Croatia responsible for crimes during Bosnian War

Six former political and military leaders of the Bosnian Croats were sentenced to a total of 111 years in prison on May 29 by the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia. They were found guilty of implementing an ethnic cleansing operation from 1992 to 1994 aimed at expelling Muslims from the area and creating Herzég Bosna, a Croat entity within Bosnia-Herzegovina, drawn according to the 1939 boarders, and which was to be annexed by Croatia.

The court also condemned the "criminal enterprise," reports Croatian daily Novi list on its front page. "Croatia was found guilty of aggression towards Bosnia-Herzegovina," the paper notes, because the verdict also includes former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, his former Defence Minister Gojko Šušak, and General Janko Bobetko, [Chief of Staff from 1992-1995].

According to Novi list, this verdict means –

Public opinion must face what it has refused for the past 20 years – that is, that crimes were committed. [...] The catharsis cannot operate as long as we do not recognise that what happened should not have happened and that Croatian leaders, at the highest level, bear their share of responsibility. Plunging our heads in the sand, a month before Croatia joins the European Union, by saying that we are today a different nation than the one in 1993, and a more mature society, is immoral.

Another Croatian daily, Jutarnji list, notes "concern in Zagreb" and "anger in Mostar," the "capital" of the Bosnian Croats. But the paper also notes that "the crimes committed by the HVO (Croatian Defence Council) were well-known," and that "the war between the Croats and the Bosnians was led militarily, logistically and in large part politically, from Zagreb".

Nonetheless, the paper adds that "the verdict of Court in The Hague raises two important questions" –

Firstly, we can wonder (at least until it is confirmed in the appellate court) whether the court condemned the right guilty parties and, secondly, if this constitutes a criminal enterprise. [...] The conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina was very complex. On the one hand the military intervention against the Bosnian Army did occur but on the other hand, Croatia welcomed 200,000 Bosnian refugees and the Bosnian Army did obtain arms from inside Croatian territory.