11 August 2010
A group of Ante Gotovina supporters is planning to welcome home the Croatian general indicted with war crimes committed during operation Storm.
Around 3,500 supporters gathered on Facebook group Welcome for General Gotovina are planning to organise a welcome ceremony in Pakostani near Zadar on November 1, the date when Gotovina is expected to be released from the detention unit in The Hague. Marko Perkovic Thompson, a controversial singer who is often tied to far right groups, is expected to be at the event. Every family in Pakostani is also expected to “donate one lamb” for a celebration dinner, according to the group's web page.
The Zagreb daily Jutarnji List reports that people in Pakostani are convinced that Gotovina will be set free or sentenced to no longer than the time he has already spent in detention from December 2005.
Closing remarks in his trial at The Hague are due on 30 August and are expected to last up to six days.“When Ante comes back, half of Croatia will gather here to welcome him… We, the people in Pakostani, never forgot him,” said for Jutarnje List Mladen Vujasin from Pakostani. Members of the Facebook group are leaving messages, some of them calling for Gotovina to be a new Croatian president or calling current president Ivo Jospovic a “traitor”. Ante Gotovina was charged together with Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac with crimes against humanity and violations of the rules or customs of war, including murder, inhumane acts and persecution, for their alleged role in the Croatian military offensive known as 'Operation Storm'.
The trial, which was held over the course of two-and-a-half years, included the testimony of 145 witnesses called by the prosecution and the defence teams and an additional seven called by the trial chamber.
Gotovina, Cermak and Markac are charged with participation in a joint criminal enterprise, headed by the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, to permanently remove the Serb population from the Krajina region in Croatia by force in the summer of 1995 in a military offensive known as 'Operation Storm'.
Gotovina was commander of the Split Military District of the Croatian Army and overall operational commander of the military operation Storm in 1995.
Cermak was assistant minister of defence from 1991 to 1993, and, during the offensive, commander of the Knin Garrison.
Markac was commander of the special police of the Ministry of the Interior from 1994.
Operation Storm, according to the indictment, was launched on August 4, 1995. The objective was to overtake the region of Krajina that had been under Serb control since 1991.
The operation was completed by 7 August. Follow-up actions continued until about 15 November.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/29912/
A group of Ante Gotovina supporters is planning to welcome home the Croatian general indicted with war crimes committed during operation Storm.
Around 3,500 supporters gathered on Facebook group Welcome for General Gotovina are planning to organise a welcome ceremony in Pakostani near Zadar on November 1, the date when Gotovina is expected to be released from the detention unit in The Hague. Marko Perkovic Thompson, a controversial singer who is often tied to far right groups, is expected to be at the event. Every family in Pakostani is also expected to “donate one lamb” for a celebration dinner, according to the group's web page.
The Zagreb daily Jutarnji List reports that people in Pakostani are convinced that Gotovina will be set free or sentenced to no longer than the time he has already spent in detention from December 2005.
Closing remarks in his trial at The Hague are due on 30 August and are expected to last up to six days.“When Ante comes back, half of Croatia will gather here to welcome him… We, the people in Pakostani, never forgot him,” said for Jutarnje List Mladen Vujasin from Pakostani. Members of the Facebook group are leaving messages, some of them calling for Gotovina to be a new Croatian president or calling current president Ivo Jospovic a “traitor”. Ante Gotovina was charged together with Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac with crimes against humanity and violations of the rules or customs of war, including murder, inhumane acts and persecution, for their alleged role in the Croatian military offensive known as 'Operation Storm'.
The trial, which was held over the course of two-and-a-half years, included the testimony of 145 witnesses called by the prosecution and the defence teams and an additional seven called by the trial chamber.
Gotovina, Cermak and Markac are charged with participation in a joint criminal enterprise, headed by the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, to permanently remove the Serb population from the Krajina region in Croatia by force in the summer of 1995 in a military offensive known as 'Operation Storm'.
Gotovina was commander of the Split Military District of the Croatian Army and overall operational commander of the military operation Storm in 1995.
Cermak was assistant minister of defence from 1991 to 1993, and, during the offensive, commander of the Knin Garrison.
Markac was commander of the special police of the Ministry of the Interior from 1994.
Operation Storm, according to the indictment, was launched on August 4, 1995. The objective was to overtake the region of Krajina that had been under Serb control since 1991.
The operation was completed by 7 August. Follow-up actions continued until about 15 November.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/29912/
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