Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515 
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Post by Bozur on Feb 7, 2011 1:56:46 GMT -5
Croatia Ethnically Cleansed Serbs, U.N. Prosecutors Claim
MIKE CORDER | 08/30/10 11:16 AM |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — U.N. war crimes prosecutors said Monday that Croatian forces shelled civilians and torched their homes in a deliberate effort to expel tens of thousands of Serbs during a lightning 1995 campaign to seize back land occupied early in the Balkan wars.
The ethnic cleansing allegations came as prosecution lawyers at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal summed up their case against Gen. Ante Gotovina, who commanded the blitz known as Operation Storm, and two other Croatian generals.
The case is unusual because prosecutors insist the generals are guilty despite having issued orders to troops not to commit crimes. They say the generals never intended the orders to be followed.
The 1995 offensive is still a source of friction between Croatia and Serbia. Zagreb celebrates it with a national holiday, while Belgrade regards it as one of the worst crimes against Serbs committed during the Balkan wars.
Marking the 15th anniversary of Operation Storm in early August, Serbian President Boris Tadic called it a "crime which shouldn't be forgotten." His Croatian counterpart Ivo Josipovic responded that it was "above all, the crown of the justified liberation war."
Prosecutors claim 324 Serbs were killed, including elderly and disabled villagers – many "executed" with gunshots to the head.
Monday's hearing was being broadcast on Croatian state television but it raised little interest in Serbia. Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak have pleaded innocent and are regarded as heroes in their homeland.
Prosecutors have demanded sentences of 27 years for Gotovina, 23 years for Markac and 17 years for Cermak. Their trial began in March 2008 and heard from 145 witnesses. Verdicts are expected later this year.
The tribunal has in other cases convicted several senior officers for issuing orders to their men to commit atrocities, or for failing to punish subordinates who violated international law.
In this case, however, the prosecution acknowledges Croatian troops repeatedly were warned against committing crimes, but it claims those orders were never meant to be followed.
"It is clear that Gen. Gotovina expected his orders to prevent looting and burning to fail, and when they did he did not want to know anything about it or do anything about it," said prosecutor Katrina Gustafson.
Prosecutor Alan Tieger told the three-judge panel that it was "patently absurd that there was any genuine intent to implement them." Instead, he said the orders were intended to fool the international community into believing Zagreb was acting to prevent crimes and to distance the Croat government and military from atrocities.
Tieger quoted testimony from former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, who told judges Operation Storm included "serious and systematic crimes for which the Croatian leadership is fully responsible."
Prosecutor Ed Russo said Croatia used a campaign of indiscriminate shelling to spark terror among the Serb population and followed it with "psychological operations" including dropping leaflets advising Serbs how to flee the region. Once the Serbs were gone, Zagreb began an operation to repopulate the region with Croats.
Russo said testimony from survivors showed that Serbs "fled to escape the widespread and unlawful artillery attack on their towns and villages."
Defense lawyers argue that the shelling was aimed at legitimate military targets and that orders for troops not to commit crimes were genuine attempts to prevent attacks on civilians. Gotovina's lawyer Luka Misetic argues that the Serb exodus was planned by Croatian Serb leaders.
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Associated Press writers Snjezana Vukic in Zagreb and Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed to this report.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/30/croatia-ethnically-cleans_n_698953.html |
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Post by terroreign on Sept 5, 2012 3:22:31 GMT -5
Now it's just official - the Croats don't have a leg to stand on. Knin is already majorly Serbian again anyway.
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punisher
Moderator
JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL
Posts: 806
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Post by punisher on Sept 5, 2012 4:34:00 GMT -5
these serbs better stay in serbia whose population is shrinking faster than the titanic  |
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Post by uz on Sept 5, 2012 18:25:56 GMT -5
these serbs better stay in serbia whose population is shrinking faster than the titanic  |
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Post by Croatian Vanguard on Sept 5, 2012 20:13:05 GMT -5
Lol. Serbs are funny. Anything the UN or the Hague says about Serbia they get all paranoid and love to whine about some conspiracy. Ah, but if the Hague passes a pro-Serb judgement over Croats then its perfectly fine and honest. Lol. Knin is not 'majorly' ( dictionary?) Serb either. Even if it was it doesn't matter because if Serbs try to make another criminal state out of it that remaining 4.5% in Croatia will also cease to exist. Unless you can prove to me Babic and Martic were Croats then Serbs ordered their own evacuation from Croatia. You can't spin that very much.
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Post by terroreign on Sept 7, 2012 20:10:45 GMT -5
majorly is the correct spelling preso. And I say that since I spoke to a few Krajina Serbs while in Belgrade who go to Lika and Knin every year and tell me that there are more Serbian License plates in Knin than Croat, which I initially didn't believe but I could definitely believe that during vacation times when Serbs return to visit the houses they were kicked out of.
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Post by Shqipni13 on Sept 7, 2012 22:37:37 GMT -5
Lol. Serbs are funny. Anything the UN or the Hague says about Serbia they get all paranoid and love to whine about some conspiracy. Ah, but if the Hague passes a pro-Serb judgement over Croats then its perfectly fine and honest. Lol. Knin is not 'majorly' ( dictionary?) Serb either. Even if it was it doesn't matter because if Serbs try to make another criminal state out of it that remaining 4.5% in Croatia will also cease to exist. Unless you can prove to me Babic and Martic were Croats then Serbs ordered their own evacuation from Croatia. You can't spin that very much. +1 |
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Post by uz on Sept 7, 2012 23:37:15 GMT -5
Lol. Serbs are funny. Anything the UN or the Hague says about Serbia they get all paranoid and love to whine about some conspiracy. Ah, but if the Hague passes a pro-Serb judgement over Croats then its perfectly fine and honest. Lol. Knin is not 'majorly' ( dictionary?) Serb either. Even if it was it doesn't matter because if Serbs try to make another criminal state out of it that remaining 4.5% in Croatia will also cease to exist. Unless you can prove to me Babic and Martic were Croats then Serbs ordered their own evacuation from Croatia. You can't spin that very much. +1 I don't know what your gettin off on but most Serbs know that anything through the Hague is intended and orchestrated. This type of justice is not taken seriously at all. So you guys can pipe down your spite. |
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Post by bowandarrow on Sept 8, 2012 4:55:25 GMT -5
Tito ethnically cleansed Italians also. : )
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Post by branislavnusic on Aug 17, 2018 10:43:30 GMT -5
Lol. Serbs are funny. Anything the UN or the Hague says about Serbia they get all paranoid and love to whine about some conspiracy. Ah, but if the Hague passes a pro-Serb judgement over Croats then its perfectly fine and honest. Lol. Knin is not 'majorly' ( dictionary?) Serb either. Even if it was it doesn't matter because if Serbs try to make another criminal state out of it that remaining 4.5% in Croatia will also cease to exist. Unless you can prove to me Babic and Martic were Croats then Serbs ordered their own evacuation from Croatia. You can't spin that very much. C'mon you've got to at least like Srpska Tromedja |
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Post by Rusyn on Apr 17, 2020 20:50:40 GMT -5
hey croats let me tell u my honest opinion about you. i shit on every croat genocider so bad. fuk ante pavelic fukc franjo tudjman u sick animals expiled serbs from their homes u sick fucks. we all know good how u killed serbs u barbaric nation by throwing out pregnant women's embrion and burning it in front of her eyes then cutting head off. you will not get away with this sick animals. NOZ KOLaC JaSENOVaC aLI OVOG PUTa HRVaTI CE BITI ZRTVE.
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