SERBIA/ FILE: Croatian police are investigating possible war crimes committed during military action to retake parts of the country from rebel Serbs in 1995.

Croatian police have opened an investigation into alleged war crimes committed during a military action to retake parts of the country from rebel Serbs in 1995, state news agency Hina reported on Tuesday (August 8). The investigation is based on an amateur video footage shown last week on a Serbian TV station which Serbian authorities then delivered to the Croatian state attorneys office. The footage, aired by the local B-92 network, claimed to show crimes committed during coordinated military action by Croat and Bosnian forces in Croatia close to the Bosnian border in August 1995. The grainy, blurred footage shows alleged Croatian and Bosnian soldiers executing Serb nationals. The camera then focuses on the beheaded body of one of the men, then moves on to show another body lying in a field. Later in the video, alleged Croatian soldiers are filmed forcing men to lie on the ground with their faces down. The camera focuses on the badge worn by one of the soldiers - which reads 'Black Snake' - the name used for the Croatian paramilitary during the war. "We will check all the facts and make investigations on the ground. We will also cooperate with Bosnian police if necessary," Hina quoted police spokesman Zlatko Mehun as saying. Belgrade residents on Wednesday (August 9), expressed hope that the men who committed the alleged crimes will be punished. "It is terrible. I wonder how come it (the footage) hasn't come out until now. It is incredible that something like that could have happened. Everything should be done for those who committed those crimes to be punished", said Dragan Markovic . "(it is a shame) that only Serbian public is aware of it. No one in the West is going to pay attention to it, they are simply not interested", said Dragisa Jankovic. Croatia retook a huge part of its territory in the action, dubbed operation "Storm", in 1995 when some 200,000 Croatian Serbs fled the country. The Hague war crimes tribunal indicted two Croatian army generals and one police general for the murder of at least 150 Serb civilians and the looting and burning of Serb homes. Croatia regards operation "Storm" as ending a Serb rebellion, backed by Belgrade, which cut the country in half and severely damaged its economy. Rebels expelled non-Serbs from almost a third of the Croatian territory they occupied from 1991 to 1995. Zagreb started European Union entry talks last October after meeting the key requirement of full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal.

ITN Source | August 10, 2006

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