Croatia indicts general on war crimes

ZAGREB, Croatia -- A former Croatian general has been indicted on charges of war crimes against Serb civilians, officials said.

Mirko Norac's indictment sets the stage for the country's first war crimes trial against its own forces for atrocities committed during the 1991- 95 war of independence.

The charges against Norac, his closest aide and three other wartime military officials, include crimes against humanity, war crimes against the civilian population and violations of international law.

Thousands of Croatians, encouraged by the nationalist HDZ, organised rallies across the country to support Norac in February, when he was named as a suspect, and demanded that the reformist centre-left coalition stand down.

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Some demonstrators held pictures of Norac and banners declaring: "We all are Mirko Norac." He is regarded by many as a war hero.

The nationalist lobby maintains that Croatian soldiers were defenders who could not have committed war crimes and oppose any prosecutions.

It accused the cabinet of high treason for wanting to try Croatian war heroes, and tried to force early elections.

The Rijeka county prosecutor brought the charges against Norac after a six-month investigation into abductions and killings of Serbs in 1991 in the ethnically mixed town of Gospic.

He was named as number four on a list of indictees headed by Tihomir Oreskovic and including Ivica Rozic, Stjepan Grandic and Milan Canic, according to a statement from the state prosecutor.

All stand accused of ordering or carrying out the summary executions of a number of Serbs between October 14 - 25, 1991 while Gospic was under attack by the Yugoslav army and Serb rebels who opposed Zagreb's independence drive.

If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.

Norac, who had been in hiding for two weeks, surrendered to police 10 days ago after receiving guarantees that he would be dealt with by a Croatian court rather than the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

He told the Rijeka court at the arraignment that he had not known of the warrant for his arrest and denied all charges.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Republic of Croatia
International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia

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