Hague Tribunal

Croatia "was not an aggressor," Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said in Zagreb on Thursday, Beta reported.

Instead, Grabar-Kitarovic continued, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) were "attacked by Milosevic's Serbia" and "the so-called JNA (Yugoslav People's Army)" - and these, according to her, are "notorious facts."

Croatia’s president and media expressed shock at the courtroom suicide of Slobodan Praljak, while simulateously criticising the Hague Tribunal’s conviction of six wartime Bosnian Croat military and political leaders.

Instead, Grabar-Kitarovic continued, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) were "attacked by Milosevic's Serbia" and "the so-called JNA (Yugoslav People's Army)" - and these, according to her, are "notorious facts."

"Croatia did not attack anyone," the president said.

The suicide of Bosnian Croat military chief Slobodan Praljak at the Hague Tribunal diverted attention from his verdict, but the testimonies of war victims show how serious his crimes were.

One of Britain’s most respected reporters on the Balkan wars of the 1990s has recalled his two encounters, in court and out, with Slobodan Praljak, the war criminal who committed suicide at the Hague Tribunal.

Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said this on Wednesday, in the first reaction by a Serbian official.

Slobodan Praljak, whom the The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) on Wednesday sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes, died after drinking poison in the courtroom.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed this during an extraordinary news conference, and offered his condolences to the family.

Croatia’s prime minister rejected the Hague Tribunal verdict’s insistence that Zagreb was involved in the Bosnian war, but Bosniak war victims’ groups welcomed the Bosnian Croat officials’ convictions.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed this during an extraordinary news conference, and offered his condolences to the family.

A spokesman for the ICTY, Nenad Golcevski, also confirmed the death, and said Dutch authorities had launched an independent investigation.

Croatia’s interior minister said he expects the Hague Tribunal will acquit six former Bosnian Croat officials because Zagreb wasn’t involved in the Bosnian war - contrary to the UN court’s previous findings.