Two days ago, on July 20th, Croatian President Zoran Milanovicwas supposed to, as announced, honor Djuro Matuzovic, who is currently on trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH) for war crimes he committed during the war as commander of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) in Orasje, in the north of BiH.
It is not the first time that Milanovic has honored those accused of war crimes.
Also, he is not the only Croatian president who has done this.
In the Western Balkans, Croatia leads the way in honoringconvicted and suspected war criminals. The presidents there gave recognitions to, among others, Dario Kordic, Jadranko Prlic, Slobodan Praljak, Valentin Coric, Bruno Stojic, Zlatan Mijo Jelic, Milivoj Petkovic, Tihomir Blaskic.
On Victory Day, August 4th, 2020, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic gave recognition to the wartime commander of the HVO in Mostar, Zlatan Mijo Jelic.
Jelic was accused in BiH of war crimes against Bosniak civilians in Mostar in 1993 and 1994.
Dario Kordic also received an award, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in The Hague for war crimes against civilians in Ahmici, in central BiH. He was awarded the Order of DukeBranimir with a necklace.
Former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic during his mandate took seven high decorations from Branimir Glavas who was sentenced to eight years in prison for war crimes, but that sentence was revoked, as well as the first-instance sentence of ten years, and the case was sent back to the Zagreb County Court for a new trial.
Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik, and Biljana Plavsic have charters awarded to them by the Organizing Committee to mark the 25th anniversary of the Assembly of one of the two entities in BiH, Republika Srpska (RS).
The board made the decision on October 24th, 2016 as an ad hoc body, which was made up of all the previous presidents of the entity assembly, as well as the leadership of the ninth convocation of the National Assembly of the RS (NARS) and heads of the caucuses of deputies of that convocation.
In Inzko’s letter to the president of the NARS and the presidents of all parliamentary caucuses in the entity parliament, it was stated that the actions of awarded Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik, and Biljana Plavsic “during the armed conflict shocked the world and caused unimaginable human suffering”.
At the end of December 2021, the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Army, General Milan Mojsilovic, presented Vinko Pandurevic with military memorials for his participation in the defense against the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999.
Pandurevic was legally sentenced to 13 years in prison on the basis of command and individual responsibility for murders, extermination, and persecution in and around Srebrenica in July 1995, which is legally qualified as a crime against humanity and a violation of the laws or customs of war, Slobodna Evropa writes.
E.Dz.
