Prosecution: Croatia withholding Storm documents

The Hague Prosecution has filed a motion calling for the Tribunal to order Croatia to submit documents on artillery activity during Operation Storm. Croatia has submitted only two of the 150 logbooks on artillery activities sought by the prosecution in the case against Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, as proof of the excessive shelling of Knin during Storm in 1995. Prosecution: Croatia withholding Storm documents “Although the evidence that Croatia herself collected leads us to believe that the majority of these documents were saved, Croatia continues to deny that many of them still exist. The claims that the documents do not exist contradict the evidence that Croatia herself has collected,“ writes the prosecution. It is also noted that the Croatian authorities have not established whom the documents were handed to for safe-keeping, or where they are now, “even though ever more evidence points to the artillery logbooks having disappeared, even though they were kept, stored and collected, but never reached the military archives.“ The prosecution wants the Tribunal to reject Croatian claims that these documents do not exist and “order her to take further measures to deliver them.“ Last December, Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz reproached Croatia at the Security Council for failing to hand over “key documents and archives“ on the Gotovina case, stressing that it was important that these documents were “rendered accessible urgently,“ Zagreb media report. Ante Gotovina (FoNet, archive)

Prosecution: Croatia withholding Storm documents

“Although the evidence that Croatia herself collected leads us to believe that the majority of these documents were saved, Croatia continues to deny that many of them still exist. The claims that the documents do not exist contradict the evidence that Croatia herself has collected,“ writes the prosecution.

It is also noted that the Croatian authorities have not established whom the documents were handed to for safe-keeping, or where they are now, “even though ever more evidence points to the artillery logbooks having disappeared, even though they were kept, stored and collected, but never reached the military archives.“

The prosecution wants the Tribunal to reject Croatian claims that these documents do not exist and “order her to take further measures to deliver them.“

Last December, Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz reproached Croatia at the Security Council for failing to hand over “key documents and archives“ on the Gotovina case, stressing that it was important that these documents were “rendered accessible urgently,“ Zagreb media report.