CROATIAN OFFICIALS SAY BOSNIAN ARMY BEHIND WAR CRIME ON KRAJINA SERB TAPE
BBC Monitoring International Reports - August 7, 2006 Monday

Excerpt from report by Croatian TV on 7 August

[Presenter] Following the broadcast of an amateur videotape from 1995 in which, according to media, it can be seen how members of the Hamza unit of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Army and members of the Croatian paramilitary unit Black Mambas killed detained Serb civilians and soldiers, the Hague tribunal [Chief] Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will receive them tomorrow. [Passage omitted: more on previously covered details]

[Reporter] The Croatian Public Prosecutor's Office has the 11-year-old tape of the alleged murder of a detained Serb civilian. The office received the tape today, we have unofficially learnt, but they cannot reveal from whom. The tape, they say, shows wartime actions by the 505th Buzin Knights' Brigade [as heard] of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Army 5th Corps on the territory of two villages near Dvor na Uni, Donji Zirovac and Gornji Zirovac. [Passage omitted: more on the same]

[Reporter] It can be seen from the contested tape that members of the Croatian Army did take part in the liberation of Dvor na Uni, but a source who wishes to remain anonymous has told us that nothing points to them having participated in the alleged crimes. The Interior Ministry has been asked to process the case and establish the circumstances surrounding the events shown in this tape.

[Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun] If there are really elements for initiating any penal proceedings, Croatian police will do the job they are asked to do by the state prosecution regardless of who the alleged perpetrators may be.

[Reporter] As we have learnt, the case will be sent to the Sisak police directorate. The Croatian Public Prosecutor's Office is constantly in contact with the Bosnia-Hercegovina Public Prosecutor's Office, which, we have learnt, is working intensively on establishing who the perpetrators are, since it is suspected on the basis of the videotape that members of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Army were involved.

That is what a statement by the Croatian government spokesman [Ratko Macek] is also indicating. Ratko Macek has confirmed that he has seen the contested tape. He said that this material had been previously known to the public, adding that it had undoubtedly been taped somewhere in Bosnia and that it did not concern Croatian Army members.

Source: HRT1 TV, Zagreb, in Croatian 1730 gmt 7 Aug 06

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