Refugees against appointing Gotovina, Markac as advisors

BELGRADE- President of the Coalition of Refugee Associations in Serbia Miodrag Linta called on Sunday on Croatia's President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic to change the "scandalous" decision on the appointment of generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac as advisors with the Homeland Security Council, if she is truly committed to ensuring better relations with Serbia.

Generals Gotovina and Markac were "part of the criminal organization led by Franjo Tudjman, whose aim was the creation of an ethnically clean Croatian state", Linta said.

Various means were used so as to realize that objective- mass killings, the torturing of Serb civilians and prisoners of war, constant arrests of Serbs, the plundering and mining of Serb properties, unlawful seizure of land, houses and apartments of expelled Serbs, he noted.

Linta also pointed to the fact that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) passed the first-instance judgement in April 2011, convicting Gotovina and Markac of war crimes against Serbs, based on numerous pieces of evidence.

In November 2012, the Appeals Chamber cleared both generals of all charges, thus ridiculing the suffering of the Serb victims, their families and the entire Serb people, Linta said.

Photo Tanjug.Z.Zestic