The Youth Initiative for Human Rights strongly condemns the reactions of the President of Croatia, Prime Minister, Parliamentary Speaker and members of the Croatian Government and Croatian Parliament whose statements show clear and unambiguous solidarity with war criminals, deny their responsibility for war crimes and depreciate the facts established in the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia.

Our message to the President of the Republic, Prime Minister and Parliamentary Speaker is that war criminals are not our heroes.

Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić are convicted war criminals. They have been sentenced to long prison sentences for crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violation of the laws and customs of war. They are responsible for the murders of civilians and prisoners of war, establishment of war camps and detention centres, torture, persecution and destruction of civilian buildings.

The six of them participated in joint criminal enterprise together with military and political leadership of the Republic of Croatia of that period: President of Croatia Franjo Tuđman, Defence Minister Gojko Šušak and Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Army Janko Bobetko. Their joint plan was aimed at political and military subjugation, permanent removal and ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats who used to live in the parts of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed to belong to Croatian Community (later the Republic) of Herzeg-Bosnia, and annexation of these territories, in the short run or over a longer period, so that they become part of the Republic of Croatia or closely connected with it. Aggressive character of Croatia’s involvement in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been established only in this case, but also in the cases of Aleksovski (IT-95-14/1), Blaškić (IT-95-14), Bralo (IT-95-17), Kordić and Čerkez (IT-95-14/2), Naletilić and Martinović (IT-98-34) and Rajić (IT-95-12).

Such a behaviour of the highest authorities of the Republic of Croatia is not in accordance with the purpose of ICTY and the spirit of the Constitutional Act and Declaration on the Cooperation of the Republic of Croatia with the ICTY. We demand that government representatives refrain from distortion and false presentation of conclusions and facts from the judgments of ICTY trial and appeal chambers and stop communicating deeply immoral and irresponsible messages.

To accept and confront what we are not proud of is an integral part of responsible politics, while honest and full respect for victims and the values of reconciliation and justice should be society’s priority, particularly in the regions with recent war history.