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Vukovar Judgment Slammed

04 10 2007  Sentences handed down by the Hague Tribunal have wrong-footed Croatian Prime Minister Sanader and fuelled right-wing calls for an end to Croatia’s cooperation with the ICTY.

By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb

Croatia`s parliament on Wednesday condemned the Hague Tribunal’s verdict in the case of the “Vukovar Three” but supported the government’s commitment to continue cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

However, the Croatian Party of Rights, HSP announced that in just three days it had collected 100,000 signatures for a petition calling for the law on cooperation with the Tribunal to be revoked. The HSP is seeking to collect the 400,000 signatures necessary to call a referendum on this issue.

On 27 September the ICTY handed down sentences in the cases of three JNA, Yugoslav People’s Army officers accused of orchestrating the mass killing of Croatian prisoners after the fall of Vukovar in 1991. The verdicts have elicited shock and criticism in Croatia.

The Tribunal sentenced Veselin Sljivancanin to five years and Mile Mrkisic to 20 years in prison, and released Miroslav Radic. The three men were charged with crimes committed in Ovcara (a farm near Vukovar in eastern Croatia).

Political analysts predict that in the wake of these sentences nationalist views on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal will acquire greater resonance and put the ruling HDZ under fire although they do not expect a major impact on the political scene on the eve of elections scheduled for November.

Following the verdict members of Homeland War associations gathered for three days at Ovcara, at the site of a mass grave of around 200 Croatian prisoners, to pray for the victims.

Last Friday, immediately after the sentences were announced, the Croatian Party of Rights, HSP club of representatives asked the President of the Croatian Parliament, Vladimir Seks, to schedule a parliamentary debate on the verdicts.

The right-wing HSP is the ruling HDZ party’s principal competitor for nationalist and right-wing votes. The HDZ has already lost considerable support from this constituency during its time in power because of “pro European” moves such as cooperating with the ICTY and locating and extraditing General Ante Gotovina to The Hague in December 2005.

Gotovina enjoyed widespread popularity because of his role in operation “Storm” in 1995, which ended the war in Croatia after four years. He was indicted for crimes committed in the course of this operation.

The HSP claimed that the Hague Tribunal had shown its true colors with the “scandalous and shameful verdict on war criminals Sljivancanin, Mrksic and Radic, thus humiliating Croatian Homeland War defenders, families of killed, imprisoned, and missing people and the entire Croatian state.”

The party called for a thorough parliamentary debate on continued cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and also proposed that the whole purpose of the Tribunal be discussed by the UN Security Council.

HSP members also called for implementation of the Constitutional Law on Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal to be suspended.

Croatian Social-Liberal Party, HSLS President Djurdja Adlesic asked Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to explain what measures he intends to take in response to the Tribunal’s “shameful” verdict.

The war veterans' association HVIDRA had already sent an official request asking Parliament to end its cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.

The issue has come to the fore at a bad moment for Prime Minister Sanader, just ahead of elections. In 2001, when he was in opposition, Sanader participated, as President of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union), in demonstrations supporting Croatian generals indicted for war crimes. Despite this, the Gotovina extradition took place while Sanader was in power.

As at the time of the Gotovina extradition, Sanader has had to explain to his own supporters why all the countries of former Yugoslavia must cooperate with the ICTY if they want to join the European Union. But he also has to placate nationalists and demonstrate that the government has pursued a robust line in its dealings with the Tribunal.

Ahead of his government’s successful handling of the pricing of HT shares (see Balkan Insight report) Sanader was unable to enjoy the fruits of a major policy achievement and instead had to go off and face his critics in the Homeland War associations.

“When prime ministers have to defend themselves through damage control they are at a disadvantage,” independent political analyst Davor Genero told Balkan Insight. He highlighted the fact that the Prime Minister had met with the Homeland War associations before the upbeat announcement of the HT share price.

Genero suggested, however, that the Tribunal’s verdict is not a body-blow to the Sanader government, because the threat from the radical right is not well organized, but that the verdict has nonetheless come at an “inconvenient moment before the elections”.

Although Sanader had planned to meet the associations at the end of his time in office, the Prime Minister acknowledged that “the shameful judgment” had spurred him to do so earlier.

“I sent a letter to the UN Secretary General that has become an official document and will be distributed to all United Nations members,” Sanader said. He also announced the formation of an international group of experts on international law who will review the judgment.

During his meeting with the associations Sanader said that he had spoken with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Austrian Vice-Chancellor and President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering about the jurisdiction of the Hague Tribunal.

“I hope the (European) Parliament will soon voice its opinion on the issue of the Tribunal,” he said.

Professor Zarko Puhovski of the Philosophy Faculty at Zagreb University, a member of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, HHO, one of the Croatian NGOs which signed the joint statement against the Tribunal’s verdict, told Balkan Insight he condemns the verdict.

Puhovski believes that the Tribunal’s verdict will not have a major influence on the forthcoming elections by making the nationalist parties stronger because “the HDZ knows how to placate that part of the electorate.”

However, the fact remains that almost forgotten political movements such as the Croatian Victims' Association and its leaders, including former Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Minister Minister Zvonimir Separovic are beginning to enjoy support again.

Separovic announced during a speech at Vukovar on 29 September protesting the Tribunal’s verdict that associations from the Croatian War of Independence, at the initiative of the Croatian Victims’ Association, will organize a demonstration of survivors and mothers of victims in front of the Hague Tribunal this Friday or Saturday.

“We will ask to be received by the president of the Hague Tribunal, and we will inform him of the problems we have with this verdict, and if we are not received, we will leave a message of protest at the injustice of the verdict,” Separovic shouted in front of TV cameras after a long absence from the public eye.

“This verdict gives radical political organizations an opportunity to say – we were right and we said what the government has not said (that Croatia shouldn’t cooperate with Tribunal,” said Genero.

Although the verdicts will not lead to a comprehensive radicalization of Croatian politics, Genero warned that it could have a long-term negative impact on society. He suggested that improvements in Croatia’s cooperation with the ICTY could be negatively affected.

“Institutions such as the judiciary, the secret services and the prosecution could begin to slow down,” he said.

Genero stressed that there have been solid improvements in the field of war-crimes prosecutions. “Croatia has proved that it can impartially prosecute its own officers for war crimes,” he said, citing the case of General Mirko Norac, who is serving a 12-year sentence and facing a further trial for killing Serbian prisoners during the war. “Those trials didn’t just serve a minority constituency but society as a whole,” Genero pointed out.

Both, Puhovski and Genero believe the Tribunal’s ruling in the case of the “Vukovar three” will influence future war-crimes trials in Croatia involving Croatian military officers. It will encourage some people to ask: if aggressors can’t be punished by international courts why should victims be punished by Croatian ones (on the premise that Croatians were victims and not aggressors).

Following the Tribunal’s verdict some veterans’ organization members have already called for the release of all Croatian officers now serving sentences for war crimes.

“If this verdict is upheld it will damage Croatian society in the long run because it will devalue something (the tragedy of Vukovar) which already has a place in national life,” said Genero, adding that all of those who advocate cooperation with the Tribunal now feel uncomfortable.

Goran Jungvirth is a Balkan Insight contributor. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.