THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Veterans protested on the streets of Zagreb after a popular Croatian general regarded as a national hero was jailed for "ethnic cleansing" war crimes as the price Croatia will pay for joining the EU later this year.
The Croatian government reacted with fury to the UN judgment finding Ante Gotovina guilty of war crimes for commanding "Operation Storm", a 1995 campaign still defended as "a legitimate military operation with the objective of liberating Croatian territory from occupation".
But Gotovina was convicted on nine counts of war crimes, including murder, deportation, persecution and inhuman acts. Mladen Markac, another Croat general in charge of "special" police forces was jailed for 18 years.
Jadranka Kosor, Croatia's Prime Minister, was especially angered by the UN's ruling which named President Franjo Tudjman, independent Croatia's founding father, who died in 1999, as a war crime conspirator along with Gotovina.
"The verdict is unacceptable to the government and we will do everything in our power to change it," said Mrs Kosor.
Gen. Gotovina, 55, a former parachute commando in the French Foreign Legion, commanded the lightning paced Operation Storm campaign that took back the Krajina region, Serbian communities along Croatia's eastern border that was held by Serb rebels early in the Balkan wars. » | Bruno Waterfield, The Hague | Friday, April 15, 2011
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