Dear President Grabar-Kitarović,
The Supreme Court of Croatia rendered its final judgment yesterday, increasing the prison sentence for Tomislav Merčep to seven years. Tomislav Merčep was the Interior Minister assistant during the war and your honoured guest at the inauguration and reception on the occasion of the Statehood Day. The Supreme Court of Croatia found that the lower court had failed to sufficiently weight as an aggravating circumstance the fact that your honoured guest was charged with killing Serb civilians over prolonged period of time and in particularly brutal manner.
In May last year, he was sentenced by County Court’s first instance judgment to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, because, as a unit commander, he did not prevent crimes against civilians in the regions of Kutina, Pakrac and Zagreb. Members of his unit, known as ‘Merčep’s men’ (Merčepovci), unlawfully arrested 52 persons, 43 of whom were killed, three are still missing, while six survived torture and abuse.
We already warned you last year that you are obliged, in the name of the Republic of Croatia, to offer an apology to victims’ families because you invited and offered hospitality to a war criminal at the event which represents the institutions of our country. We are doing it again, and we remind you that it is even more important to do it this time.
Since in your yesterday’s press release, you condemned any form of violence and intolerance, we are hopeful that you will not forget to condemn the crimes and offer an apology to the families of victims unlawfully arrested, tortured, abused and murdered in 1991 by the members of the unit under command of your honoured guest
We would especially like to stress this, because these days you are meeting Carmel Agius, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, a body whose evidence largely helped establish the truth about crimes for which Merčep is responsible. You should use this opportunity to talk about the importance of investigation of crimes in Gospić and Vukovar, for which your honoured guest is also suspected. At the same time, we believe that you will realise that inviting a war criminal to the inauguration and reception is not in accordance with the values of full cooperation of Croatia with ICTY as the body trying to end impunity and offer justice to all victims of crimes from the wars of the 1990s.
Dear Ms. President, we want to emphasise that inviting a war criminal to official events of the Office of the President is not in accordance with conscientious and responsible work of a President of the Republic and that it is contrary to the wellbeing of all Croatian citizens. By inviting him to official events of the Office representing the Republic of Croatia, you have given legitimacy to Merčep’ crimes.
It is important that you acknowledge suffering, torment and pain of all citizens of Croatia, regardless of their political affiliation, ethnic or national origin, and realise that inviting the war criminal was an insult, not only for the victims, but also for those who had been fighting during the 1990s for a democratic society governed by the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Since you often talk about community and togetherness as fundamental values of this society, we urge you not to let these words remain just a phrase this time, but to offer an apology and thus show that what we need is community and togetherness in condemning every war crime and its glorification.
Dear Ms. President, Tomislav Merčep embarrassed this country with his crimes in 1991. By inviting him to your inauguration and the reception on the occasion of the Statehood Day, you did the same in 2015. We hope that you will not make the same mistake today. For this reason, we demand once again that you offer an apology to all the victims for whose suffering your honoured guest is responsible.
Sincerely,
Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Photo: Roberta F. at Croatian Wikipedia.
