A sad malo istine.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
The events alleged in this indictment occurred as part of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. The Republic of Croatia declared its independence on 25 June 1991. By September 1991, the Republic of Croatia was at war with nationalist Serb forces attempting to incorporate parts of Croatia into a "Greater Serbia." A United Nations peace agreement ended the war in Croatia in January 1992, after Serb forces had taken control of about one-fourth to one-third of the Republic of Croatia's territory. The European Community recognised the Republic of Croatia as an independent State on 15 January 1992 and the United Nations admitted Croatia as a member-State on 22 May 1992.
The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Bosnia and Herzegovina") was recognised by the European Community as an independent State on 6 April 1992, and admitted as a member-State of the United Nations on 22 May 1992. By the spring of 1992, Bosnian Serb forces had already begun an armed campaign to dismember the fledgling country and expel Muslims and Croats from territory claimed as Greater Serbia.
The ruling party in the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian Democratic Union (the "HDZ"), organised and controlled the branch of the party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the HDZ-BiH. By the latter part of 1991, the more extreme nationalist elements of the HDZ-BiH, under the leadership of Mate Boban, Dario Kordic and others, with the support of Franjo Tudjman and Gojko Susak, had taken effective control of the party.
On 18 November 1991, the more extreme nationalist elements of the HDZ-BiH, led by Mate Boban and Dario Kordic, proclaimed the existence of the Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna, as a separate "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole," on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 28 August 1993, the Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna declared itself the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna. (As stated earlier, this entity, whether as the "Community" or "Republic," is referenced hereafter as "Herceg-Bosna.") Neither the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina nor the international community ever recognised Herceg-Bosna as a State. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared Herceg-Bosna illegal, first on or about 14 September 1992 and again on 20 January 1994.
According to Article 2 of the 18 November 1991 Decision on the Establishment of the Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna, Herceg-Bosna consisted of the following municipalities in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Jajce, Kresevo, Busovaca, Vitez, Novi Travnik, Travnik, Kiseljak, Fojnica, Kakanj, Vares, Kotor Varos, Tomislavgrad, Livno, Kupres, Bugojno, Gornji Vakuf, Prozor, Konjic, Jablanica, Posusje, Mostar, Siroki Brijeg, Grude, Ljubuski, Citluk, Capljina, Neum, Stolac and parts of Skender Vakuf (Dobretici) and Trebinje (Ravno). By virtue of Article 4 of the same Decision, the municipality of Zepce was added to Herceg-Bosna in about October 1992.
In the course of and as part of the joint criminal enterprise, the leaders and other members of the enterprise, including Franjo Tudjman, Mate Boban and JADRANKO PRLIC, pursued a two-track policy toward the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its territory. On the one hand, the leaders and various members of the joint criminal enterprise often claimed publicly to support the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (sometimes hereafter "BiH Government") and an independent and sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the other hand, and less publicly but more substantially, the leaders and other members of the enterprise pursued their objective of a Greater Croatia, along the lines of the Croatian Banovina. In a similar fashion, while Franjo Tudjman and other Croatian officials sometimes made efforts to distance themselves, at least publicly, from the Herceg-Bosna/HVO authorities, they generally worked closely together behind-the-scenes and in their dealings with the international community and media.
During a meeting in Zagreb on 27 December 1991, Franjo Tudjman summarised the joint criminal enterprise's objective, saying: "SICt is time that we take the opportunity to gather the Croatian people inside the widest possible borders." In a meeting on 17 September 1992, Franjo Tudjman told other leaders of the joint criminal enterprise, including Gojko Susak, Mate Boban and JADRANKO PRLIC, after first discussing the Croatian Banovina, that it was in the "vital interest" of the Croatian state "that we secure our position, in the national and territorial sense, in Bosnia and Herzegovina."