PROSECUTOR BACKS UP WAR CRIMES ARRESTS IN VUKOVAR

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000602 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, S/WCI, INR, INL DEPT PLEASE PASS TO NSC BRAUN E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/20/2017 TAGS: PREL KAWC PGOV HR WAR CRIMES SUBJECT: PROSECUTOR BACKS UP WAR CRIMES ARRESTS IN VUKOVAR Classified By: Classified By: Political Officer Tom Selinger for reason s 1.4 (b) & (d). ¶1. (U) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: Vukovar police arrested six ethnic Serbs June 5 on suspicion of involvement in the torture of soldiers and civilians in the village of Luzac in ¶1991. Local Serb politicians claimed the arrests were politically motivated and called on Post and others in the international community to react. Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic found sufficient evidence to request an investigation against three of those arrested and two additional suspects still at large, while the remaining three were released. ¶2. (C) Ethnic Serb leaders believe the arrests, coming in the midst of the Vukovar County Court's first war crimes trial against Croatian defendants, are a form of retaliation against the Serb community and a way to rally right wing voters for parliamentary elections expected in November. Meanwhile, Bajic's staff has assured Post of the merits of both the case against the Serbs still in detention and of the ongoing trial of the Croatians -- real crimes were committed and real evidence points to the accused. While ethnic bias and political influence have clearly not disappeared from the Croatian legal system, the Chief State Prosecutor has a clear track record during his five-year tenure of pursuing cases without regard to ethnicity. Recent OSCE reporting noted an equal number of war crimes trials currently ongoing against Croats and Serbs. END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. THREE HELD IN DETENTION, TWO OTHERS STILL AT LARGE -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) The Chief State Prosecutor's Deputy for War Crimes Antun Kvakan told PolOff June 18 that the Luzac case was considered for prosecution several years ago, but insufficient evidence was available at the time. The police have reportedly now uncovered new witnesses, leading to the arrests and convincing Kvakan that he can build a credible prosecution. An ethnic Serb member of the Vukovar police is among the defendants. ¶4. (U) Ethnic Serb politicians, including parliamentarian and Independent Serbian Democratic Party (SDSS) Vice President Milorad Pupovac and Party of Danube Serbs President Rade Leskovac, believe the zealousness of local police is a tit-for-tat response to the ongoing Vukovar trial of five Croatian paramilitaries accused of the 1992 murder of the Olujic family in the village of Cerna. All five were members of the Croatian Defense Force (HOS),the early 1990s military wing of the far-right Croatian Party of Rights (HSP). This is the first war crimes trial against ethnic Croatian defendants in the Vukovar County Court and the first in Croatia to implicate members of the HOS. POLITICAL SEASON IN EASTERN SLAVONIA -------------- ¶5. (C) With parliamentary elections expected in November, far right politicians of both ethnicities are likely to take whatever advantage they can of remaining tensions in the Eastern Slavonia region of Croatia, and war crimes trials and investigations offer a convenient focal point. HSP influence in the region has grown since party president Anto Djapic became mayor of Osijek in 2005 and independent parliamentarian Branimir Glavas was arrested on war crimes charges last year. Leskovac is no moderate himself, for a short time serving as head of the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina (RSK),the Serb-occupied part of Croatia during the war, so claims of injustices against Serbs, justified or not, fit well on his political agenda. ¶6. (C) Pupovac, in contrast, is a centrist and traditionally the most level head in addressing these issues. Yet as head of the Serb National Council, he is the one most ethnic Serbs turn to for assistance when family members are accused of war crimes, and he admitted to PolOff June 21 that he cannot always easily assess who is telling the truth. He has consulted with Bajic on the Vukovar arrests, and while he was satisfied with the release of three suspects, he believes one of those still in detention may be falsely accused. Pupovac claimed a Vukovar-area network of members of the police, HSP, organizations of war veterans and former prisoners of war, and one deputy state prosecutor are collaborating in producing false testimony against ethnic Serbs. He reported that Bajic has agreed to monitor the work of the deputy state prosecutor to expose any potential wrongdoing. BRADTKE