Photo: Rade Prelić/TanjugThe result of the war crimes trial in absentia is that those found guilty remain at large, because despite the fact that the prosecutor's offices of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia signed protocols on cooperation in war crimes cases back in 2013, due to the lack of political there are almost no will effects. Everyone has their own politics
A few days ago, the Zagreb County Court sentenced seven members of the "Militia of the Krajina" to a total of 95 years in prison for war crimes that, according to the indictment, they committed in 1991 in the areas of Zamlača and Struga Banska in Croatia. All seven are unavailable to the Croatian authorities and were tried in absentia for the crimes they are accused of.
The accused Predrag Orlović, Milan Begović, Neđeljko Pašić, the brothers Predrag and Nenad Korizma, Jan Janković and Pero Krneta are accused of having attacked the village of Zamlača in May 1991 after "mortar preparations" as part of the "Žaoka" operation, although there were no armed men there Croatian soldiers. They burned and shot at the houses of Croatian civilians, the indictment states, and forced some of them to "walk in front of them for six hours with their hands raised because they used them as human shields while moving towards Struga Banska". The civilians were then beaten, and during the mortar attacks, four civilians were killed and several others were injured.
On the other hand, Serbian courts also try in absentia for Croatian crimes during the wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Thus, at the beginning of June, the High Court in Belgrade confirmed the indictment for war crimes committed during the "Storm" in August 1995 on Petrovačka cesta and in Svodna. As stated by the War Crimes Prosecution, Croatian officers ordered the shelling of a column of Serbian refugees.
Trial by trial
However, the result of the trial in absentia is that those convicted of war crimes remain free. Despite the fact that the prosecutor's offices of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia signed protocols on cooperation in war crimes cases back in 2013, due to lack of political will the effects are almost non-existent, judgments of courts from neighboring countries are not respected.
The case of Novak Đukić, the former commander of the Vosja region of Republika Srpska, who ordered the artillery attack on Tuzla in which more than 70 civilians died, shows that the verdicts of national courts without regional cooperation have no legal effect. Despite the fact that the court in BiH sentenced him to 20 years in prison, Đukić escaped to Serbia, where he now lives freely.
Although more than thirty years have passed, the verdicts of the Zagreb and Belgrade courts that arrive from time to time still cause tension even at the highest political level. Thus, the pro-regime media in Serbia, in the writing of "Večernji list" about the decision of the Serbian prosecutor's office, reported that "without shame or shame, the Ustasha kiddish on Vučić because he defends the killed Serbian children", during the Storm action. He told them that he would not forgive them for "murdering children" in order to allow Serbia to enter the European Union.
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