SEPAROVIC IN THE HAGUE

http://www.javno.com/en/croatia/clanak.php?id=23577

Do You Treat Me As An Accessory To A Criminal Act?The judge at today's hearing pointed out that lawyer Separovic had a personal conflict of interest and that he could not defend Markac

Nataša Zecevic

Do you treat me as a member of an organized criminal undertaking, too – lawyer Miroslav Separovic asked the Hague Tribunal today, annoyed by their half-questions which bordered on insistence. To clarify, the judges repeated several times that he had to consider if he had a conflict of interest as the former Justice Minister and general Mladen Markac's defence attorney. At the same time, they kept suggesting that, in the course of the trial, it "might be in his client's best interest" to "shift the burden of guilt from th Defence Ministry to the Justice Ministry." After the already annoyed Separovic asked them if he was a suspect too, the special debate in the Hague was soon brought to an end. It was started at general Ante Gotovina's lawyer's request in the aftermath of written complaints about the Hague Tribunal's lack of authority over the crimes that had happened after the end of the Storm military campaign.

Everyone is a suspect

Even thought he judiciary council did not reach the final decision today, the course of the proceedings and the judges' accusations about lawyer Miroslav Separovic having a "personal conflict of interest," give ground to the conclusion that the Zagreb lawyer will no longer be able to defend general Ivan Markac.

- It was not explained what this conflict of interest consisted of. This way, it appears that I, too, am a potential member of an organized criminal undertaking – said lawyer Separovic in an interview for Javno. He was the Justice Minister during the war and therefore the council does not acknowledge him as Markac's defence attorney because they think that there is a possibility that he be called as a witness. General Ante Gotovina's defence team anticipated this and, for this reason, they opposed the idea of having one trial for all three generals. Even though general Gotovina's lawyer Greg Kehoe asked the council today if they would change their decision if they abandoned the idea of calling Separovic to the stand, the judge told him that it was too late for that now.

Different defence tactics

It is interesting that today's debate was not even initiated to discuss Separovic's conflict of interest. It was brought on by the three lawyer teams' complaints that the Hague did not have the authority over the events after the Storm offensive because there were not any armed conflicts anymore at the time. The three generals' lawyers think that all events that took place after August 8, when the Government of the Republic of Croatia had officially declared the end of the military campaign, were in the jurisdiction of Croatian courts and that this was not about breaking the rules of war, but rules of peace. The prosecution, on the other hand, claims that armed conflicts lasted until November 1995 and that the Hague had the authority over all the crimes that had been committed in that period. General Gotovina's defence had other objections along with this one. All their objections are aimed at having the part of the charges that place the responsibility for the persecution of civilian population on general Gotovina, dismissed. To clarify, lawyer Pavam Akhavan devoted the better part of the debate to this issue. He kept insisting that the prosecution was misinterpreting and applying international regulations and conventions when accusing Gotovina of those acts. Akhavan explained that, in the case of the Storm campaign, regulations related to the occupation of foreign territory could not be applied. It is precisely in the international regulations that provide for the issues of military occupation of territory that the criminal act of persecution of civilian population is mentioned.

Did Croatia colonize itself?

Gotovina's lawyers therefore think that these regulations cannot apply in the instance of freeing one's own territory.

- If you are accusing Croatia of colonizing its own land, then you must admit that this is a problem – said Akhavan at one point to the judge who often interrupted him with additional questions about his lack of understanding what Akhavan was trying to prove and where he saw the problem. Akhavan also argued against the part of the charges that blamed Gotovina for "causing illegal deportation of Serbian citizens by means of illegal bombing" the goal of which, according to the prosecution, was to relocate and harm Serbian citizens. Akhavan pointed out that, in that case, any military campaign would automatically be a criminal act because one could expect civilians to get injured and the "creation of an atmosphere of fear" as a consequence of any military campaign.

- By that logic, even NATO should be held responsible for more than 400 casualties of the Belgrade bombing – said Akhavan and was immediately interrupted by a judge. General Gotovina's agile lawyer, who had worked for the Hague prosecution with Greg Kehoe in the 1990s, kept proving that the bombing was done for military purposes only, which was not the case with the Storm operation. His stance has made it clear that the main goal of Gotovina's defence is to knock down the part of the charges that relate to the persecution of civilian population or, in layman's terms, the ethnic cleansing.

- This constitutes 95 percent of the charges for organized criminal undertaking. If the persecution charge goes down, so does the entire charge for criminal undertaking. This would make the defence's job at the trial significantly easier – sources close to general Gotovina's defence team revealed to us. The Tribunal's decision after the objections has not yet been reached, It is hard to estimate when the judiciary council will reach it, but this should certainly happen before the trial scheduled for May 7 begins.