Croatia Demanding More War Crimes Indictments if EU Entry Talks With Serbia are to Advance

Croatia’s Minister of Justice says that Croatia will not back down and will insist Serbia abides by criteria regarding war criminals in the nation’s EU entry talks after the release of Serbia radical far right-wing leader Vojislav Šešelj from the Hague this week…

“That’s our duty and no Croatian government can back off from that,” Justice Minister Orsat Miljenić said in a radio interview. “Serbia must abide by certain criteria that were set for us too. And telling someone that (the 1991 atrocity at) Ovcara ends at the rank of a captain of the former JNA (Yugoslav army) is entirely unacceptable,” Miljenić then added that he thought it was ‘terrible’ that Šešelj was released before his trial was complete.

Croatia’s Justice Minister believes that more Serbians should be bought to justice, and that it EU entry talks with their neighbours would be conditional on further war crimes indictments and trials.

“Serbia must realise that this awaits them and the sooner they begin with it, the better. It’s simply like that and we won’t back away,” he said.

Šešelj, who is accused of crimes against humanity and violating the laws and customs of war between 1991 and 1993 in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Vojvodina, received a hero’s welcome in Belgrade yesterday after being temporarily released from the Hague because of poor health. His trial, which started in 2007, has yet to be complete.