BOSNIA: MOSTAR: BOSNIAN CROATS PROTEST

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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Croat/Nat Hundreds of Bosnian Croats marched across Mostar on Friday, protesting against the United Nations War Crimes tribunal in the Hague, which they say is prejudiced against Croats. Last week, the court gave lengthy jail sentences to five former Bosnian Croat soldiers for war-crimes committed against their Muslim neighbours. The protestors say the sentences are unjust and accuse the international community of siding with the Muslims in Bosnia. Nearly a thousand protestors took to the streets of Mostar on Friday, angry at the sentences handed out by the Hague war crimes tribunal in its first "ethnic cleansing" case. The five Bosnian Croats were sentenced to a total of 64 years for their role in the 1993 massacre of the Muslim population of the Ahmici village in central Bosnia. They were jailed for a house-to-house killing rampage that emptied Ahmici of its Muslim inhabitants. More than 100 people, including women and children, were killed while the rest fled. But the demonstrators on Friday, carrying banners saying: "Stop the injustice," and "Our basic right is being jeopardized - the right to live", called for support for all Croats accused by the Tribunal. Other banners said: "The Hague - a court farce". Many Bosnian Croats believe the Tribunal is pro-Muslim and that the international community in general is siding with the Muslims in Bosnia. Ante Jakic, the leader of the Croat war-veterans, called the Croat prisoners in The Hague "honest people" and read a manifesto demanding Croat politicians to stop cooperating with the tribunal and the international community. The manifesto also demanded a separate political entity for Croats in Bosnia, which was not included in the Dayton peace agreement. Dragan Papic, who was previously acquitted by the tribunal, called for support for all Croats imprisoned in The Hague. He said that while he was jailed there the visits and support from a Catholic priest and other wellwishers from his homeland kept his spirit high. SOUNDBITE: (Croatian) "Bosnian Catholic monks are behind those guys (the five former Bosnian Croat soldiers sentenced to 25 years by the Hague), that means that all the Croatian people are behind them as well."; SUPER CAPTION: Dragan Papic, acquitted for war crimes The peace agreement that stopped the 1992-95 war here recognized Bosnia as a unified country but divided into two fairly autonomous regions - one Bosnian Serb republic and the other Muslim-Croat. But the 1995 agreement, brokered in Dayton, Ohio, sealed the Muslim war-time goal of a unified and independent Bosnia - the opposite of what most of the Bosnian Croats and Serbs had fought for. This has left many Croats with an abiding feeling of injustice. SOUNDBITE: (Croatian) "I think everything is unfair to us. I think Aljia Izetbegovic should be tried and all his associates as well. He is responsible for everything that happened to Croats in Bosnia." SUPER CAPTION: VOXPOP Old woman (lost 2 sons during war) SOUNDBITE: (Croatian) "This is absolute injustice to Croats who have never done anything during the war, and for those as well who are convicted in the Hague. I think it's not fair that other sides (Serbs and Muslims) walk freely though these streets, there are real criminals and there are not in the Hague." SUPER CAPTION: VOXPOP Old man Despite the peace agreement, and the war crimes tribunal which was meant to right the wrongs of the war, the bitterness that remains. Many people here are still calling for the country to be split up and to join parts of it to either neighbouring Serbia or Croatia. This is the tightrope that international diplomats have to walk every day. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/c537fce184b34303010eeca708947278 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork