ZAGREB, 13. DEC. 2016 – Croatian officials and veterans opened a monument to a military police battalion at the former Lora prison camp, where several Serbs were tortured and killed by battalion members in 1992. Several hundred people including war veterans and politicians gathered on Tuesday in front of the Lora military base in the coastal city of Split to inaugurate a monument dedicated to the 72nd battalion of Croatia’s 1990s military police, some of whose members have been convicted of war crimes. On the 25th anniversary of the founding of the unit and in memory of 12 of its members who were killed during the 1990s war, the large monument in the shape of a giant letter ‘H’ has been installed next to the base, which was also the site of a wartime prison camp where several Serb civilians and soldiers were tortured and killed by members of the 72nd battalion. Along with local politicians and representatives of the government, the president and parliament, members of various 1990s units were present, including the Knight Rafael Boban unit of the Croatian Defence Forces, which started as a paramilitary force and was later integrated into the Croatian Army. The Knight Rafael Boban unit has the Croatian World War II fascist slogan ‘Za dom spremni’ (‘Ready for the Home(land)’) on its officially registered coat of arms. One of the main speakers at the event was the president of its veterans’ association, Zlatko Cipcic, who dedicated the opening of the monument to the members of the unit and all Croatian soldiers who died in the 1990s war. “This letter ‘H’ can only annoy the wicked and enemies of the Croatian state. The letter ‘H’ represents Hrvatska [Croatia], heroes and the hrabrost [courage] shown by our fighters,” Cipcic said. Cipcic also said that his thoughts went out to six former Bosnian Croat officers, awaiting final judgement before the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He added that it was “incomprehensible that Tomislav Mercep, Emilio Bungur and Tomislav Duic are in our [Croatian] prisons”. Mercep, former assistant to the interior minister in the 1990s and the unofficial commander of a reserve police battalion, who was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison in June for war crimes against Serb civilians committed in 1991 and 1992, while Bungur and Duic are former members of battalion who were convicted for war crimes in their absence and are now undergoing a retrial. Cipcic also took a swipe at anti-fascist activists who have criticised right-wing apologists for the WWII-era Nazi-allied regime in Croatia. “Hereby I am sending a message to so-called anti-fascists that the only anti-fascists in Croatia are the participants of the Homeland War [the name used in Croatia for the 1990s war] that fought against Greater Serbian fascism,” he said. “Croatia is created on the foundations of anti-fascism, but the [anti-fascism] of the Homeland War,” Cipcic concluded, implicitly dismissing the anti-fascist struggle during World War II. The mayor of Split, Ivo Baldasar spoke after Cipcic and said he agreed with the definition of Croatian anti-fascism. “Sure, I feel sorrow and regret for the victims; I am sure that somebody mentioned them [in a speech], I didn’t; it’s not my place to mention them. I am really sorry this happened, but you can’t criminalise the whole Homeland War,” Baldasar told journalists. So far, two cases have been launched at county court in Split for war crimes committed against Serb civilians held at the Lora prison camp in 1992. In the case dubbed ‘Lora 1’, six former military policemen have been convicted of involvement in torture which resulted in the deaths of two men. Two other defendants still on trial. In the ‘Lora 2’ case, five former military policemen are accused of killing three prisoners. All those put on trial were members of the 72nd battalion of the Croatian military police, which was honoured with the memorial. Another case known as ‘Lora 3’, which centres on alleged war crimes committed against Yugoslav People’s Army prisoners, mostly Montenegrins, is still being investigated by the Croatian state attorney’s office.
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