President condemns lack of war crimes prosecutions at Borovo memorial

Commemorations were held on Wednesday marking the 28th anniversary of the Borovo massacre, in which twelve Croatian police officers were killed in an ambush by Serb paramilitaries.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the Supreme Commander of the Croatian Armed Forces, was joined by a government delegation including Veterans' Affairs Minister Tomo Medved and Interior Minister Davor Božinović, as well as retired General Mladen Markač and various veterans' groups.

The president addressed the crowd with a somber reminder that the perpetrators of the crime remain unpunished.

"The moment in which we heard the news from Borovo Selo is something that none of us will forget," said the president, "because the news was so shocking."

She said that despite the passing of twenty-eight years since the crime was committed, Croatia's collective wounds were "deep and painful." "But perhaps most painful of all," said the president, was "that nobody has faced justice in a court of law; therefore we cannot place the blame on anyone. And for that, we are all guilty."

The president continued with her harsh condemnation of the lack of prosecutions of those responsible for the massacre in Borovo as well as many other crimes around the country from the Homeland War.

"For this type of crime, there is no statute of limitations. The perpetrators must not be allowed to sleep peacefully, nor should the Croatian state," said the president. "I am not satisfied with the work conducted by state institutions in investigating the deaths of these Croatian policemen and many other Croatians as well. May the guilty parties be identified and brought to justice," she concluded.

Unfortunately, despite the universal outcry over the crime, justice continues to evade those responsible. In February 2012, an Osijek court convicted Milan Marinković of war crimes and sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in prison for mistreating the two captured Croatian police officers that preceded the massacre.

However, in 2014, Marinković's sentence was reduced to three years on appeal.

Source: HRT