About a thousand war veterans from throughout Croatia gathered in Grubisno Polje, about 100 kilometres east of Zagreb, on Sunday to express their support for their wartime comrades in arms Veljko Maric and Tihomir Purda, who are both in custody on suspicion of war crimes, the former in Serbia and the latter in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The protesters addressed 11 demands to the Government, Parliament and President of Croatia, calling for an immediate and unconditional end to the persecution of all Croatian veterans, protection of the values of the 1991-1995 Homeland War in criminal legislation, suspension of government aid to associations and publications that criminalise the Homeland War, abolition of the General Amnesty Act, an end to political deals aimed at suspending the criminal prosecution of the aggressor army, defend the independence of Croatia by cleansing it of communism, publication of secret agreements with Serbia and Montenegro, legal protection of all Croatian veterans from any persecution, and constitutional protection of all their demands.
Mirjana Maric, the wife of Veljko Maric, who has been in custody in Serbia for 10 months, is unemployed and lives alone with three children. She said that the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs had offered her assistance only two weeks ago, and added that she expected the Ministry of Justice to again request her husband's extradition to Croatia. "If he must answer for his actions, let him answer before a Croatian court," she said.
The Maric family also received support from Slobodanka Purda, the wife of Tihomir Purda who is in Zenica prison in Bosnia and Herzegovina awaiting extradition to Serbia. She blamed the Croatian government for withholding information from the Croatian public about the arrest of Veljko Maric 10 months ago.
First Lieutenant Ljudevit Sakal said that only one person had been convicted for the crimes Serb forces had committed in the Grubisno Polje, and that by a Serbian court. He said that more than 260 indictments had never been prosecuted because of the amnesty law. "The amnesty law should be abolished immediately and they should all be prosecuted," he added.
Vukovar veteran Pero Janjic said that protests were the only legitimate weapon veterans had to fight injustices against them. "If the terror against veterans continues, we will rise in arms again if necessary and put a stop to terrorism," he said.
Zeljko Sacic said that the biggest hatred against them came from the Croatian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which he said was prosecuting Croatian veterans for the sake of Croatia's entry into the European Union. He called on all veterans to vote against EU entry in the forthcoming referendum, and announced the next protest rally for February 26 in Zagreb when demands would be made for the resignation of Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic, Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic and Chief Public Prosecutor Mladen Bajic.
