ZAGREB, 12. NOV. 2016 – After reports that Croatia’s Vice-Prime Minister is under investigation for war crimes in Bosnia, a Croatian expert says Zagreb could take over the prosecution of crimes allegedly committed by Croatian citizens in Bosnia. Following the arrests of Bosnian Croats in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje, and reports of war crimes investigations into Croatia’s Vice-Prime Minister, Croatia could try to take over the prosecution of Croatian citizens accused of war crimes in Bosnia, Professor Vesna Crnic Grotic says. The professor of international law at the Faculty of Law in the Croatian city of Rijeka and former head of Croatia’s legal team for the genocide suit against Serbia told BIRN that there are no barriers against Croatia itself prosecuting Croatian citizens for crimes allegedly committed in Bosnia. She pointed to the protocol signed by Croatia’s state attorney office and the Bosnian state prosecution in 2013. “Croatia ran a war-crimes process against Fikret Abdic [leader of the unrecognised statelet of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region in the 1990s] if you recall,” she said. “He was indicted by the Bosnian authorities for crimes committed in Bosnia but since he was then living in Croatia, and had Croatian citizenship, the two countries made a deal and he was tried and served his prison sentence in Croatia,” she explained. Crnic Grotic was speaking after reports that the Croatian Vice-Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Damir Krsticevic, is under investigation in Bosnia for crimes committed there during the 1990s. Following the report, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic also suggested that Croatia should on its own prosecute its own citizens for crimes committed in Bosnia. She said earlier the Croatian authorities should take over the cases made against its citizens recently arrested in the Bosnian town of Orasje. Bosnia’s authorities are meanwhile said to be investigating Krsticevic’s role in crimes committed in the towns of Jajce and Donji Vakuf in central Bosnia, where the Bosnian prosecution says 32 civilians and nine Serbian POWs were killed in the mid-1990s. Alongside Krsticevic, former Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic is investigated for crimes committed in the two towns. Blaskic was jailed already in 2004 by the International Criminal Tribunal, ICTY, for nine years for for breaching the Geneva conventions and violations of laws or customs of war. Blaskic’s lawyer, Anto Nobilo, confirmed the existence of an investigation on Jajce and Donji Vakuf to BIRN. However, he said it was “most likely there will not be any indictment filed, at least against Blaskic”, partly because the charges are made “too high up the chain of command”, having in mind the extent of the crimes. Like the retired Croatian general, Kristicevic has for years been under investigation for war crimes – this time committed in the western Bosnian town of Mrkonjic Grad. Around 150 Serb civilians were killed there when the Croatian army entered Bosnia and fought Bosnian Serbs in 1995 following the victorious completion of Operation “Storm” against Croatian Serb rebels in Croatia itself. Although no indictment has been filed against Krsticevic, he cancelled a planned meeting in Sarajevo.
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