Croatian officials yesterday criticised a 45-year jail sentence handed down by The Hague tribunal against a former Bosnian Croat general, Tihomir Blaskic, and said it could harm Croatia's new and better relations with the court.
"There is no doubt that the sentence is very harsh and I believe it will have to be re-examined in the appeal process," the Prime Minister, Mr Ivica Racan, who has been trying to give his country a more positive human rights image, told Croatian radio.
The Hague war crimes tribunal sentenced Blaskic (39) for war crimes, including the massacre of more than 100 Muslim civilians in the central Bosnian village of Ahmici in April 1993.
He was the military commander of the central Lasva valley during the 1993-94 Croat-Muslim conflict but had a reputation as a moderate who made conciliatory speeches about the Muslims and opposed the war, masterminded by extreme nationalists from the southern Herzegovina region.
His sentence was the heaviest handed down for the crimes committed in the conflict, which claimed some 200,000 lives. However, Muslim survivors from the massacre said yesterday that it was not hard enough.
"We do not agree with the verdict, and we never will," said Ms Hasreta Ahmic, who lost nine members of her family when the Bosnian Croat forces murdered more than 100 Muslims in the village of Ahmici in April 1993.
"This is their shame. What happened in the village was a pure horror. We can never be satisfied," Ms Ahmic, who has returned to the village, said.
The divisions which created the conflict, and which were made even deeper by it, were exemplified in the diametrically different views expressed in Croatia. The Defence Minister in Zagreb, Mr Jozo Rados, told a news conference: "The sentence on Gen Tihomir Blaskic is exceptionally stiff, given what the Croatian public knows about Blaskic and his activities during the war in Bosnia."
But the harshest comment was made by Mr Drazen Budisa, head of the Social Liberal party, a partner in the ruling coalition, and the runner-up in the presidential campaign. "I have always considered Tihomir Blaskic an innocent man. This is a terrible punishment which brings into question the credibility of The Hague tribunal," he said.
Both Mr Racan and Croatian President Stipe Mesic promised to co-operate with the tribunal as part of the U-turn in the country's foreign policy aimed at improving relations with the West and ultimately joining the European Union and NATO.
But the sentence on Blaskic could put the government's proEuropean orientation under pressure in spite of the new political atmosphere in the country.
Blaskic is widely regarded - even by moderates - as a fall guy whose handover was masterminded by the same people in the Croatian secret services in Herzegovina who bear the primary responsibility for the 199394 war against the Muslims.
"I think that Croatia's co-operation with The Hague tribunal will be difficult after such a verdict," Mr Budisa, who holds no office after losing the race for the top job to President Mesic, was quoted as saying by the state news agency, Hina.
Despite all the horrors they have suffered, Ahmici villagers are returning to their pre-war homes.
"We can live together with those who do not have blood on their hands, but not with those who are bloody-handed," Ms Ahmic said.
Mr Mirza Hajric, the foreign policy adviser to the Muslim chairman of Bosnia's collective presidency, Mr Alija Izetbegovic, said Blaskic's sentence was a step forward to ethnic reconciliation and building of trust among Bosnia's peoples.
By stressing the individual guilt, the sentence would help deny collective guilt of Bosnia's peoples in committing war crimes, Mr Hajric said. He added, however, that it gave little comfort to those who had lost their loved ones.
"Regardless of how heavy the sentence is, it is not enough for the families of the killed people," Mr Hajric said, expressing hope that Blaskic would soon be joined by other "big fish" indicted for war crimes in Bosnia who were still at large.