Croat generals' war crimes trial opens

Three generals regarded as national heroes in Croatia went on trial today at the UN war crimes tribunal for orchestrating the slaughter of at least 150 Serbs.

Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac are accused of launching a 1995 military campaign that unleashed widespread murder and pillage and led to the expulsion of up to 200,000 people in the offensive.

It was known as “Operation Storm,” and aimed at reclaiming the Krajina region of southern Croatia.

“This trial arises from the forcible elimination of Krajina’s Serbs from Croatia and the destruction of their community ... and the roles and responsibilities of three men, generals in the Croatian army, in that process,” prosecutor Alan Tieger told the tribunal in The Hague.

The case is forcing Croatia to confront the brutal reality of Operation Storm - which is seen by many Croats as a military triumph – and the key role played by the late President Franjo Tudjman, who called Serbs “a cancer on the underbelly of Croatia.”

Mr Tieger said Tudjman, under investigation when he died in 1999, plotted along with Gotovina and Markac to retake the land captured by Croatian Serb rebels four years earlier with a campaign of shelling and military strikes.

“We have to inflict such blows that the Serbs will to all practical purposes disappear,” Tudjman said in a planning meeting with Gotovina and other military leaders.

The generals, wearing suits and flanked by UN guards, sat impassively behind three benches of defence lawyers as Mr Tieger began outlining his case to the three UN judges.

The generals have pleaded not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution, plunder and inhumane treatment of civilians. If convicted, they face a maximum of life in prison.

Prosecutors say troops commanded by the generals rampaged through village after village during the three-month campaign, pillaging and torching homes and killing residents.

“The Serb community was a scarred wasteland of destroyed villages and homes,” Mr Tieger said.

“This case is about three men who were instrumental in those crimes,” he said.

In their indictment, prosecutors say Gotovina, a former French Foreign Legionnaire, knew what was likely to happen, failed to take steps to prevent atrocities or stop them once they began, and took no action against those who committed the crimes.

Unlike neighbour Serbia, whose path to EU membership is blocked by its failure to hand over key war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, Croatia took a major step toward joining when it co-operated with Hague investigators hunting Gotovina, who went on the run in 2001. Croatia now hopes to join the EU by the end of the decade.

The indictment alleges that Croat forces led by the generals murdered civilians, including the elderly, women and invalids.

“Persons were observed being shot at point-blank range and killed execution style, and many persons had to look on while family members were killed,” the indictment charges.

Many Croatians still argue that the campaign was necessary to win back the self-declared Serb republic.