ZAGREB, 23 Aug (Hina) - In its indictment against four Croatian Air Force pilots, charged with complicity in a war crime against civilians during Croatia's 1995 military operation "Storm", the Serbian judiciary also states grounds for its jurisdiction over the case, which Croatia has categorically challenged.
The Zagreb office of the regional N1 broadcaster on Monday reported having obtained the Serbian indictment, a 26-page document issued on 31 March and upheld by the Belgrade Appeals Court in mid-August.
Excerpts of the indictment state, among other things, that the indictees, "by violating rules of international law defined by the Geneva Conventions, ordered - and their orders were carried out - air attacks on civilians not participating in hostilities", who should be treated humanely in every situation, without any discrimination based on ethnic background, and protected from any form of violence.
The attacks resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of Serb civilians, whose names and dates of birth are stated in the indictment, which stresses that the victims included four children - Jovica Drča (1989), Darko Vuković (1982), Nevenka Rajić (1984) and Žarko Rajić (1986).
Cited in the indictment are also statements made by then Croatian President Franjo Tuđman at a meeting of the Croatian military and political leadership in Brijuni on the eve of Operation Storm in late July 1995 (so-called Brijuni transcripts), including his statement that Croatia has the support of Germany, NATO and the United States for the operation, its aim being to "inflict such blows that the Serbs will to all practical purposes disappear."
The indictment underlines that the then conflict in Croatia's territory did not have the character of an international conflict because parties to the conflict were the Croatian Army and the Croatian Ministry of the Interior on one side and units of the army of the so-called Republic of Serb Krajina on the other.
According to statements made at the 31 July 1995 meeting of Croatia's military and political leadership in Brijuni, Serbs should be ostensibly guaranteed civil rights and be called on publicly not to leave their homes while at the same time, they should be provided with information, via radio and television and leaflets, about the road routes the population is moving along while leaving Croatia.
The indicted pilots, by carrying out the Brijuni decision and realising the set goals through coordination between lower and higher levels of command in the Croatian Air Force, ordered air attacks on the refugee column.
Under the indictment, the four pilots were part of the chain of command in which further orders were conveyed and issued, up to an unidentified pilot of the 22nd Squadron who, with a MiG 21 jet, attacked the refugee column as it was moving along the Bosanski Petrovac - Ključ road in the afternoon of 7 August 1995, in the locality of Kapljuh in Bravsko, part of the municipality of Bosanski Petrovac in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The indictment alleges that the unidentified pilot first flew over the refugee column and on his way back, even though he was aware that it was not a legitimate military target, he attacked, with aircraft cannons and S24 rockets, the column with carriages, passenger and freight vehicles and tractors, killing ten civilians.
Under a decision of the Belgrade High Court's War Crimes Department, given the nature of the crime, the four indictees were to be remanded in custody on 29 December 2021 even though they are beyond the reach of the Serbian judiciary.
Since neither Serbia nor Croatia allows the extradition of their citizens, the indictment proposes that the indictees Vladimir Mikac, Zdenko Radulj, Željko Jelenić and Danijel Borović be tried in their absence.
The indictment states that there are more than reasonable grounds to do so, including the allegation that they are charged with war crimes against civilians and are beyond the reach of Serbian authorities.
The War Crimes Department further holds that it has jurisdiction over the case as to the substance of the matter, in line with Article 3 of the Act on Organisation and Jurisdiction of Organs of State, which says, among other things, that Serbian state organs defined by that law have jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim.
Serbian war crimes prosecutors hold that the time that has passed since the crime gives sufficient reason to doubt that countries in the region, for example, Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, would launch criminal proceedings and try to prosecute those responsible for the crime.
"That is one of the reasons why the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor has decided to launch the case, even if it means holding an in absentia trial," reads the indictment.
The Croatian government and senior state officials have, in the meantime, stressed on several occasions that Croatia does not recognise Serbia's jurisdiction in the case.
On the other hand, legal experts are divided on the matter - some support the position that Serbia cannot prosecute Croatian citizens while others recommend that the Croatian government and judiciary treat the case as a criminal law matter and prepare the pilots' defence accordingly.
Zagreb attorney Anto Nobilo has thus suggested that the evidence that the pilots did not commit the crime can be sought and obtained "from the state, at the Croatian Defence Ministry, which can provide it."
"Someone must go to the archives, investigate the matter, interview people who worked at the air bases. The actions that constitute classic criminal defence should be performed in Croatia. One should get in touch with colleagues in Belgrade and hire lawyers whose services will be paid for; the state can cover that cost and secure the best possible defence for the pilots. That's what would help the pilots, while platitudes that (Serbia) should look itself in the mirror or deal with its past won't help them," Nobilo told N1 Zagreb on Monday.
