Bećirović: Let all young people look up to scientists and athletes, not criminals

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Commenting on the guilty verdicts of the Hague Tribunal against former leaders of the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosnia, SDP representative in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Bećirović called on young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region to look up to famous and great writers, athletes and scientists, and never to, as he said, finally convicted criminals.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the pronouncement of the final verdict in the case against former political and military leaders of the self-proclaimed Herceg-Bosnia – Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić – has begun.

The first-instance verdict sentenced them to a total of 111 years in prison for war crimes, which includes a joint criminal enterprise in which Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, Defense Minister Gojko Šušak and Chief of the General Staff Janko Bobetko also participated.

The trial was interrupted after Praljak, following a guilty verdict of 20 years in prison, drank an unknown substance which he said was poison.

- In the history of all South Slavic peoples, and in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, you cannot find an example of a more impartial and objective international court than this UN court. It reached impartial conclusions based on tens of thousands of documents and the testimony of hundreds of witnesses. And everyone should accept what they committed to under the General Framework Agreement for Peace, and scientists and domestic courts should continue working with the aim of shedding light on certain situations - said Bećirović.

The continuation of the 53rd session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina was again interrupted after the dramatic situation in The Hague.