ŠTRBAC: CASE AGAINST DAVIDOVIĆ ILLUSTRATES DOUBLE STANDARDS OF CROATIAN AUTHORITIES

BELGRADE, MARCH 12 /SRNA/ – Zadar police have filed a criminal complaint against former commander of the Drniš Brigade of the Republic of Srpska Krajina Army, Vladimir Davidović /77/, on suspicion of an alleged war crime, a move that shows all the hypocrisy of Croatian prosecution authorities and the judiciary, said Savo Štrbac, president of the Veritas Documentation and Information Center.

Štrbac said that according to the complaint filed yesterday, Zadar police suspect Davidović under "command responsibility," claiming that during the Croatian military operation "Storm" on August 4, 1995, "one of the soldiers from his brigade killed captured Croatian soldier Vedran Malenica /24/". He questioned how "command responsibility" could apply when Serbs were fleeing in August 1995 before the Croatian army, which was destroying, killing, and slaughtering everything in its path. "They know everything about what happened in the refugee convoys and how one of their soldiers was killed in what was the longest refugee convoy ever recorded, yet they allegedly do not know, or do not want to prosecute, who shelled children on the Petrovačka and Prijedor roads," Štrbac said. He noted that immediately after the Operation Storm, the Croatian side, at meetings of the commissions for missing persons which he attended, asked about the soldier, while Veritas obtained information that Malenica had been captured and shortly afterward taken in the refugee convoy together with the Serb army and civilians fleeing toward Republika Srpska under attacks by Croatian forces. Information later emerged that before crossing into BiH, the Croatian soldier was killed while attempting to escape. "Movement within a refugee convoy could last an entire day, and the fact that Malenica was not killed immediately after being captured is in itself proof that the story he was killed while trying to escape is more likely than the claim that someone deliberately separated him from the convoy and executed him. Whatever happened, Davidović is nowhere near responsible for it," Štrbac stressed. He said Davidović confirmed that he had heard one Croatian soldier had been captured by his unit, but that shortly afterward Serbs began a mass exodus. "Davidović could no longer have control over the brigade because chaos broke out, and he did not know what happened to the soldier. Now they accuse him under command responsibility, claiming he had control over them and allowed the Croatian soldier to be abused and killed," Štrbac said. CROATIA HAS CONTINUOUSLY PROSECUTED DAVIDOVIĆ SINCE HIS JNA SERVICE Štrbac said that if Davidović is tried in this case as well, it will be the third proceeding against him before Croatian courts for war crimes under command responsibility. In the first case - for an alleged war crime in Varaždin during his service in the Varaždin Corps of the JNA, where he was tried together with General Vlado Trifunović and Colonel Berislav Popov - Davidović was initially sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison but was later acquitted in a final verdict. A second indictment against Davidović also included seven other commanders of the Knin Corps and brigade commanders within that corps, as well as police chiefs in Drniš and Knin. Among them is General Borislav Đukić, whom Montenegro extradited to Croatia more than ten years ago and who is still being held there without a final verdict. According to Štrbac, the entire command structure is being charged with everything that happened to Croats in that area from 1991 to 1995 - every killing of Croats, as well as every case of looting or arson. Štrbac said the latest move against Davidović demonstrates the hypocrisy of Croatian prosecution authorities and the judiciary, noting that Croatia has not prosecuted anyone for the killing of five captured Serb soldiers in Oćestovo in Dalmatia during the same period. "Allegedly they do not know who killed them, but it is known which unit was there, so by the same principle used against Davidović they could have convicted the brigade commander," Štrbac pointed out. Croatia has not prosecuted anyone, either under command responsibility or individual responsibility, for numerous killings of Serb civilians during and after the Operation Storm, including in Gošić, Varivode, Uzdolje, Grubori, Komić, Glogovo, Doljani, and Šaš in Banija. "There are hundreds of cases where Serb soldiers who had been captured during the same operation were killed, and even more civilians – more than 1,900 victims in total," Štrbac says. The only members of Croatian forces convicted so far for crimes against Serbs in the Operation Storm are one ethnic Serb serving in the Croatian army, convicted for three of the 14 civilians killed in Kijani, and one ethnic Albanian. The body of Croatian soldier Malenica was found in 1997 in the village of Brotnja, where a monument was erected to him, and Croatian media refer to him as a "Croatian knight".