Verdict as historical truth: The Joint Criminal Enterprise is the foundation of the so-called Herceg-Bosnia

(Patria) - Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the self-proclamation of the so-called Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosnia. On this occasion, HDZ leaders gathered in Mostar and sent familiar messages of thanks to Herceg-Bosnia and those who led the project of this para-state.

HDZ leader Dragan Čović called their decisions wise and brave. And what were those decisions, exactly?

Division of BiH and ethnic cleansing

From its inception, it was clear that it would opt for the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is evident from the conclusion in its founding act, which states that Bosnian-Herzegovinian "Croats will support the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina as long as others do not start dividing it".

It was not emphasized that they would fight against division, but rather suggested that they would join the division after others started it. At that time, the Serbian leadership had already begun, which was recognized by the founders of Herceg-Bosnia, and they, as justification for their actions, interpret that the Serbs were in an advanced stage of dismantling Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes vijesti.ba.

Numerous crimes were left behind by this para-state; in fact, its policy relied on crime as the foundation for the realization of Banovina Croatia: mass killings, internment of the civilian population, torture, use of prisoners for forced labor and work on the front lines, use of so-called human shields, rape. The massacres in Ahmići and Stupni Dol, the frenzied terrorization of the city of Mostar, the killing of its citizens, the destruction of its symbols like the Old Bridge, the formation of the infamous Heliodrom and Dretelj camps, and nearly 60 other concentration camps in which Bosniaks were tortured and killed until the peak of the aggression, when on November 9, 1993, the famous Old Bridge was destroyed by tank shells from the HVO and the Croatian Army.

What Tuđman did

In public and generally accepted perception, the beginning of the Croatian aggression is linked to the beginning of May 1993 and the truly brutal attack by Croatian forces on Mostar. The truth, however, is that by then Croatian forces had attacked in Prozor, which was followed by the internment and brutal deportation of the Muslim population accompanied by rapes and killings; in Gornji Vakuf, the escalation had been ongoing since January...

At a meeting with a delegation of the HDZ BiH in Zagreb in December 1991, Franjo Tuđman already expressed the view that the disappearance of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a Croatian state imperative:

"That Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a solution for the Croatian people, all of history has shown that. First of all, it was created by the colonial conquest of an Asian power, gentlemen, let's not forget that, from the 15th to the 18th century, at the expense of the Croatian people, at the expense of Croatian territory. All these colonial formations have fallen in history, both in Asia and in Africa. Bosnia and Herzegovina did not exist between the two wars. The communists invented it, brought it back to the scene after World War II, even declared Muslims a nation, in order to supposedly resolve the contradictions between the Serbian and Croatian people. Did they succeed in that? No, on the contrary. Therefore, one should not count on Bosnia and Herzegovina as something given by God and meant to remain, and especially forget how it is at our expense".

Victory of the Army of RBiH and the verdict in The Hague

After the Army of RBiH stopped and crushed the efforts of the political and military leadership of this para-creation and their Zagreb sponsors, the final epilogue occurred in November 2017.

By the verdict of the Hague Tribunal, the leaders of the so-called Herceg-Bosnia were sentenced to a total of 111 years in prison.

Jadranko Prlić (25 years in prison), Bruno Stojić (20 years in prison), Slobodan Praljak (20 years in prison), Milivoje Petković (20 years in prison), Valentin Ćorić (16 years in prison), and Berislav Pušić (10 years in prison) were found guilty. For all six convicts, participation in a joint criminal enterprise, led by the then President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, was proven.

The Hague Tribunal, in the verdict in the case of Prlić and others, ruled that Tuđman and Gojko Šušak were part of a Joint Criminal Enterprise whose goal was to create Greater Croatia within the borders of Banovina from 1939. The Appeals Chamber confirmed that the goal of the joint criminal enterprise was the creation of a Croatian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina that would enable the unification of the Croatian people, through the ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population.