The chairman of the parliamentary committee on war veterans, Josip Djakic, on Wednesday received a group of war veterans, who started a hunger strike in downtown Zagreb on 19 April in protest against the verdict of the Hague war crimes tribunal against Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.
Djakic tried to convince the hunger striking veterans to start taking food and support the legal battle against the indictment by the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
Djakic told reporters he tried to explain to the veterans that a hunger strike could hardly do anything for the generals who personally asked that there should be no protests.
We also talked about their proposal that the general amnesty be reversed, Djakic said, adding that he tried to explain to the veterans that reversing the amnesty would not abolish the exemption from responsibility of those who committed war crimes.
We also discussed details of Croatia's current political and legal battle, Djakic said.
The Hague tribunal on April 15 sentenced General Gotovina to 24 years in prison pending appeal, while General Markac was sentenced to 18 years in prison for war crimes committed in 1995's Operation Storm. A third defendant in the case, General Ivan Cermak, was acquitted.
