Gotovina defence challenges prosecution evidence (Roundup)

Mar 12, 2008, 14:44 GMT

Amsterdam - Defenders for Croatina general Ante Gotovina, on trial for war crimes during the Balkans wars of the 1990s, argued Wednesday that the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence and that the Croatian army had sought to avoid civilian deaths.

Defence lawyer Luka Misetic, on day two of Gotovina's trial before the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, challenged the prosecution's evidence.

Misetic also sought to make a case that the Croation army did its best to avoid civilian deaths among the Serbian population in the Serbian breakaway enclave of Krajina in 1995.

Attorney Misetic did not deny some Serbs were murdered during Operation Storm - the Croatian reconquest of the Serbian breakaway republic Krajina.

But the defence questioned whether Gotovina could be held accountable for several incidents cited by the prosecution.

The defence argued that the Croation general ordered his troops to respect the laws of warfare, and also emphasized that Gotovina was involved in an offensive in neighboring Bosnia when Operation Storm took place in Krajina.

The defence denied the Croation army was involved in deportations of Serbs from Krajina. The 200,000 civilians who left the area, the lawyers claimed, would have done so following a Serbian initiative.

Earlier on Wednesday Gotivina's defence clashed repeatedly with the ICTY judges who questioned the relevance of video footage shown in court by Gotovina's lawyers and accused them of 'transforming the court room into a theatre.'

Gotivina is accused of having committed war crimes during Operation Storm, one of the biggest ethnic cleansing operations during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. In total, some 200,000 Serbs fled Krajina or were forced out.

Many of those who remained behind, particularly the elderly, were killed by Croat troops under Gotovina's command.

But Gotivina's defence team argued on Wednesday that Operation Storm was the only way to stop the Bosnian-Serb army of general Ratko Mladic in 1995 from connecting Serbian enclaves in Bosnia with Krajina, the Serbian-controlled territories in Croatia.