Serbian generals are justified

The acquittal sentenced by the judges of the International Hague Tribunal on the punishment of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia high -ranking officers of the special services of Slobodan Milosevich provoked a mixed reaction in Serbia. Belgrade politicians close to the government see this verdict proof of Serbian Pravda about the military conflicts of the 1990s, the liberal-minded public regrets that the prosecutor’s office could not find evidence of the guilt of Jovitsa Stanishich and Frank Simatovich. They were both accused of committing war crimes, but after the ten years of investigation and the trial were recognized as innocent.

“The final justice for the Serbs in The Hague!”, “Happy Day of International Truth”, “True won”, “Stanishich and Simatovich are returning a government plane” - Serbian newspapers were released under such headlines today. The largest publication “Politics” in Serbia is given by the written statement of the Prime Minister of the country Ivitsa Dachich, which says: the release in the Hague of Yovitsa Stanishich and Frank Simatovich is of great importance for Serbia, which advocates honest processes in the international tribunal.

It is curious that immediately after the end of the trial on Thursday evening, some media on their pages on the Internet brought a statement by the chief prosecutor of Serbia to investigate the war crimes of Vladimir Vukchevich that he was surprised by the acquittal in The Hague. Later, in this statement, the state information agency Tanyug remained only words that the prosecutor's office of Serbia would request from the Hague tribunal the materials of this trial for their possible use in investigations of other criminal cases in Belgrade.

The Belgrade newspaper "Danas" came out today with the heading "Surprised, upset, amazed." The article contains a reaction to the acquittal of Serbian non -governmental organizations. Human rights activist Natasha Kandych, who has been investigating war crimes for many years during the Balkan conflict, believes that the justification of the two main leaders of the Serbian State Security Service does not correspond to the facts known to every reasonably thinking person. Kandych said: it is shocked by the fact that the international tribunal did not follow the well -known connection of the accused with the activities of Serbian militarized detachments in Bosnia and Croatia, who committed terrible crimes. A similar opinion is held by the chairman of the Helsinki Committee Serbia Sonya Biserko:

“This sentence is surprising to all those who seriously followed the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. The strategy of the Hague Tribunal is amazing: in the last round to free such high -ranking heads of special services! Now it turns out: Serbs in Bosnia and in Croatia themselves organized a war, Serbia did not participate in the war, as Miloshevich always claimed. However, in Serbia - 400 thousand The veterans of which, by the way, are not concerned about the facts that are difficult to ignore.

The former military reporter, editor of the Vremya Liberal magazine, Philip Schwarm, was not surprised by the decision of the international tribunal:

“I would be surprised a few years ago, but the latest practice of the Hague Tribunal, who freed the Croatian generals and chief of the General Staff of the army of Yugoslav Momchilo Perishic, shows: the judges are now not looking at the problems of military crimes as before. Obviously, the concept of direct guilt has changed. The Hague prosecutor’s office could not prove a direct guilty guilt for this time. accused, as it was during some other trials. ”

Over the past seven months, the judges of the International Hague Tribunal issued four acquittals. The Serbian yellow press, for example, the Kurir newspaper, writes: Frank Simatovich met the decision to release the court in the courtroom with a wide smile, and Jovitsa Stanishich with a stone face. Stanishich’s lawyer explains that his client was in shock: this process was the longest in the history of the Hague Tribunal, for ten years. The Belgrade Much -Tyrazhny newspaper Blitz resembles the details of the biographies of the former security chief Serbia Jovitsa Stanishich and his deputy Frank Simitovich. Stanishich at the head of the State Security Service was located from 1991 to 1998 and was considered the main confidant of Slobodan Milosevich. When the war in Kosovo began, Milosevich removed Stanishich from his environment-supposedly because of the resistance of his employee too hard to use force against the Albanians. Frank Simatovich - nicknamed "Frank" - at the beginning of his career was involved in the intelligence of the Western countries. During the war years, his task was to form Serbian militarized detachments in Bosnia and Croatia. He also created and also led the special purpose detachment “Red Beretes”, whose members-as proven by the court-committed the murder of the Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Ginjich in 2003. After this murder, Simatovich was arrested and sent to the Hague, in accordance with the charges of the International Tribunal of involvement in war crimes.