Bosnian Croat Leaders Accused of Provoking Hatred

The Mostar Camp Association war victims' group filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against Dragan Covic, chairman of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, and Bozo Ljubic, president of Croatian Democratic Union 1990 party, accusing them of provoking national, racial and religious hatred, strife or intolerance.

The complaint said that after the judgment handed down by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in November 2017 convicting six former Bosnian Croat political and military officials of wartime crimes, Covic and Ljubic challenged the verdict in public statements and media interviews.

It alleged that the two men "publicly denied the crimes committed and derogated the judgment and credibility" of the UN court.

The Hague Tribunal verdict angered many Croats and Bosnian Croats when it found the six former officials guilty of crimes against humanity and other crimes against Bosniaks in so-called Herceg-Bosnia, an unrecognised Croat-led wartime statelet.

One of the convicted men, Slobodan Prljak, took poison in court as his verdict was being read out and died soon afterwards.

"Slobodan Praljak made a sacrifice to prove he is innocent," Covic said at the time.

He also described the verdict as a crime "against all the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina".

The Mostar Camp Association claimed that Covic and Ljubic's actions caused inter-ethnic tensions in the country's Bosniak/Croat-dominated Federation entity, particularly in Mostar, and disturbed Bosniak war victims.

"In their statements, in addition to denying crimes, Covic and Ljubic did not show any regrets or sympathy with the victims of the crimes committed," the complaint alleged.

It was filed to the Herzegovina-Neretva...