Top Croat Army Suspects Surrender

Croatian generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac were solemn-faced and dressed in black suits when they appeared before the Hague tribunal on March 12.

Both men pleaded “not guilty” to a litany of charges spelled out in an indictment that shocked the Croatian government and forced it to walk a fine line between alienating hard-line nationalists or jeopardising its chances of joining the European Union.

Cermak, a wealthy oilman who ran Knin after its capture, and Markac, commander of the special police units who moved into the area, are charged with participating in a “joint criminal enterprise” that aimed to force the Serb population out of the Krajina region.

An additional indictment presented to the Zagreb government expanded the charges against General Ante Gotovina, who has been on the run for several months.

The indictments – the most serious against Croatian officers to date – allege that the country’s military and political leadership, planned and carried out ethnic cleansing by plundering and destroying the property of the Serb population with the aim of discouraging or preventing members of the minority from ever returning to the region.

Among the most serious charges is the murder by Croatian forces of “at least 150 Krajina Serbs, by means of shooting, burning or stabbing”.

Operation Storm, as the Croatian army’s military offensive in the Krajina was called, took place on August 5, 1995 – a date the late Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, named as a national holiday, called Homeland Independence, now known as National Thanksgiving Day.

Tudjman, among others, is named as a participant in the joint criminal enterprise responsible for the crimes.

The government was presented with the indictments on March 1, but because cooperation with the Hague court is such a political hot potato, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader refused to acknowledge it for seven days even though the media had already seen the indictments and was even informed as to when the accused would depart for The Hague.

Although Sanader claimed that the government was merely acting in line with the tribunal’s rules, it appears that he was in fact buying time while he negotiated their surrender.

The indictments arrived at a difficult time for Sanader. He has stated that his most important foreign policy aim is to secure Croatia’s accession to the EU in 2007, however Brussels has made cooperation with the tribunal a pre-condition for admission.

Gotovina’s refusal to surrender has already rendered Zagreb in non-compliance and provoked the Dutch and British parliaments to refuse to ratify a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Croatia – something that is essential for membership in the EU.

On a recent visit to Brussels, Croatian president Stipe Mesic insisted that Gotovina was not in Croatia and that Zagreb was thus powerless to arrange his transfer, however, tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte has insisted that the fugitive general is hiding in the country.

If Sanader did not secure the transfer of Cermak and Markac to The Hague, he knew Croatia would likely lose any chance of joining the union. However, arranging for their surrender was not easy, government officials said.

“First he had to curb the hawks within his ranks, many of whom fiercely oppose cooperation with The Hague. He had a much easier job with the opposition,” said a senior member of the Croatian Democratic Union, who wished to remain anonymous.

Indeed, apart from the Croatian Rights Party, HSP, which is even more opposed to The Hague than the HDZ, the rest of Croatia’s political parties are in favour of cooperating with the tribunal.

In fact, former prime minister Ivica Racan, a social democrat who lost elections in November last year, urged HDZ members to support the government in its effort to comply with the tribunal’s demands.

He also called on government members to refrain from supporting any demonstrations that might ensue, referring to a June 2001 incident when the HDZ expressed support for members of the Croatian War Veterans Association who protested against tribunal’s indictments against Gotovina and General Janko Bobetko.

The demonstrators – many of whom are close to Sanader – accused Racan’s government of being traitors.

Ironically, even though Sanader’s party is not pre-disposed to cooperating with the tribunal, it was better able to do so than Racan’s more liberal government.

“Had indictments accusing the Croatian government of participating in a joint criminal enterprise arrived in Croatia during the former government’s mandate, the government would have fallen within 24 hours,” a former minister in Racan’s cabinet told IWPR.

Sanader, however, because his nationalist credentials are not in question, was able to negotiate the generals’ surrender.

During the week that he refused to acknowledge that the indictments existed, Sanader convinced Cermak and Markac that they should voluntarily give themselves up. According to government insiders, the generals agreed to surrender on March 6 after eating lunch at Cermak’s luxurious villa in Krapinske Toplice, near Zagreb, along with their lawyers, Deputy Prime Minister Andrija Hebrang and Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt.

The generals reportedly agreed after the ministers assured them that the government would do all in its power to help their defence.

Only after the deal was clinched did Sanader acknowledge that the indictments had in fact been delivered.

“The Croatian government and I, as its representative, wish to clearly state that we find some of the allegations in the indictment completely unacceptable,” he said.

The best way to prove this, however, was to send the generals to The Hague and have them defend themselves, he said.

“We are considering the best way to challenge some of the allegations in the indictment, within the framework of cooperation with The Hague, and these allegations can only be refuted before the court at The Hague,” he said.

He added that he stood firmly by the government’s declaration that the Homeland War - as the Croats view the conflict of the early Nineties - was a just war for liberation, and dismissed the possibility that ethnic cleansing of the Serb population had been planned.

General Cermak echoed Sanader’s sentiments. “I was scared of myself when I saw the contents of the indictment,” he said, adding that he was turning himself in to “help Croatia”.

Some 300 supporters saw the generals off as they boarded their plane to Holland.

Drago Hedl is a regular IWPR contributor based in Osijek