While awaiting the final verdict for Prlić et al.: Documents prove that Croatian Army units fought in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In November this year, the Hague Tribunal will deliver the final verdict for Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić i Berislav Pušić, former political and military leaders of the so-called Herzeg-Bosnia.

They were found guilty in the first-instance verdict of a joint criminal enterprise (JCE) for the expulsion and killing of Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and sentenced to a total of 111 years in prison, Patria reports.

The goal of the joint criminal enterprise (JCE) was the political and military subjugation, permanent removal and ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks from those parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were declared the so-called Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, and to annex those areas to the state of Croatia, or to declare them a state within Bosnia and Herzegovina (following the example of Republika Srpska).

At the head of the joint criminal enterprise, according to the verdict, was the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, who, together with the leaders of the so-called HRHB, agreed on the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina which they considered Croatian.

- Franjo Tuđman, Gojko Šušak (Croatian Minister of Defense), Janko Bobetko (General Staff of the Croatian Army), Mate Boban (President of the so-called Herzeg-Bosnia), Jadranko Prlić, Slobodan Praljak and others reached a mutual agreement in which the organs and personnel structures of the HVO (Croatian Defence Council) were used for a common criminal goal, stated presiding judge Jean-Claude Antonetti.

Croatia also became involved in the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the beginning of 1993, which was confirmed by this verdict, wanting to secure territory in Western Herzegovina and Central Bosnia as a key geostrategic area for the further continuation of the war for the liberation of Croatian state territory.

The report on the assumption of combat responsibility from the Croatian Army, submitted to the Ministry of Defence of HRHB by Colonel Nedeljko Obradović, commander of the 1st Brigade of the HVO Knez Domagoj, proves the presence of Croatian regular military forces on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and direct military cooperation with HVO units in combat operations against the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the only regular military formation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In this report, Colonel Obradović informs his superiors that he has taken over positions from Croatian Army units that were there before his unit.