Celebration in Mostar, reactions arriving: HVO is not a military formation but a joint criminal enterprise

The 25th anniversary of the founding of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) is being celebrated in Mostar today. The ceremony includes laying wreaths and lighting candles at the memorial to all fallen members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in front of the Croatian Home of Herceg Stjepan Kosača. The first reactions are already arriving, and public opinion is divided.

The Civic Alliance (GS) wishes to remind the public of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the occasion of the celebration of the so-called HVO Day of the following:

Starting from November 18, 1991, a joint criminal enterprise was launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the political and military subjugation, permanent removal, and ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats who lived in those parts of the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were claimed to belong to the Croatian Community, later the Republic of Herceg-Bosna.

Franjo Tuđman, Gojko Šušak, Janko Bobetko, Mate Boban, Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić, Dario Kordić, Tihomir Blaškić, and Mladen Naletilić Tuta, along with numerous other officials of the HDZ, the so-called HVO, the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and officers and generals of the Croatian Army, participated in the joint criminal enterprise.

The actions undertaken by Herceg-Bosna/HVO followed this pattern: first, most of the military-able men were arrested and detained in various HVO prisons and concentration camps. Then, after most of the men were removed, the HVO took control of the towns and villages and systematically gathered women, children, and the elderly, who were then detained for various periods or deported to areas under the control of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) or to other countries.

The HVO established and ran an entire network of concentration camps for Bosniaks.

The HVO Military Police established a camp center in the premises of the former police station in Ljubuški in June 1992. Three months later, the HVO opened a camp at Heliodrom. The camps in Dretelj and Gabela, located in former JNA barracks, began operating in April 1993. The Vojno camp was actively used between August 1993 and January 1994. Tens of thousands of captured civilians were held in these camps.

Particularly harsh conditions prevailed at Heliodrom and in Dretelj, where detainees were deprived of water, food, hygiene facilities, and even light. Detained civilians were subjected to abuse, beatings, burns, electroshocks, and humiliation by being forced to eat with unwashed utensils, and they had to consume their meager meals in just a few seconds, or face punishment. Detainees who did not eat fast enough were forced to lie down on the hot asphalt and roll around on the ground without their shirts. One detainee at Heliodrom was forced to lick his own blood so that "Balija blood would not remain on Croatian soil".

Detainees at Heliodrom, and in the Vojno and Ljubuški camps, were taken for forced labor on the front lines, with some being wounded or killed, or killed while being used as human shields along the front line.

Evidence has also been published that captured civilians were used for forced labor by Dragan Čović, currently a member of the Presidency from the Croat people and president of the HDZ and the so-called HNS, and at that time an official of Sokol - the reaction states.

All factual claims in this statement have been judicially established before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian courts. This is what those who celebrate April 8th and the so-called HVO are celebrating, they note in the reaction.