The Armed forces of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian Army and its collaborators and the fifth column – The Croatian Defense Council, a fascistic part of the Croatian Defense Council that operated under the general – overall control of the Republic of Croatia and for its interests, de facto and de iure body, an instrument of the Republic of Croatia that conducted general control and effective command over the armed forces and civil authorities of the pseudo-state of the Croatian Community of Herzeg Bosnia/ Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, whereby the crimes committed by the Croatian Defense Council are attributed to the Republic of Croatia), in Central Bosnia, valleys of the rivers Rama and Neretva, as well as in the West Herzegovina, committed a large number of crimes against humanity and international law against the Bosniacs, civilians and civil population, including:
– mass and individual murders and torching, injuring the victims including women, children and the elderly;
– expulsion and forcible transfer;
-mass and systematic capturing of civilians and their imprisonment in the concentration camps and other places of incarceration, attacks against the civilians and civilian facilities;
– terrorizing the civilians; rapes and sexual abuse acts;
– military attacks against towns and villages and their destruction; destruction of houses, religious, historical, educational, scientific, cultural, health, sport, economic and other civil objects, including the Old Bridge in Mostar;
– plundering and setting on fire the public property; looting Bosniac houses, apartments and other Bosniac property and their burning down;
– massive dismissal from work; conversion into the Christianity;
– forced labor at the frontlines where the inmates and prisoners were forced to be human shield;
– deliberate blocking of humanitarian aid; assaults on the humanitarian workers;
– imposing the huge charges on humanitarian aid as well as other forms of crimes against humanity and international law.
In line with the Croatian nationalistic ideology and policy aimed at setting up “a common Croatian state in its ethnical and historical borders”, for which realization there existed, at the end of 20th century, a joint criminal enterprise headed by the state, political and military leadership of the Republic of Croatia, under the leadership of President Franjo Tuđman, the foregoing constitutes a part of the premeditated and systematic policy and practice of crime of genocide committed by the Croatian armed forces in an organized way in the above stated areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That genocidal policy and practice were carried out in the municipalities, including: Stolac, Čapljina, Ljubuški, Tomislav Grad, Mostar, Jablanica, Prozor, Gornji Vakuf, Bugojno, Kiseljak, Busovača, Vitez, Žepče, Vareš, and many other places, which was corroborated, among many other pieces of evidence, by the existence of mass graves. The most striking examples of the mass crimes against the humanity and international law include the crimes of genocide committed in Ahmići, Vrbanja, Stupni Do, Prozor, in the settlements of Tulica, Grahovci, Radanovići, and HanPloča (Kiseljak), where many civilians, including women and children, were killed and burned alive, while their houses and other civilian objects were torched with incendiary bullets, shells and petrol.
In part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a pseudostate creation of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian Community of HerzegBosnia/Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia) was established and where numerous international crimes were committed, including the crime of genocide against Bosniacs, even after the Washington and Dayton Peace Agreements, the ideas, protagonists, and followers of such entity are still present. In principle, they recognized the ICTY jurisdiction, but its orders were rarely enforced. The largest number of suspected and indicted persons surrendered themselves “voluntarily” with the help of the Republic of Croatia, whereas some of arrests were conducted by international forces.
Sources of scientific knowledge:
1.Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo
2.Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada
3.The International Criminal Tribunal for areas of the former Yugoslavia
4. The International Court of Justice