Amsterdam - Defenders for Croatina general Ante Gotovina, on
trial for war crimes during the Balkans wars of the 1990s, argued
Wednesday that the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence and that
the Croatian army had sought to avoid civilian deaths.
Defence lawyer Luka Misetic, on day two of Gotovina's trial before
the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague,
challenged the prosecution's evidence.
Misetic also sought to make a case that the Croation army did its
best to avoid civilian deaths among the Serbian population in the
Serbian breakaway enclave of Krajina in 1995.
Attorney Misetic did not deny some Serbs were murdered during
Operation Storm - the Croatian reconquest of the Serbian breakaway
republic Krajina.
But the defence questioned whether Gotovina could be held
accountable for several incidents cited by the prosecution.
The defence argued that the Croation general ordered his troops to
respect the laws of warfare, and also emphasized that Gotovina was
involved in an offensive in neighboring Bosnia when Operation Storm
took place in Krajina.
The defence denied the Croation army was involved in deportations
of Serbs from Krajina. The 200,000 civilians who left the area, the
lawyers claimed, would have done so following a Serbian initiative.
Earlier on Wednesday Gotivina's defence clashed repeatedly with
the ICTY judges who questioned the relevance of video footage shown
in court by Gotovina's lawyers and accused them of 'transforming the
court room into a theatre.'
Gotivina is accused of having committed war crimes during
Operation Storm, one of the biggest ethnic cleansing operations
during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. In total, some 200,000 Serbs
fled Krajina or were forced out.
Many of those who remained behind, particularly the elderly, were
killed by Croat troops under Gotovina's command.
But Gotivina's defence team argued on Wednesday that Operation
Storm was the only way to stop the Bosnian-Serb army of general Ratko
Mladic in 1995 from connecting Serbian enclaves in Bosnia with
Krajina, the Serbian-controlled territories in Croatia.
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