Bakone Moloto presiding judge, said In October 1991, Croats in the villages of Hrvatska Dubica and Cerovljani were forced from their homes, beaten and used as human shields by Serbs. When they fled, Serbs moved into their homes, Judge Moloto said. On Oct. 20, 1991, Eleven managed to escape, but the next day the remaining prisoners were taken to the banks of a nearby river and killed, Judge Moloto said. Their bodies were dumped in several graves, including a mass grave judges visited during the trial.

A piece of critical information missing from this article, and also missing from the many I’ve read on Croatia’s 1995 plight of Serbs, is that from 1991-1995, prior to the plight of Serbs, ethnic Serbs in Croatia, with hefty assistance from both paramilitary units from Serbia the Milosevic-controlled Communist Yugoslav Army (JNA), killed at least 15,000 Croatians and forcibly displaced, "cleansed," some 220,000 Croats from about one-third of Croatian territory. More than 15,000 (FIFTEEN THOUSAND!) Croats were murdered in areas occupied by Serbs, and more than 4000 are still missing. ( If I am not mistaken, DM100 was paid for each dead Croatian citizens.) Croatians should indeed be proud of their own liberation from such a hell.

Mario, Cleveland/Ohio, USA

If you still believe the sanitized version of who was responsible for the breakup of Yugoslavia you need to ask yourself several questions and once you answer those question you will see that the only thing we can blame Milosevic for is for attempting to save the unity of a socialist Yugoslavia. Milosevic was the leader of Serbia who wanted all the Serbs to live in one state and that state was Yugoslavia. In Milosevic’s Serbia lived some seven million Serbs, 250 thousand Croats, one million Muslims, 250 thousand Albanians (excluding the million and a half that live in the Serbian province of Kosovo), 400 thousand Hungarians and many other minorities who still live there today. During the NATO war not a single member of these minorities was maltreated and in fact thousands of Muslims, Croats, Albanians and Serbs escaped from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and found sanctuary in Serbia. In fact other than Darfur, Serbia, today has the second largest refugee population in the world. So why would Milosevic go outside of Serbia to cleanse non Serbs when he never touched a single one in his own province? NATO had no answer to this question because their case against Milosevic was a pack of lies.
The other question that one might ask is how many people died in NATO’s breakup of Yugoslavia. According to new statistics it was not 250 thousand or 500 thousand the figures that NATO bantered about, and CBC reported, during the war but 104 thousand. We now know that approximately 17% of the dead were Croats, 34% Serb and some 45% Muslim. Tokača, a Bosnian Muslim researcher states that as of 15 December 2005, “our list contained 93,837 names of civilians and soldiers [missing or dead which] comprised of 63,687 Muslims, 24,216 Serbs, 5,057 Croats and 877 others.” When one extrapolates the military casualties it can be concluded that most of those who died were members of the military factions. Furthermore, these percentages reflect the population proportions of Bosnia where most of these people died.
The third question one needs to ask is, were people cleansed from their homes in Bosnia and Croatia. The answer is yes. Croats expelled Serbs and Muslims from the territory where Croats were the majority, Muslims cleansed Serbs and Croats from areas where Muslims were the majority and Serbs cleansed Muslims and Croats from where Serbs were the majority. Some half million Serbs who live today as refugees in Serbia have not been allowed to return to their homes in Croatia or Kosovo. Of course many have no homes to return to since their homes have been burned or vandalized in their absence. ..
NATO wanted to breakup Yugoslavia to privatize its economy in the name of Globalization. Milosevic was the only one of the old communist guard who refused to move to total privatization, so Milosevic had to go and for that he was made a scapegoat for NATO’s acts of war.
Today, Croatia’s Dalmatian and Montenegro’s coastal areas are being bought up by foreign interests from NATO countries and Russia. Toll highways are being built by foreign firms and privatized in all parts of former Yugoslavia while the infrastructure, telecommunication, resources, financial institutions (banks and insurance companies), tourist facilities are bought up by Europeans at anywhere from 10 cents to 30 cents on a dollar. In former Yugoslavia, like in Eastern Europe and Russia prior to Putin a massive theft of state property is underway. Wal-Mart like stores, fast food outlets, soft drink and tobacco companies are on the move into the Balkans. Former Yugoslavia is well on its way to MacDonaldisation, Cocacolaism and Rothmanism.
In the case of the Kosovo war, we see today the result of yesterday’s lies. Countries like Spain, Slovakia, Russia, Bulgaria and others see that the media was wrong in championing Kosovo independence which was contrary to international law. These countries also fear this as they have minorities that want to break up their country. After endless horror stories illustrated with fantastically high death tolls were aired day after day by CBC and CNN, NATO convinced us to intervene. We now know that in fact only approximately 4000 persons died and these deaths occurred when Serbian forces went in to fight the terrorist KLA. The KLA kidnapped Serbs and threw grenades into cafes resulting in military retaliations by the Serbian army. When will we hear a retraction and the truth behind the spin of lies? Christiana Amanpour repeated her husband's lies with a perfectly straight face: tens of thousands slaughtered, we were told, and the murderous drug-dealing KLA were really "freedom fighters," the Albanian equivalent of George Washington and his Continental Army! Journalists didn't question the government line about alleged Serbian "genocide": instead they wanted to know if the President would send in the ground troops – and if not, why not? Now you have an independent Kosovo how will you spin the story when terrorists take up arms to split Basque from Spain as they attempted to do many times before? You have established a precedent which tells us that international law does not matter what matters is the lie which reflects the aim of the winners.
For years Britain fought against terrorism in Ireland but Serbia was bombed by Britain for doing the same thing in Kosovo. US is chasing terrorists around the world but it is not OK for Serbia to fight terrorism in its own country. When the half million Serbs wanted independence from Croatia, Croatia with US military aid cleansed the whole region and burned and plundered Serbian homes but this in the end was OK with NATO even though Canadian troops attempted to stop the cleansing. What will NATO do tomorrow when million and a half Serbs in Bosnia declare their right to independence and union with Serbia? Will NATO say it is OK for Kosovo to break international law but it is not OK for Republika Srpska. to do the same thing What will NATO nations say if Quebec decides to split from Canada, or Hungarians in Transylvania from Romania or Albanians from Greece and Macedonia will they say that changing borders is against international law but Kosovo was OK since it is NATO that chooses what is OK and what is not OK. What will we do when the chickens come home to roost and other terrorist groups decide to do the same as the KLA drug dealers are doing in Kosovo? Will we hypocritically say you can’t do that because of International law?

Walter, Kamloops, Canada

Anybody that puts the name of General Gotovina in the same sentence as Karadzic and Mladic is an idiot. The two Serb generals are indicted for GENOCIDE, i.e. the slaughter of 8000 Moslems in Srebrenica! They would have done the same thing to the people of Bihac if General Gotovina had not STOPPED them. The facts presented during the trial will exonerate not only General Gotovina, but the Croatians as well. The days of Serbs using blogs and the media to perpetuate their claims that they are equal victims to Croatians and Muslims is coming to an end. The world will finally be able to see and conclude - THROUGH COLD, HARD FACTS - and not through ambiguous and murky accusations, that the Serbs were the aggressors in this war and they need to be made to face it!

Ana, Chicago, USA