TO THE MEDIA
In Zagreb, 21 October 2011
PRESS RELEASE IN RESPECT OF THE ADOPTION BY THE PARLIAMENT OF "THE LAW DECLARING NULL AND VOID CERTAIN LEGAL DOCUMENTS"
AND STRIPPING MP ŽELJKO JOVANOVIĆ OF IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION
1. From the day when the Law declaring null and void certain legal documents of the former JNA, the former SFRJ and the Republic of Serbia was initially proposed, very convincing arguments were presented claiming that adoption of such law would be detrimental and with adverse effects not only on international reputation of Croatia as a legal state but also to the detriment of precisely those persons who this bill’s proposers are allegedly trying to protect – Croatian defenders who are unjustly mentioned in the indictments and in respect of whom it would be in their best interest to have the indictments established as unfounded as soon as possible. It is worth repeating: it is up to the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia to decide on the pertinence of the indictments and everything contained therein – and this is the only way to have these cases concluded. This law will not make null and void disputable indictments issued out of Croatia and therefore the adopted law will neither provide security nor protect Croatian citizens who are unjustly mentioned in those indictments. The only persons who this law will protect are actual crime perpetrators on both Croatian and Serbian side. To them, this adopted law significantly increases the odds that they will never get prosecuted for the crimes they committed.
By presenting similar arguments against this draft law, and in addition to the signatories of this press release, statements were also provided by the Croatian President, the Chief State Attorney and one part of the defenders whose names are mentioned in the said indictments. In the meantime, it turned out that the most responsible politicians from the Government and the ones supporting this Law had knowledge about the indictments already months before this information was released in the public at the beginning of the pre-election campaign.
2. Stripping MP Željko Jovanović of immunity from prosecution because of the words he said in the Croatian Parliament is a perfect example of lack of understanding the MP immunity institution. It makes sense to have immunity and it has been introduced exactly for the purpose of such cases – to enable the freedom of speech in the Parliament, to allow expressing sharp condemnations against political opponents even when they are in power. It is symptomatically that those who tried to apply the immunity institute in an entirely inappropriate case – for restricting the court’s authority in the case of MP indicted for war crimes - were precisely the ones who insisted on stripping of immunity in the case of Željko Jovanović.
We are of the opinion that both decisions represent an inappropriate use of the Parliament for pre-election purposes. This is a step back for achieved democracy level in Croatia and it generates adverse effects on Croatia as democratic country and its world reputation.
Zoran Pusić, Civic Committee for Human Rights
Vesna Teršelič, Documenta - Centre for Dealing with the Past
Katarina Kruhonja, Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights-Osijek
Stipe Mesić
Predrag Matvejević
Tomislav Jakić
Čedo Prodanović
Rajko Grlić
