The head of the Croatian disabled war veterans' association HVIDRA, Josip Djakic, urged the government on Thursday to withdraw the ambassador from Belgrade over the case of Croatian war veteran Tihomir Purda and Serbia's attitude towards the Croatian justice authorities.
"That's one of the first moves we want you to make," Djakic told a press conference in Zagreb, presenting HVIDRA's demand for suspension of diplomatic relations with Serbia until legal issues concerning Croatian war veterans were resolved.
He criticised the Serbian and Bosnian justice authorities for their stance in the Purda case and called for a review of the justice cooperation agreements with the two countries.
Purda was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the Orasje border crossing with Croatia, on January 5 and has been in custody in Zenica prison awaiting extradition to Serbia which wants him on charges of war crimes allegedly committed in Vukovar in 1991. A Croatian court has found that there are no grounds for his prosecution.
Djakic said HVIDRA would also demand resignation from the Croatian justice minister should Purda be extradited to Serbia.
Djakic said that indictments against Croatian war veterans were written in 1992 by the Yugoslav counter-intelligence agency KOS whose agents had forced Croatian prisoners of war to sign statements accusing them of crimes they had not committed, adding that the same had also been found by the Croatian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. He said that Serbian files also contained unfounded indictments against Slovenia's Territorial Defence and police and the Bosnian army.
Djakic said he was appalled at the silence of human rights organisations such as Amnesty International.
He called on all HVIDRA members to attend a veterans' protest rally in Vukovar on Saturday.
