Ex Croatian Official: Column of Serb Refugees Shelled in 1995, but Soldiers Were Targeted  

Mate Granic (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

Mate Granic, the former adviser to the Croatian prime minister and foreign minister during the ‘90s, has confirmed that Croatian aircraft shelled a column of Serb refugees in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Aug. 7, 1995, but that that attack did not target civilians but the soldiers of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina, according to a report in the May 31 issue of Rijeka daily Novi List.

“No one ordered an attack on the Serbs who had left Croatia, in the territory of BiH. The target was the army that was withdrawing with heavy weapons,” Granic said commenting on Serbia’s indictment against four Croatian pilots for alleged crimes during Croatian military and police Operation Storm.

Granic recalled that during Operation Storm, the war had still been waged in BiH, so the Croatian Army had attacked the Bosnian Serb forces to prevent them from acquiring that weapons and later using them against Croatian soldiers. “The Hague Tribunal Prosecution has investigated many cases, but it has simply showed no interest in this one. Be assured that it would have been different had they had the evidence that the Croatian Army had committed war crimes in this case,” Granic stressed.

Asked why Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had not issued a similar statement, Granic replied that “the prime minister was extremely precise when saying that Croatia was principled in not recognizing Serbia’s universal jurisdiction and would therefore dismiss all indictments, if they become valid.”