Ex-Croat generals cleared of war crimes

Neither Ante Gotovina nor Mladen Markac showed any emotion at the decision yesterday, but their supporters in the court’s packed public gallery cheered and clapped as Presiding Judge Theodor Meron ordered both men freed immediately.

Gotovina and Markac were sentenced to 24 and 18 years respectively in 2011 for crimes including murder and deportation. Judges ruled both men were part of a criminal conspiracy known as Operation Storm, led by former Croat president Franjo Tudjma, to expel Serbs. But appeals judges said no such conspiracy existed.

The decision, by a 3-2 majority in the five-judge appeals chamber, is one of the most significant reversals in the court’s 18-year history and overturns a verdict that dealt a blow to Croatia’s self-image as a victim of atrocities, rather than a perpetrator, during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

The generals are likely to be returned to their jail cells to complete release paperwork before being freed.

While supporters of the generals at home in Croatia cheered and set off fireworks, the acquittals will enrage hardline opponents of the UN court in Serbia who accuse its judges of anti-Serb bias.

The headline in the Blic daily’s online edition read: “Scandalous decision: Gotovina and Markac free as if there had been no Operation Storm.”

Some 600 Serbs were killed and more than 200,000 were driven from their homes during the operation.

Gotovina, 55, is especially popular among Croatian nationalists. The charismatic former soldier fought in the French Foreign Legion in the 1980s and spent four years on the run before being captured in the Canary Islands in 2005.