic, caught in a crossfire between Bosniaks and Serbs, and faced with resurrected and intensified high-level threats by the Serbian Republic for indictments for war crimes of a number of Croatian generals and military operatives in the 1990’s war, spilling unrest and political fire into Croatia. This current political crisis is preceded by the volatile tensions between Sarajevo (BiH capital and capital of the Federation of BiH but also de jure capital of Serbian Republic) and Banja Luka (where the government of Serbian Republic entity sits) from last year when Serbian Republic unilaterally held a referendum on its own independence day. The BiH Constitutional Court and International High Representative Valentin Inzko declared the referendum a clear constitutional breach; nonetheless, long-standing President of Serbian Republic Milorad Dodik proceeded to celebrate a day that for many citizens of BiH marks the beginning of Serbian aggression on their country.

It almost goes without saying, agreement with Izetbegovic’s move for a review of ICJ decision on genocide would tantamount to an act of betrayal in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia, where the scars of Serb genocidal aggression have not been forgotten. Support of Izetbegovic’s move for ICJ decision, on the other hand, means that Bosnian and Croat aspirations for political parity would become even pricklier and Bosniak abuse of Croatian rights within the Federation of BiH would head in the way of deeper institutionalisation.

Nika Pinter
Croatian defence attorney
Photo: Screenshot ICTY Appeals Chamber March 2017

The ICTY Appeals Chamber judgment in the Herceg-Bosna Six case to be delivered in November 2017 will have enormous implications not only for BiH, for Croats in BiH and on stability in BiH but also for Croatia itself. Should the Appeal confirm the Trial Chamber finding that Croatian officials, including late president Franjo Tudjman, were members of a joint criminal enterprise, such a judgment would not only bring a stigma pointing to criminality of Croatia’s politics but also grave financial consequences for Croatia – said recently Nika Pinter, defence attorney for General Slobodan Praljak at ICTY Appeal Tribunal.

Pinter said that the past twenty years have seen the creation of a picture about Croats breaking up BiH with criminal goals implemented by aggression against BiH and committing crimes against Bosniaks in accordance with premeditated, joint criminal plan of joining part of BiH to Croatia.

And the evidence leads to a different conclusion – Pinter insists.

Those who are attacked, who defend themselves, cannot have a criminal plan.
With disappointment Pinter referred to the fact that Croatia’s political leaders have done nothing to stand up against the lies and twisted facts that have for years been spreading regarding Croatia’s role in the BiH war.

Outside courtrooms no one has made an effort to reply to the false claims and to insist on establishing and pointing out the truth via irrefutable evidence. There have been no arguments to refute the lies said about Croatia, its involvement in the BiH war and the alleged aggression against BiH, but instead, the space was left to the people, led by self-interests, who used half-truths in order to create a negative picture about Croatia – Pinter said, adding that all facts were available for use whether via witness testimonies, war documents, international negotiations documents, peace conferences.

Those in the service of lies wrote and spoke about the events and the relationship between Croatia and BiH but consciously ignored evidence of facts:
– that no government institution in BiH functioned normally and could not guarantee normal functioning because of the aggression by the Yugoslav Peoples Army;
– that BiH would not exist were it not for Croats who turned up at the March 1992 referendum and by doing so ensured international recognition of the independent BiH state;
– That upon the proposal from Croatia’s government and Croatian Parliament conclusions Franjo Tudjman made the decision to recognise the Republic of BiH in April 1992;
– that Croatia had literally made possible the survival of BiH through its unconditional and complete help to BiH in logistics, in humanitarian aid, militarily … (“were it not for Croatia, BiH would not have survived” – said Peter Galbright in his witness statement at the ICTY);
-that Croatia took in over 600,000 refugees and forcefully deported people from BiH and organised their care and shelter;
-that extraterritorial schools for Bosniaks were established in Croatia;
-that wounded members of the BiH Army as well as Bosniaks were treated in hospitals in Croatia;
-that Croatia had permitted all arms and weapons for BiH to be supplied via its own territory during the most intensive war conflict between HVO (Croatian Defence Council) and the BiH Army;
– that BiH had its military training centre for Bosniak soldiers situated in Croatia;
-that BiH Army had its military economic offices across Croatia;
– that during the whole time of the conflict the Headquarters of the supreme command of the Republic of BiH had its logistical centre in Croatia;
-that HVO and BiH Army were two armies of the same state – BiH, and that Army of BiH was not the only legal army in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
-that officers of the HV (Croatian Army) – Muslims, went across to the Army of BiH, while freezing and retaining all rights within the HV, just as the HV officers did who went across into the HVO;
-Never in the history of war conflicts have people, like Croats have, helped other people – like Bosniaks/Muslims – even when the latter turned its army – Army of BiH – against Croats – HVO – in BiH;
-The Croatian Republic of Herceg Bosna was created in September 1992 as a result of negotiations between all three sides in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international representatives (Owen and Stotenberg);
-the official representatives of Herceg Bosna were present at all international negotiations together with the other two constitutional people – Serbs and Bosniaks;

The analysis of documents from the peace negotiations, said Pinter, shows the facts that Croats from BiH, along with dr Franjo Tudjman’s participation, which participation was insisted upon by the international representatives and communities, had accepted all proposals for peaceful solutions to the internal organisation of BiH, while Bosniaks, in accordance with their own plan for the creation of civil state “one man – one voice”, in which the constitutionality of the Croatian people would be lost, had rejected those proposals or refused to sign them, or had not acted in accordance with agreements.

Mujahedeen had brought in radical Islam and elements of religious war as well as contributing significantly to the idea of attacking existing allies – Croats. To claim that Mujahedeen were a propaganda effort raised by BiH Croats in order to force Croats from Central Bosnia to leave the areas in which they had lived for centuries, even if real danger from them was never a threat, is incomprehensible and unfounded as well as malicious, and regretfully, and the claim has today been disproved. Today, we are witnesses of not only the presence of a radical Islam current in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a judicial war against Croats through the processing of commanders and members of HVO without foundations based on facts for the indictments and without the elements necessary for criminal responsibility.

On the other hand, the Army of BiH attacks against HVO and Croats, as well as against the areas in which they lived, and consequences of those attacks have never been processed nor have they been talked about. Massive and horrible crimes. The war conflicts were most fatal for Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Exact data from the 2013 census without a doubt shows that in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats were the biggest victims, not because of the Herceg-Bosna politics, dr Franjo Tudjman and Gojko Susak, as the “Six” in the Hague, but because of the Yugoslav Peoples Army and offensive operations by the Army of BiH. If Croats are victims, and they are, then the claim that the creation of Herceg-Bosna was directed against the Bosniak people, said Pinter.

While the ICTY Prosecutor is seeking increased sentences for the Herce-Bosna Six from the Appeals Chamber, the defence seeks acquittal of all charges, or a retrial. The acquittal or retrial are sought on basis of wrong conclusions by the Trial Chamber regarding the existence of a joint criminal enterprise and the participation in the same by the Herceg-Bosna Six. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Army BiH, Berislav Pusic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bruno Stojic, Croatia, Herceg-Bosna Six, HVO, ICTY, Jadranko Prlic, Milivoj Petkovic, Nika Pinter, political crisis Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slobodan Praljak, Valentin Coric

Communist Yugoslavia Leprosy Resurrected In Move For Regional Nationality

April 2, 2017 by inavukic 33 Comments

An initiative, by nature and intent profoundly ominous for peace and freedom to develop and enjoy the relatively newly created states that broke away from communist Yugoslavia in 1990’s as prosperous sovereign entities, was launched in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on March 30th by notables and NGOs, however notorious or not, marked a major effort to bolster a politically disquieting consensus that Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Montenegrins all speak the same language, thus erode each of the existing major four distinct (regardless of any commonalities) languages used – Croat, Serb, Bosniak, Montenegrin. All who in desperation for freedom and democracy have often argued into deaf ears that the Balkan region is riddled with political barbarians that huddle together with the view to keeping the decrepit and failed Yugoslav region alive as unified in one form another, including fusing all the different national groups into one, have, regretfully, on March 30th tucked another feather in their told-you-so cap.

Last time I checked the Declaration’s website, “Languages and Nationalisms” project some 228 people (a crew from former Yugoslav states evidently joined at the hip by the distinctly destructive and freakish streaks of “my nationality is Yugoslav” surging demeanour) have signed the Declaration. The Declaration seeks, among other demands, the abolishing of all linguistic segregation and discrimination in the educational and public institutions; the stopping of repressive, unnecessary and damaging practice of separating the languages; cessation of rigid definitions of standard variations (among languages); the avoidance of unnecessary, senseless and expensive ‘translations’ in court and administrative practices as well as in means of public information…

The Declaration claims that most of the former Yugoslav nations speak different variations of the same language and it stands to good reason and justice that it has been met with official outrage across the region. Opponents of the Declaration, rightly, see the initiative as reviving the ghost of the former Yugoslavia, one of whose official languages was at points in time and as form of Yugoslav communist oppression Serbo-Croatian. The signatories of the Declaration did not openly promote a “Serbo-Croatian” language and say they are comfortable with different versions of the same language having different names: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin. The problem here is that they do appear promote Serb linguistic forms immersed thorough single words in the very text explaining the Languages and Nationalisms Project on their website and that in itself is unshakeably indicative of the underlying political bias and underhanded attempts to keep the “Serb language forms” at a superior level to the other three, just as it used to be in the days of communist Yugoslavia.

When it comes to its implications for Croatia the Declaration could well represent an attempt to undermine the Croatian language as the only official language of the nation and install the Serbian language as another official language in the country not just in pockets of the country where the Serb ethnic minority population is or exceeds the 34% as stipulated in the constitutional law. The threads that keep Greater-Serbia expansion in the region are foully intricate indeed. To beef up this conclusion one only needs to ponder upon and weigh-up politically the sickening fact where Croatia’s Minister for Culture, Nina Obuljen, had last week sent two signatories of the Sarajevo Declaration from Croatia – writers Slobodan Snajder and Damir Karakas – as Croatia’s representatives at the Leipzig book fair! It goes without saying that this move of hers suggests that she too rides the train that transports those who would have the world believe that the Croatian language does not really exist in its own right. Given that Croatia has hundreds of writers, language professionals and academics who have toiled for decades even within the communist Yugoslavia to retain the Croatian language as a pure and distinct language of the Croatian nation, Minister Obuljen’s move can truly be considered perverse and insulting – politically and otherwise.

When asked about the Declaration a day before it was made public, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic responded with questions about the need for such an initiative: “How could I support that [declaration]? Who in Croatia can support it?” What else can one expect from the PM who, faced with the outrage against the Declaration among the Croatian people, just does not act as if he possesses the fight necessary for Croatian interests.
Plenkovic added – feebly: “The Croatian language is defined in our constitution. Croatian is one of the official languages of the EU. That’s the only thing that matters to me. There is no need to waste words on sundry informal initiatives.” Well, how about defending the Croatian language when attacked, Prime Minister!

The former Croatian culture minister and current Member of Croatian Parliament, Zlatko Hasanbegovic, used strong language to denounce the Sarajevo Declaration as “a wolf howl of Yugoslav nationalists for their lost country.” On the ball – Hasanbegovic!

To illustrate the political depravity among signatories of the Sarajevo Declaration among Croats one only needs to visit the words of the largely mistrusted and seemingly dangerously anti-Croatian independence politically biased Croatian journalist Ante Tomic, when he asked rhetorically in his regular column in Jutarnji List whether “we are so stupid that we cannot memorise more than one word for a certain thing.” Tomic added that through a language policy based on “pure Croatian,” the state is not only controlling its subjects but also creating confusion and stoking animosity against ethnic Serbs. “I signed [the Sarajevo Declaration] because it is a measure of reconciliation and it recognises and includes everyone. It affirms differences, and allows for the fact that one thing can be called by many names, and that we all speak the same language, which is variously named Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, or Montenegrin,” Tomic said.

How a Declaration such as the Sarajevo one, claiming that distinctly different languages are one single language, can be a measure of reconciliation is only clear (albeit wickedly to my taste) to Tomic and other signatories of the Declaration. Successful reconciliation unconditionally depends on the truth and there is no underlying truth in this Declaration except the one that points to the worn-out mantra “tell lies often enough and they become the truth”. This is a cause worth fighting against. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Greater Serbia, Languages and Nationalisms Project, Montenegro, Sarajevo Declaration on language commonality, Serbia

Helping Bosnia And Herzegovina On Its Way To EU Earns Croatia Knife In Back

November 6, 2016 by inavukic 26 Comments

Croatia’s President
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
at Halal Day 2016 ceremony in Croatia
Photo:Goran Kovacic/Pixsell

Very recently Russia mended its broken relations with Turkey. Turkey considers Bosnian Muslims/Bosniaks as its brothers. Russia is desirous of wielding influence in order to stop EU expanding to Eastern Europe where Russia keeps building its influence. In efforts to strengthen its hold on southeastern Europe the EU would like Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to become a member of the EU and has in past few months depended upon Croatia quite a bit to assist BiH on its path to EU membership. Comes 31 October 2016 and Croatia’s ability to influence BiH’s path to the EU suddenly seems drastically affected by the arrest in Orasje, a northeastern BiH town bordering with Croatia, of 10 Croats of Croatia/BiH dual citizenship for alleged war crimes that allegedly happened almost 25 years ago. Croatian politicians and public media have been preoccupied with protesting against and commenting these arrests during the past week. It appears the arrests have a greater political significance as implicating Croatia in the chain of command in these alleged crimes than in actually naming or listing individualised and specified crimes alleged in the indictment issued by BiH state prosecution.

In about April 1992 when Serb led forces and rebels started bombing and attacking the town of Orasje and its surrounding clusters of villages – an area with majority Croat population situated at the northeastern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia, the time ahead demanded that the town and its people be defended. Orasje managed to defend itself from the Serb onslaught only to wake up on 31 October 2016, two days after Prime Minister Andrej Plenovic’s visit to BiH, and see 10 Croats (members of the wartime Croatian Defense Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina [BiH] also known as Bosnian Croatian Army) arrested for alleged war crimes in 1992 and 1993 against prisoner of war Serbian nationals; the other 18 reportedly charged with these crimes of varying ethnicity have disappeared off the face of the earth – cannot be found.

Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic
upon his visit to BiH on 28 October 2016 spoke up
for Croatia’s support for all Croats
living in BiH
Photo: Hanza Media

1992 was the time when Serb advances into Bosnian Posavina in the north and into central Bosnia in the early weeks of Serb onslaught against Bosnia and Herzegovina were reversed by joint Muslim and Croat forces. Croat population of Orasje remained loyal to the cause of the Bosnian government (defend the country against Serbs) and put up a stiff resistance to the Serbs.

Croatian government and the rest of the political apparatus say they were totally surprised by these arrests in Orasje; that they never suspected anything like that could happen in the neighbouring, friendly BiH. But in reality, Bosnia and Herzegovina has for some time now been a melting pot of troubles to come as the 1995 ineffective Dayton peace agreement draws nearer the edge. And indeed the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has said that “the arrests have been in preparation for some time, but that their timing is indicative…Croatia has informed its partners in NATO and the EU about these arrests…” he said.

Frankly, who cares what NATO and the EU, or anyone else, think today when the very credibility and the just cause the defense of Orasje from Serbian onslaught in 1992/1993 is at stake here.

Attending a ceremony dedicated to Halal Day in Croatia on Wednesday 2 November 2016 Croatia’s president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic also expressed utter surprise at the arrests of the ten Croats in Orasje, saying that “Orasje is an area where Bosniaks and Croats fought together for their bare existence, for their self-preservation (being), for their lives, and their fight is a symbol of resistance against Milosevic (Slobodan) and Karadzic (Radovan) regimes.” She said that we need to wait and see all the facts or until all the facts of those alleged crimes are confirmed.

Well then, president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic – why have you not withdrawn your Ambassador from Bosnia and Herzegovina as an interim measure of protest against this atrocious political hunt against Croatian nationals who only defended their and their children’s and families’ lives? Why has the BiH Ambassador to Croatia not been sent packing on a temporary basis until controversial issues to do with these arrests are ironed out with pure facts?

Tomo Medved
Croatian veterans’ affairs minister
Photo: Denis Ceric

This would particularly be an appropriate measure given that there are reported serious difficulties with the indictments or charges, suggesting political bias. Croatian minister for veterans’ affairs Tomo Medved said Saturday 5 November that the Veterans are bitter about these arrests “because of the selective application of the command responsibility in these cases. If they (Bosnia and Herzegovina state prosecution) perform certain investigations and if certain criminal acts are found to exist then certain or concrete individual perpetrators should answer for those criminal acts, but this type of approach of widely applying command responsibility is unacceptable.” Source HRT News 5 November 2016.

Ilija Vucemilovic, president of veterans’ Tigers association, said “our brothers in Bosnian Posavina are bearing a heavy cross, going through injustice just because they defended their homes in impossible circumstances…”

Ilija Vucemilovic
president of Tigers Croatian Veterans Association

And so, while Croatian president, prime minister or everyone else cannot meddle in the indictment for crimes issued in Bosnia and Herzegovina or in the Bosnia’s criminal justice system they can certainly bring in measures of disapproval as to the contents or ways of those indictments until pure facts are revealed. These measures to my view would be to send the Bosnian Ambassador packing from Croatia until matter resolved and withdraw the Croatian Ambassador from Bosnia until matter of facts and specific individual responsibility for each crime is clear.

Considering some reports appearing in the media, the arrests are no surprise as the truth may well point to the fact that the Croatian intelligence services and secret police have under the Social Democrat, anti-Croatia communist government led by Zoran Milanovic and under president Ivo Josipovic, whose advisors appeared equally anti-Croat, in Croatia, purposefully engaged in hiding information as far back as 2014 that Bosnian state prosecution was investigating some 28 individuals in relation to wartime Orasje (and other places). Since President Grabar-Kitarovic expressed total surprise last week regarding the arrests one can assume that her predecessor Josipovic and his advisers passed on zilch information on the matter. One truly cannot but ascribe malice against Croatia in this. It is, furthermore, of no surprise that Bosnian Muslims have continued and will continue digging for possible indictments against everyone else for war crimes in order not to face their own horrendous, murderous actions during the war in BiH or to minimize the gravity of crimes committed by Bosniaks, which crimes still seem to evade full justice. They will forever protect the Mujahedeen and BiH Army forces that slaughtered thousands. Unless of course a significant number of war crimes indictments are thrown in their direction.

Croatian OM Andrej Plenkovic (L)
Bakir Izetbegovic, president of BiH presidency (C)
Dragan Covic, Croat representative on BiH presidency (R)
28 October 2016
Photo: Klix.ba

Many believe there will be many more indictments against Croatian nationals as Bosnia and Herzegovina ponders on its future as a country where all three nationalities (Bosniak/Muslims, Croats and Serbs) have equal rights and representation in parliament regardless of their numbers. Bosniaks do not want to give up their self-imposed superiority over Croats in the Federation part of BiH; Serbs don’t want to give up their autonomy from others in their ethnically cleansed Serbian Republic entity.

Whether these arrests will prove to be more a political message calling for Croats to desist from seeking equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina than a justified prosecution against individuals committing specific crimes, is yet to be seen. Certainly, the level these indictments seem to be directed at – general chain of command allegedly present at the time of the alleged crimes – does not appear to serve justice as well as prosecuting individuals who actually may have committed specific crimes would. The West and the EU will not accept they made a horrendous mistake with their 1995 Dayton Agreement plan and the calamitous distribution of power in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in effect stripped the Croats of equal rights as one of three constitutional peoples of BiH. It is certainly suspicious that at this stage when Croats in BiH are talking up their equal rights to Serbs and Muslims/Bosniaks in BiH they are suddenly facing group indictments for war crimes. Regardless of the fact that war crimes may have occurred, and that individuals from all three constitutional peoples of BiH may have committed war crimes and need to face the courts, the move to catch only Croat suspects en masse at this time undoubtedly has the function of destabilizing Croatia’s efforts in assisting BiH in its path to EU membership and also in destabilising Croats’ rights as equals in BiH. Unacceptable! Croatia’s leadership must show more strength in defending the self-preservation people of Orasje were forced into during the Serb aggression. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)