After the Appeals Judgment for Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Croatia highlights that even 17 years later, the most serious crimes committed during the operation “Storm” are without punishment while the victims are without justice and recognition.
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The ICTY’s final judgment in the trial of General Gotovina and General Markac brings no justice to the victims. According to the appellate decision for acquittal, no form of state responsibility of the Republic of Croatia has been established for the crimes committed during and after Operation Storm. Accordingly, no joint criminal enterprise has been established, nor even the generals’ individual criminal responsibility.
On the occasion of adopting a non-appealable verdict, brought by the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY, which releases Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač from custody, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past wants to, once more, emphasize the need to bear in mind families of victims and not let the crimes committed during the operation ‘Storm’ remain a tragedy without an epilogue.
The Coalition for Access to Justice has expressed great concern over the statements of Serbia’s current President Tomislav Nikolic, and its former President Boris Tadic, which deny the facts established by courts about the genocide in Srebrenica. The Coalition would like to direct the current and former Presidents’ attention to Serbia’s obligation as a member of the UN, of the Council of Europe and of the OSCE, to respect court verdicts, and to request that in their public appearances and statements they cease bringing the Republic of Serbia into disrepute and doing harm to the process of reconciliation in the region.
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The anniversary of the suffering of the victims from Sjeverin was observed on Monday, October 22nd in Priboj.
The Municipal Administration in Priboj has dismissed the requests of three families of kidnapped residents of Sjeverin to be officially recognized as families of civilian victims of war in Serbia. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families of the kidnapped Sjeverin residents, filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour, Employment, and Social Policy on October 17th, 2012 against the Administration’s decision, noting that it was in violation of the Constitution, laws, and international conventions protecting human rights and pointing out that claims filed by family members of the war crime victims from Sjeverin had been dismissed on the basis of criteria that are not applied in cases of victims of Serbian nationality. The HLC filed its complaints with the Ombudsman, Saša Janković.
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The First Basic Court in Belgrade delivered a judgment declaring the Republic of Serbia responsible for torture and inhuman treatment committed by members of the Serbian Ministry of interior (Serbian MUP against Mustafa Kolgeci, a Kosovo Albanian from Suva Reka/Suhareke while he was in detention between September 1998 and January 2000. The Court ordered the Republic of Serbia to pay 380,000 Serbian Dinars in non-material damages but rejected his compensation claim for unlawful detention, noting that it was invalid because of the statute of limitations. The HLC believes that the court decision is unjust and inappropriate when compared to the suffering that Kolgeci was continuously exposed to during the 16 months he was in detention and is a continuation of the Serbian courts’ practice of putting the interests of the government and its budget ahead of justice for victims of serious human rights violations committed during 1990’s by Serbian troops.