Today, Croatian General Ante Gotovina told the Croatian public from The Hague, where he was sentenced to 24 years in prison for crimes against Serbian civilians in Operation "Storm", to go to the referendum tomorrow and vote according to their conscience, and that he would personally vote for Croatia's entry into European Union.
"This is how I want to state that tomorrow in The Hague, I will vote for Croatia's entry into the EU - where Croatia belongs in terms of civilization and history, and this is only formally confirmed by the referendum," Gotovina announced.
"Croatia has a place in the European Union," Gotovina told the Croatian public from The Hague.
The message as a whole was conveyed by his lawyers, Croatian agency HINA reported.
"The verdict against General Gotovina, handed down last spring, brought down, albeit only temporarily, the support for Croatia's entry into the EU to the lowest recorded level," writes Zagreb's "Jutarnji list".
Numerous representatives of the radical right cite Gotovina's verdict as one of the main reasons why they should not vote for joining the EU, the paper says, adding that Gotovina's appeal in favor of the Union is all the more interesting and even more significant.
We will see if the general's decision, which must have shocked some of his public fans, will disarm right-wing Eurosceptics, according to "Jutarnji list".
On April 14 last year, the judicial panel of the Hague Tribunal passed a first-instance verdict against the Croatian generals. Gotovina was sentenced to 24 years in prison and Mladen Markač to 18 years, while Ivan Cermak was acquitted.
Due to participation in a criminal enterprise directed against the Serbian civilian population in Kninska Krajina during and after Operation "Storm" from August 4 to the end of September 1995, the Hague Court found Gotovina and Markač guilty of persecution, deportation of the civilian population, looting of public and private property, reckless destruction of settlements, murders and inhumane acts, as well as due to cruel treatment of Serbian civilians.
General Gotovina was commander of the Split military area and commanded Operation Storm. He was on the run until December 7, 2005, when he was arrested in the Canary Islands. The indictment against him was brought in 2001 and supplemented in March 2004.
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