Veritas on Verdict to Djukic et al in Split: Example of Politically Motivated Judicial Engineering

Veritas

The Veritas documentation and information center described on July 30 the verdict to the general of the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), Borislav Djukic, and the six former commanders of Serb forces and members of the Knin police, for a war crime against civilians in the broader Sibenik area from 1991 to 1994, as “a classic example of politically motivated judicial engineering.”

Djukic has been sentenced to 16 years in prison and, as reported by Index.hr, so have been Jovan Grubic, Milan Radic and Petar Andric, while Vladimir Davidovic and the former secretaries of the Internal Affairs Secretariat in Knin, Ilija Prijic and Slobodan Vujko, have been sentenced to ten years each. “Veritas” declared in a statement that the verdict represented the “timed pressure against the Serb people ahead of the forthcoming anniversary of Operation Storm.”

“The purpose of this prompt ruling is exclusively political in nature – to secure a vocal political-judicial ‘trophy’ several days ahead of Aug. 5 (Croatia’s double state holiday) aimed at stirring up war rhetoric in the media,” it was declared in the statement.

Djukic is the only defendant who is available to the Croatian judiciary and is on remand, while the other six have been tried in absentia and the proceedings against the eighth accused, Dragan Harambasic, have been ended due to his death. According to the indictment, they commanded the attacks on civilian areas of Sibenik, Skradin, Vodice, Drnis, Promine and Ruzici from August 1991 to August 1995. This year marks 31 years since the start of the Croatian military and police operation Storm, which began on Aug. 4, 1995 and resulted in the exodus of the Serbs from Croatia and the end of the  country’s war for independence.