BBC Worldwide Monitoring
November 6, 2005 Sunday

Bosnian TV reports on Rajic guilty plea fallout in Croatia

  Source: BHTV1, Sarajevo, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1900 gmt 3 Nov 05

  Excerpt from report aired on "Javna tajna" (Public Secret) current
  affairs programme, broadcast by Bosnian public broadcaster BHTV1 on
  3 November

[Host Amir Zukic] -- Croatia may yet pay dearly for the admission of
guilt by Ivica Rajic, who in his plea bargain with the Hague prosecution
has offered evidence on the involvement of Croatian forces in the war
in our country.  It is a public secret that as long as ten years ago
Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] and Croat officials agreed that, for the
sake of peace in the house, they would not be raising the issue of
the aggression by the Republic of Croatia against Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Boris Grubesic has investigated what Rajic's admission has brought and
who sent Croatian troops to Bosnia-Hercegovina:

[Reporter Boris Grubesic] -- Members of the Croatian intelligence service
closely followed Ivica Rajic's guilty plea at the Hague tribunal. In
addition to admitting his responsibility for the war crimes against
Bosniak population in Stupni Do and Vares, in his written statement
Rajic admitted that Croatia and the Croatian armed forces had been
directly involved in the events in Central Bosnia in 1993.

[Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Following the admission, the tribunal also made public
many documents that had been protected. Soon after the Stupni Do crimes,
Ivica Rajic was given a different identity and continued commanding
HVO [Bosnian Croat wartime army, Croat Defence Council] units under
the name of Viktor Andric. After [the signing of] the Dayton [peace]
agreement, the Croatian intelligence and security services helped him
hide in Split for eight years.  Only following the pressure exerted by
Western countries and the conditionality attached to European integration,
Croatian authorities extradited Rajic to the tribunal in the spring of
2003.  Also afraid following Rajic's admission are the other indicted
HVO and Herceg-Bosna [Bosnian Croat wartime para-state] officials
awaiting trials before the Hague tribunal since Rajic has committed
himself to testify in other cases.

[Ivo Pukanic of Zagreb-based weekly "Nacional"] -- Of two evils, he has
chosen the much lesser one.  And that he has got everyone around him in
trouble [in the process], this now a problem for those who were with him.
The question is where Ivica Rajic will be able to live once he has served
his sentence. I sincerely doubt it that those whom he has got into trouble
will leave him alone for as long as he lives.

[Reporter] -- Officials of the Croatian Civic Committee for Human Rights
assert that evidence on Croatia's involvement in the conflict in
Bosnia-Hercegovina is news only to those who have not wanted to know
about it. As long as 12 years ago, the committee collected evidence
and statements of Croatian young men who, under direct orders from the
Croatian army, were sent to frontlines in Bosnia-Hercegovina by force.
If they refused, they were sent to military prison.

[Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Rajic's admission has confirmed the facts that had
been presented over many years:  that Croatia had been involved in the
Bosniak-Croat conflict in Bosnia-Hercegovina.  However, analysts believe
that this fact cannot stop Croatia on its road towards the European Union.

[Pukanic] -- Well, I believe that Croatia will face absolutely
no consequences because of this.  It was known even before and it was
said several times in public that individual Croatian army units had been
involved in the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.  Croatia has received a green
light to start negotiations on joining the European Union.  We must be
realistic and say that de facto almost no-one in the world is interested
any longer in the war that happened in the region of former Yugoslavia,
especially in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

[Reporter] -- The defence of HVO general Tihomir Blaskic before the
Hague tribunal was also based on assertions that the orders for the
crimes in Ahmici village and in central Bosnia came from Zagreb, down a
double chain of command. Historians have also registered many instances of
direct presence of Croatian forces in the territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Professor Smail Cekic possesses evidence on the involvement of many
Croatian Army units in conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

[Smail Cekic, of the Sarajevo-based Institute for Investigation of
Crimes against Humanity] -- Numerous units were involved throughout
the aggression, including 45 brigades, in their entirety or partially;
then four regiments; eight battalions; one artillery regiment; two
divisions; one mixed seaborne-assault/infantry unit; one helicopter
squadron; two tactical groups; ten special units; and a number of
commando and other units.

[Reporter] -- According to Cekic, evidence also exists of Croatian
army leaders pulling the strings on frontlines in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

[Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Nevertheless, in 1994 an end was put to the Croat-Bosniak
conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Washington peace agreement
was signed. For evidently political reasons Croatia's responsibility for
crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina has never been raised before international
courts. Witnesses of these events assert that the Washington Agreement was
signed under the influence of the United States, which tried to reduce,
at least a little bit, the extent of conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
[Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Jadranko Prlic and five more former high-level officials
of former Herceg-Bosnia and HVO are awaiting the start of their trial
before the Hague tribunal. This trial is certain to reveal new facts
about the role of official Zagreb in conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina.