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The tribunal finally reveals the identity of the protected witness in the
Blaskic case.
By Janet Anderson and Goran Jungvirth
The man at the centre of a political storm at the tribunal over protected
witnesses and the rights of journalists was finally revealed this week to be
Croatian president Stjepan Mesic.
Judges agreed to a prosecution request to remove protective measures on a
witness statement and testimony given by Mesic at the tribunal eight years
ago, so that his appearance here - behind closed doors in the case against
top Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic - can now been made public.
The identification of Mesic as the witness in the case has been an open
secret among Croatians for many years - with the details of his evidence,
concerning Croatia's role in the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina under former
president Franjo Tudjman in the 1990s, exposed in various newspapers and
websites.
But the tribunal rules on protected witnesses mean that four Croatian
journalists are still due to face trial for their alleged roles in the
publication of extracts from his witness statement and testimony in a series
of articles in the Croatian press between 2000 and 2004.
When Mesic gave his statement to Hague prosecutors in April 1997, he was an
opposition politician, but since becoming Croatian president in 2000 he
himself has confirmed that he was the witness concerned; has repeated many
of the details of his testimony publicly and has even testified in two
further cases, in public, at The Hague.
When testifying in the Blaskic trial, he told the court how Tudjman and
Slobodan Milosevic - then president of Serbia - met in 1991 and effectively
agreed to divide Bosnia. He also implicated the Croatian army in the Bosnian
war.
He described how members of the Croatian army, HV, were sent to Bosnia,
officially as volunteers. "The coffins were returning and families were
protesting," he said in his testimony to the court. "The soldiers told me
how they were ordered to take off HV emblems and put on those of HVO
(Bosnian Croat army)."
He goes on to describe how he was told about a massacre by HVO forces at
Prozor, a town in central Bosnia, by a senior Croatian official, "[He] told
me about Prozor, that we killed so many of them that we couldn't load them
all into the trucks....I threw him out of office and since then we haven't
exchanged a word."
During the early 1990s, Mesic had been a highly-placed insider - he was the
last of the rotating presidents of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia - holding regular meetings with Milosevic and Tudjman, as
Yugoslavia finally fell apart.
His testimony angered the right-wing of Croatian politics. The fact that
Mesic had cooperated with the tribunal, and had dared to criticise some of
the holy cows of Croatian national life gave his opponents an opportunity to
attack him as a "traitor".
Mesic's witness statement was leaked to the press in 1997, leading to a
flurry of headlines such as "Mesi?'s knife in Croatia's back", and "Stipe
Mesi? - prosecutor's witness at the Hague tribunal".
The prosecution requested protective measures on his behalf, when he came to
testify in 1998, after his family received death threats.
The Blaskic case has been one of the most controversial and time consuming
at the tribunal. The Bosnian Croat general was originally sentenced to 45
years in prison for his responsibility for war crimes and crimes against
humanity committed against Muslims in Bosnia.
However, in a dramatic reversal, the appeals chamber slashed his sentence to
just nine years when new evidence was found in the state archives - after
the death of Tudjman - which exonerated Blaskic. The general received a
hero's welcome when he returned to Zagreb from The Hague.
Since then, the prosecution has filed a confidential request for review of
the Blaskic judgment alleging that there are new facts in the case which
could affect the judgement. No decision has yet been made by the appeals
chamber.
In addition, the case has been the subject of several contempt of court
prosecutions against Croatian journalists and the former head of Croatia's
secret police, concerning the revelation of the testimonies and statements
of protected witnesses.
One contempt case - that of journalist Ivica Marijacic and Markica Rebic,
formerly of the secret service - was heard by judges last week.
The case of four other Croatian journalists who face a joint indictment -
Domagoj Margeti?, Marijan Krizi?, Josip Jovi? and Stjepan Seselj - is still
to be heard.
Seselj's defence council Zeljko Oluji? told the Croatian news agency HINA
that although it was good that protective measures were lifted so that the
trial could be held in public, the decision had no effect on the merits of
the case itself.
However, Margeti?, who has used every means possible to make the Mesic
testimony public since his indictment, sees the decision as a great victory
for freedom of speech.
"We fought out for rights of the public to information" he told HINA " the
public has the right to know what the head of state said in front of
International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia."
Croatian insiders say that the controversy surrounding Mesic's testimony is
not so much about the right of the public to information, and more a
reflection of the continued struggle between forces of the old guard of
Croatian politics - those who have remained loyal to Tudjman and the
nationalist politics he championed - and the new generation, as embodied by
Mesic.
The prominent Zagreb lawyer, Ante Nobilo, who represented Blaskic at The
Hague, told IWPR that the leaking of the Mesic evidence was an "organised
campaign by Mesi?'s political opponents". He points out that the details
were made public "just after he became president, and not until then".
Nobilo - who has been accused of being the source of the leak, in documents
presented in the Milosevic trial - instead pushed the blame for trying to
destabilise Mesic onto those he described as the "para-intelligence
structure who lost power".
He points out that Rebi? - the ex-secret service official who has already
been charged with passing transcripts of testimony to Marija?i? - was an
associate advisor to Blaskic's defence and had access to all the
transcripts.
He accuses the journalists who revealed Mesi?'s testimony of "being at the
disposal of that para-intelligence structure" and "continuing to work for
them after they lost power".
The tribunal's latest move to remove the protective measures came as no
great surprise to Mesi?, who told Croatian journalists earlier this week
that he had requested the action in August 2005. "I spoke the truth in The
Hague and I stand by all I said then," HINA quoted him as saying. "Those who
wanted to manipulate the public and create wrong picture about me, they are
not interested in the truth."
Mesic was elected president after the death of Tudjman on a pro-European
and pro-NATO ticket on February 7, 2000.
In September that year he retired seven Croatian active generals who had
written two open letters to the public arguing that the current government
administration was "campaigning to criminalise" the Homeland War, the
Croatian war, and accused it of neglecting the army.
Mesi? held that active officers could not write public political letters
without approval of their president and commander-in-chief. Despite
opposition from other parties, that he was setting a precedent that could
harm Croatian national security, Mesic went ahead and later retired four
more generals for similar reasons.
Mesic also used his position as president to disclose several government
documents concerning Tudjman's talks on Croatia's role in the division of
Bosnia.
Mesic remains a controversial figure, who appears to attract admiration and
hate in equal measure.
"Whoever spits on his name, because of his statements about Tudjman and the
involvement of Croatia into the war in Bosnia, still spits on his name,"
Milan Peh, the daily news editor at the independent Croatian radio 101 told
IWPR.
"Some say his testimony [at the court] was biased when it concerned the real
events in Bosnia during the war. But supporters say Mesi? only spoke the
truth."
Executive editor of Vecernji List, award-winning journalist Drazen Klari?,
pointed out to IWPR that the publicity concerning his testimony at The Hague
has, so far, done Mesic no harm.
A realistic appraisal of the benefits of a Mesic presidency was evident last
year, says Klaric, when he was re-elected, even though voters had previously
removed the left-of-centre government from power and put Mesic's political
opponents in charge.
"Mesi? has broader support than just from left-wing voters," said Klaric to
IWPR. "He can't be seen as a traitor."
And many Croats credit Mesic for Croatia's healthy international reputation,
following the capture of high profile alleged war criminal Ante Gotovina,
and the confirmation of the EU's firm commitment to accession talks with
Zagreb.
"He's an excellent minister of foreign affairs, because in every country
he's received as the democrat who has changed Croatia for the better," said
Klaric.
Janet Anderson is IWPR project manager in The Hague and Goran Jungvirth is
an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
Source: IWPR'S TRIBUNAL UPDATE |
