Reactions: Surprising and Shocking Verdict of the ICTY

The editor-in-chief of the Sarajevo weekly “Slobodna Bosna”, Senad Avdić, stated for Hina that the acquittal verdict of the Hague court for Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović is a defeat for the ICTY Prosecutor’s Office.

This is one in a series of cases where it has been impossible to prove the role of Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović in the formation of paramilitary units that committed the most heinous crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and even Kosovo, and this could either be a matter of politics or complete amateurism on the part of the prosecutors, Avdić said.

He emphasized that the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were initiated with the participation of the Serbian State Security Service (SDS), and this is a fact proven in the ICTY court documents.
Avdić recalls that all evil originated from the personnel resources of the SDB of Serbia: Arkan, Legija, and similar crimes. The SDB of Serbia was the heart of evil in the former Yugoslav republics, Avdić said.

The wartime chief of the State Security Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDB), Munir Alibabić, who documented the crimes of Serbian services, told Hina that the verdict for Stanišić and Simatović is shocking. I have no further comments, Alibabić said.

Mišetić: The Acquittal of Simatović and Stanišić is Grotesque

Lawyer Luka Mišetić assessed the acquittal verdict for former high Serbian officials Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović for crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as grotesque, because according to it, the former Serbian leadership was not involved in crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the Croatian was. This is a grotesque verdict and situation. The history of The Hague means that Zagreb was involved in crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Belgrade was not, Mišetić stated in a phone conversation with Hina.

According to him, the trial of Stanišić and Simatović was the last one determining whether the former Serbian authorities were involved in crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was left speechless that the Hague Court reached this conclusion after 20 years, emphasized the lawyer who defended Croatian General Ante Gotovina.

Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Žarko Puhovski, stated that the acquittal verdict for Stanišić and Simatović is a verdict for them as individuals, not a verdict for states or nations, and he particularly emphasizes that the court could not establish their direct command responsibility. We will see how the case will proceed, but it is important to understand that the court, with minor or major mistakes, deals with individual cases, not nations or states, Puhovski said.

The president of the association “Movement of Mothers of Enclaves Srebrenica and Žepa”, Munira Subašić, told local media that she is disappointed and shocked by the ICTY’s decision. Only the footage that the whole world condemned was enough for the judges (to convict), Subašić said.

The acquittal verdict is an insult to all victims killed in the Homeland War, assessed Ivan Kovačić, president of the Vukovar defenders’ association “Vukovar 91” and the Coordination of associations arising from the Homeland War of the city of Vukovar. The Hague court has once again proven that it is primarily a political court. I do not understand why it is persistently being proven in The Hague that we, who defended ourselves, are guilty for the war, and not those who attacked us and were the aggressors, Kovačić said, pointing out that a similar outcome could have been anticipated from the previous behavior of the Hague court.

According to lawyer Ante Nobilo, this verdict is a greater surprise than the acquittal of former chief of the Yugoslav General Staff Momčilo Perišić. It is known in Serbia that Perišić is a CIA collaborator, so this acquittal has been interpreted in the corridors as American protection. However, the acquittal of these two is the biggest surprise, although every judge judges based on the evidence in the file, Nobilo said.

I do not know how the proceedings unfolded exactly, but from my general knowledge from that time, it is undeniable that the main lever of (Slobodan) Milošević was the Serbian secret service and these two leaders through whom he raised and led the rebellion of Serbs in Croatia. This was notorious in some way, and anyone who dealt with these issues considered it beyond any doubt, Nobilo believes.

Until recently, the director of the Serbian non-governmental organization Humanitarian Law Center (FHP), Nataša Kandić, is astonished by the acquittal verdict of the Hague Tribunal, while the president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Sonja Biserko, assessed that the Tribunal’s exit strategy is the amnesty of all states in the region.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić welcomed the verdict of the Hague Tribunal by which Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović Frenki were acquitted, deeming it important for Serbia, and his stance is shared by the lawyers of the Hague defendants. Such a verdict is of great importance for the Republic of Serbia. The Government of Serbia has advocated and continues to advocate for fair trials before the Hague Tribunal because that is the only way to establish the truth about the crimes and create conditions for reconciliation and ensuring lasting peace and stability in the region, stated the Serbian Prime Minister in a written statement.

The importance of the acquittal verdict for Serbia was also emphasized by the lawyers of the accused, Belgrade media report.

Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić and the head of British diplomacy William Hague did not wish to comment in detail on the non-final acquittal verdict for former high Serbian officials, but emphasized that the decisions of the Hague court must generally be respected.

We have opted for cooperation with international institutions, in this case with the international court, and we will persist in that commitment. As for this verdict, it is not final, the entire process is still ongoing, and we will see what the final outcome will be, Pusić said at a joint conference with Hague, who is visiting Croatia.

The British minister emphasized that London fully supports the work of the ICTY, as reconciliation in the future implies addressing issues from the past. That is our position, and this is a judicial process, and I do not want to take the opportunity to speak about what the outcomes might be. Whatever the court decides, we fully support it, Hague emphasized.

The president of the HDZ, Tomislav Karamarko, said that the former head of the Serbian State Security Service (SDB) Jovica Stanišić and the former commander of the special operations unit of the SDB Franko Simatović were synonymous with Greater Serbian aggression. If something is an organized criminal endeavor, then it was the Greater Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. These people were synonymous with that Greater Serbian aggression. Organizers, implementers. I fear that this might lead to some leveling, equating of guilt, which is very, very dangerous. I see this in light of those verdicts that fell yesterday for our Croats, for whom I believe that the appellate, final verdict will be different, Karamarko said ahead of the HDZ pre-election rally in Slavonski Brod.

He added that he believes that the prosecution in the case of Serbian occupiers and those who had ambitions to take other territories, which subjected the Bosnian people, Muslims, and Croats, and ultimately Croats in Croatia, to genocidal policies, will prove something else.