After a meeting with representatives of 42 Homeland War veterans' associations to discuss the situation following a non-final verdict handed down by the Hague war crimes tribunal against generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, and possible legal steps, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor reiterated on Saturday that the tribunal's allegations about a joint criminal enterprise during Operation Storm was absolutely unacceptable.
The premier told reporters that she and the ministers had acquainted associations' representatives that the government would again request the status of amicus curiae in the proceedings before this UN court and that the government had already launched a diplomatic drive to challenge the ICTY verdict.
She informed the associations about the activities of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences which had compiled the study entitled "Theory of Joint Criminal Enterprise and International Criminal Law – Challenges and Controversies".
Kosor added that copies of this study had been delivered to foreign embassies in Zagreb.
The premier announced a possibility of engaging prominent international jurists such as Mirjan Damaska, a professor of law at Yale Law School, in the government's efforts in this regard.
Next week, a new meeting of this kind will be held.
"We have agreed that we should work together and my cabinet has received support for efforts to complete Croatia's accession negotiations with the European Union - the only path which Croatia should take," Kosor told the news conference.
At this moment when we think about everything that has happened, possible omissions and wrong steps, it is of exceptional importance to hear war veterans saying that there is no alternative to the completion of the EU accession negotiations and Croatia's EU membership, she said.
Participants in the meeting said at the new conference that they called for unity and for efforts to seek legal solutions to refute the tribunal's allegations about the joint criminal tribunal and acquit Croatian generals Gotovina and Markac.
Asked about protest rallies which other war veteran associations were staging throughout Croatia on Saturday, Kosor said that everybody had a democratic right to express their dissatisfaction.
Nada Balog, the head of an association of widows from the Homeland Defence War, said that they would ask for responsibility of all whose testimonies contributed to yesterday's ruling and of all who provided the tribunal with documents paving the way for such verdicts.
Ivan Psenica, the head of the the union of associations of families whose dearest one were killed or went missing in the war, said that the tribunal in the unacceptable way treated the first Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, wartime Croatian defence minister Gojko Susak and other Croatian leaders.
He expressed hope in a just outcome of the appeals proceedings before the Hague tribunal.
The closed-door meeting was attended by retired General Ivan Cermak, who was acquitted in the same case, Zeljko Horvatic who is the head of the Croatian Academy of legal Sciences, Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic, Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic, Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko, Veterans' Affairs Minister Tomislav Ivic, Secretary-General of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Branko Bacic, and an Adviser to the Prime Minister, retired General Damir Krsticevic.
Horvatic said on Friday that the verdict against Gotovina and Cermak and its explanation with regard to the existence of a joint criminal enterprise were unacceptable to the Croatian government and citizens.
Generals Gotovina and Markac were on Friday found guilty on eight of nine counts of the indictment. Gotovina was sentenced to 24 and Markac to 18 years in prison for war crimes committed during the August 1995 Operation Storm, when Croatian forces reclaimed areas held by Serb rebels.
The verdicts are subject to appeal.
