The Croatian State Prosecutor, for the purpose of "further action", on Wednesday requested that the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) prosecution send the entire file in the case against three Croatian generals acquitted over crimes in Operation Storm, a liberation operation in 1995 when Croatia crushed the Serb insurgency.
The ICTY documentation has been requested "for the purpose of further procedure by the state prosecution for cases of war crimes being investigated by county prosecutors", the State Prosecutor's Office (DORH), reported on its web site on Thursday.
DORH's press release notes that relevant bodies met on Wednesday to discuss further steps in war crimes cases identified as national and regional priorities and that it was determined that it was vital to request all documentation that may be relevant to these proceedings and that international assistance would be requested for this purpose.
We saw just how significant the documentation presented in the trial against Croatian generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak proved to be, Gotovina's defence counsel in the trial, Luka Misetic said, adding that the evidence of 44 victims of war crimes was sustained during the trial which is 15 times less than some NGOs had claimed in their reports.
Government officials have said over the past few days that it was important to process the crimes committed during Operation Storm but that new indictments received from Serbia on Wednesday could not impact the acquittal of the three Croatian generals.
