European Parliament members Hannes Swoboda and Doris Pack said in Brussels on Wednesday that the last Amnesty International report on war crimes prosecutions in Croatia should not have a negative effect on the completion of Croatia's EU entry talks.
It is clear that Amnesty International must be strict in issues that it wants to accentuate, but if there is commitment on the part of the Croatian government to step up war crimes prosecution, it could have a positive effect. We want trials to be conducted in a satisfactory manner and if Croatia can guarantee it, there are no problems and we can expect successful completion of the accession talks, said Swoboda.
Swoboda, who is the European Parliament's rapporteur on Croatia, on Wednesday received for talks a delegation of Amnesty International who were visiting Brussels to inform EU officials involved in the accession talks with Croatia of the AI report "Behind A Wall of Silence: Prosecution of War Crimes in Croatia", released in December.
The Christian Democrat Doris Pack was very critical of the AI report.
A large majority in the European Parliament believes that Croatia has responded appropriately and done its part of the job regarding the issue of war crimes and their prosecution, and it's not good to constantly look for new reasons, regardless of who may be behind it, to prevent Croatia from joining the EU, Pack said.
One can always be better. Germany, France and other countries can be better too, but Croatia deserves to finally have its efforts commended and valued, said Pack.
AI's programme director for Europe and Central Asia, Nicola Duckworth, said after meeting Swoboda that she hoped that the report and what it had identified as shortcomings and obstacles in war crimes prosecution would be included in a debate on Croatia's meeting of benchmarks for EU membership.
In its last report AI called on Croatia to step up the prosecution of war crimes, underlining that the authorities have failed to open investigations into some high-level military and political officials even though there are publicly available court documents that could incriminate them.
The Croatian Justice Ministry responded to the report, saying that AI was claiming without any verification or unbiased investigation, that allegations against some high-ranking military and political officials had not been investigated. In its 19-page response, the Ministry described steps taken by the judicial authorities to prosecute war criminals in Croatia, dismissing AI's claims about omissions in that field.
