Croatian General Ante Gotovina, who was acquitted by the Hague Tribunal on Friday, called on the Serbs who fled during and after Operation Storm in 1995 to return to Croatia and pointed out that it was their homeland as much as his.
"I tell them to return to Croatia. They are citizens of Croatia, it is their homeland as well as mine," said Gotovina in an interview for today's Belgrade daily Kurir.
He said that they should be in their house, if they want to.
"Well, this is not mine any more than it is theirs. Those who want to return, who have houses here, I should not invite. They should come."
"Well, this is not mine any more than it is theirs. Those who want to return, who have houses here, I don't need to invite. They should come," said Gotovina.
When asked if they will fight for the prosecution of the guilty in Croatia because people died during and after the Storm action, he said that it is in the past and that we should turn to the future, as well as that there are institutions that deal with it.
"Look, there was a war. It's a matter of the past, let's turn to the future, and what is the past belongs to the past, and there are institutions that deal with it," Gotovina said.
On Friday, November 16, the Appellate Panel of the Hague Tribunal acquitted Croatian generals Anto Gotovina and Mladen Markač of the persecution of the Serbian population from Kninska Krajina in 1995, overturning the first-instance verdict by which Gotovina was sentenced to 24 years in prison and Markač to 18 years in prison.
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