The Hague (Netherlands), April 15: A commander hailed by Croats as a hero of the Balkan conflict was convicted of war crimes by a UN court today and sentenced to 24 years in prison for a campaign of shelling, shootings and expulsions aimed at driving Serbs out of a Croatian border region in 1995.
The conviction of General Ante Gotovina was a blow to the Croatian view of its wartime generals as national heroes who reclaimed Croatian land from a more powerful Serb force.
Thousands of Croatian war veterans watched the verdict live on a large video screen at Zagreb’s main square, and jeered and booed the ruling.
“We have heard the shameful verdicts of the so-called Hague court, but in fact a Serbian court,” Zvonimir Trusic, one of their leaders, told the angry crowd. “We don’t recognize that tribunal.
-Agencies