Gotovina Takes Artillery Diary From ‘Storm’ - Current Events - Croatia

In a secret report by the Ministry of Justice, it says that Gotovina took some of the artillery diaries from operation ‘Storm’.

In a secret report by the Croatian Ministry of Justice, it says that Ante Gotovina took some of the artillery diaries from the police and military liberation operation ‘Storm’. He took them whilst he was the chief inspector of the Croatian Army (HV), and in 2000 and 2001 he had help from Marin Ivanovic, a former SIS member, who is a member of his defence today, and former workers of the Ministry of Defence, Jurica Sare and Marijan Kretic, reports Jutarnji List.

The cabinet warned Brammertz, whose evaluation will decide the continuation of negotiations with the EU, that the documents include a clause about ‘respecting war conventions’ and the ‘protection of civilians’, and in that sense they could not serve to prove war crimes.

The summary of the report was presented by Serge Brammertz two days ago, but Jutarnji List finds out that the main Hague prosecutor was not happy and that he kept repeating: ‘There are still no artillery diaries’. The report was sent to the appeal committee of the Hague court, and the Croatian minister Ivan Simonovic informed the diplomatic chamber about it.

The details of the indictment against Gotovina include taking documents from the archives of the Ministry of Defence and Croatian Army, which were taken after Operation ‘Storm’ between 2000 and 2001. Gotovina was helped by Marko Rajcic, the former head of artillery of the Split military region, and multiple witnesses said that they handed documents to Marin Ivanovic, Gotovina’s lawyer.

A number of witnesses admitted burning documents so that there would be no ‘abuse by the Hague court’, and Ivanovic said that he no longer has the documents because he gave them to Ante Gotovina’s main lawyer, Misetic.