Croatian President Zoran Milanovic will award the honorary rank of brigadier general to the former commander of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO), Djuro Matuzovic, who is currently on trial for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The Cabinet of the President of Croatia confirmed that President Zoran Milanovic will award the honorary rank of Brigadier General to Djuro Matuzovic, the former HVO commander who is currently on trial for alleged participation in murders, torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Croatian President’s spokesman Nikola Jelic noted that Milanovic will honor Matuzovic and Ilija Nakic, another HVO wartime commander, on Wednesday.
“Among others, the HV (Croatian Army) and HVO officers you mention, Ilija Nakic and Djuro Matuzovic, should receive honorary ranks,” Jelic told BIRN via e-mail.
Nakic and Matuzovic were HVO commanders during the war in BiH.
Matuzovic and nine other former members of the Croatian forces are currently being tried before the Court of BiH for war crimes committed in the period from the second half of April 1992 to July 1993.
It is important to mention that the last hearing was held on the same day when the Croatian president was expected to honor Matuzovic.
The indictment accuses Matuzovic and others of participating in murders, torture and inhumane treatment, as well as causing severe suffering and injuries to prisoners of Serbian nationality in Orasje. The defendants denied the allegations.
They are on trial as former members of the military and civilian police in Orasje, and as guards in the detention centers at the Secondary School Center in Orasje and the Donja MahalaElementary School in the city, where the prisoners were held and allegedly abused.
“The defendants are accused of participating in the persecution of the population of Serbian nationality from the area of Orasje on national, ethnic, cultural and religious grounds during the performance of their duties within the framework of their powers,” the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH announced when filing the indictment.
Namely, the arrest of Matuzovic and nine other HVO members in Orasje in 2016 caused a political dispute between BiH and Croatia.
The Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the arrests, and around 1.000 Croatian war veterans and their supporters protested in front of the football stadium in Orasje, stressing that the Croats were fighting a defensive war during the conflict, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
