Croatian War Criminals Aquitted by the Hague Tribunal

Ironweaver

Crossposting from BTL.

An international scandal is shaking the Balkans - Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač, sentenced to 24 and 18 years of prison by the Hague Tribunal for the ethnic cleansing of more than 200,000 Croatian Serbs in 1995, have been cleared of all charges by Judge Theodor Meron after appealing their case.

This trial was much more than a trial to individuals, it was focusing on collective, national guilt. The aquittal carries the implication that all guilt of the war in Croatia is to be blamed solely on Serbs, while Croats were justified in any wrongdoings. Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, claims that Croatia's guilt is being washed off due to the fact that it is to join the EU next year.

Needless to say, Serbs are collectively pissed off, while Croats are partying in the streets. The generals have returned to Croatia today, and the government has give them a heroes' welcome, with thousands of people gathering to greet them. The cheering crowd, apart from Croatian flags and the generals' portraits, was displaying black flags of the Nazi Ustaša units from WW2, revived during the Yugoslav war, and playing songs by neo-Nazi musician Marko Perković Thompson, banned from playing in multiple European countries due to the hateful content of his lyrics.

Vladimir Vukčević, the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, and Rasim Ljajić, the President of the National Council For Cooperation with the Hague, formerly the greatest advocates of cooperation with the Tribunal, have said that the court's decision is scandalous, and claim that the Hague Tribunal has lost all credibility. President Tomislav Nikolić and Prime Minister Ivica Dačić have said that the Tribunal is "not a court", but a political tool. Likewise, Nikola Selaković, the Minister of Justice, has called the aquittal a mockery of justice.

The Serbian government has decided to downgrade ties with Hague to "purely technical", claiming that it has no more credibility.
Meanwhile, Vuk Jeremić, President of the UN General Assembly and Serbian diplomat, has had a breakdown on Twitter and said that he will cease with euphemising his thoughts on "Hague justice" and swore that he will do such a damage to the international criminals and the Tribunal itself so they won't know what got to them. (no article on English, unfortunately)

I can't begin to describe how pissed off I am about the whole thing. It's a fucking shame that Croatia gets to join the EU despite all of this.

saladofstones

Especially since the Serbian counterparts to this were tried. The fact that some of them were something akin to heroes for the Serbs, this is probably going to get ugly.

But again, I remember the book I had on Doctors without borders detailing the civil war said that the international community was prejudiced against the Serbs at this stage.