Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International issued a statement on Tuesday welcoming a debate on the launch of investigations into war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia, which followed the publication of its report "Behind a Wall of Silence" in December 2010.
AI, however, expressed regret that parts of the report were misinterpreted, saying that it never expressed an opinion on who started the war in the former Yugoslavia or took a stance on that issue in any other context.
AI said that all the findings in the report were based on official information and statistics that had been provided to AI by Croatian authorities between 2007 and 2010. The organisation did not specify the institutions in question.
AI said that two weeks before publishing the 77-page report on December 9, it had offered it to the Croatian authorities for possible comment, adding that it had received no comments by the day of publication.
AI expressed regret that the Croatian Ministry of Justice had failed to provide its response to the report to AI before distributing it to the media on Tuesday. The organisation said that it would analyse the response closely and inform the public about its position.
