The Association of Generals of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) responded to the request of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH sent to Croatia to take over the prosecution of 14 generals of the Croatian Army who took part in Operation ”Flash” (Bljesak), saying they hoped they would not suffer because of bad relations between the two governments.
“We believe that the operation of the Croatian Army ‘Bljesak’ was a legitimate military operation and we want to believe that it was conducted under international law of war and that in this particular case there is no legal basis for the command responsibility of these 14 generals,” they stated.
Accordingly, they added that they did not understand the intention of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH when they sent the request, pointing out that they believe that “the ball will be returned to Sarajevo”.
“Whether the military authorities, the generals in Croatia and BiH will be collateral damage, remains to be seen. It is obvious that both BiH and Croatian generals have been ‘put into the arena’. We wonder whether we, together with our colleagues from Croatia, will have to pay the invoice of bad and inappropriate relations of the President of Croatia towards the state institutions of BiH, and significantly cold relations between these two governments? “, they said.
Yesterday, retired generals of the Army of the Republic of Croatia held a meeting with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, after which it was stressed that with this move, BiH left everything related to processing to Croatia.
“This meeting in the Government of the Republic of Croatia is a state move by Mr. Plenkovic. Now the ball is in the yard of the Republic of Croatia and it is sure that certain activities will follow and one should not be very smart to conclude that the ball will be returned to Sarajevo,” the generals of BiH concluded.
To recall, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has sent a request for international legal assistance in the case of 14 Croatian Army commanders who were accused of participating in issuing orders for reckless shelling and artillery fire from Croatia towards civilias and undefended places in Bosanska Gradiska and Bosanska Dubica. Several civilians were killed on that occasion, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
