Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Friday that Croatian war veteran Tihomir Purda was a victim of rigged proceedings launched by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, expressing confidence that the Serbian judiciary would eventually establish that Purda was innocent.
"Mr Purda is a victim of rigged proceedings launched by the Milosevic regime," Kosor told a news conference she called to comment on the latest developments in the Purda case.
"Today's decision of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not final. I am confident that the Serbian prosecution will have the opportunity to establish relevant facts after questioning Purda," the PM said.
She explained that it was unquestionable that Purda had given a statement in inhumane conditions, and that his statement had been extorted in captivity in Serbian prison camps, where he had been subjected to torture and humiliated.
Kosor expressed confidence that "all institutions, notably independent ones, will do their best so that we are no longer burdened by the consequences of the Milosevic regime whose mechanisms of destruction attacked both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina."
For the sake of lasting peace and stability and the overall situation, "it is very important that all take into account the fact that Mr Purda is innocent," Kosor said.
"The Croatian government will continue doing all it can to protect the human rights of Croatian citizen and veteran Tihomir Purda," Kosor said, adding that the case had prompted her to convene a session of the Council for National Security, which would meet soon.
Deputies in the Croatian parliament were agreed today that Croatia should have seen to it long ago that a Bosnian court did not decide on Purda's extradition to Serbia, but they were divided over who should have done it. Deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that the issue of indicted Croatian veterans should have been settled at the level of the two countries' presidents, while the Opposition insisted that it was the Croatian judiciary and police that failed in Purda's case.
A former member of the National Guard Corps and Vukovar defender, Purda was arrested in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje on 5 January on an international warrant issued in Serbia whose prosecutorial authorities suspect him of committing war crimes against prisoners of war and infirm persons in Vukovar in 1991.
The State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina today decided to grant Serbia's request for Purda's transfer to Serbia.
