Attorney Bosiljko Misetic warned Granic that the attempt to question whether the indictment violates the constitution is probably futile as the Hague prosecution will soon find a way to counteract. "Hated" gentlemen from the Hague, namely, have on their side the statute of the tribunal, the Croatian Law About Cooperation With The Hague Tribunal, and are firmly sticking to the strict legal interpretation that an indictment, whatever it may be, may only be reevaluated in court. The Croatian government is to follow the procedure, the obligation the authorities in our country took upon themselves by enacting the law while the HDZ was in power and it was "believed" that the tribunal would not prosecute "our guys".
Misetic is correct in saying that the government is not entering a legal-formal, but a political dispute, which could ultimately end up in the UN Security Council, with other rules and different balance of power. For example, Croatia could get support of the USA, after accepting the American request that American citizens are exempt from the jurisdiction of the Permanent International War Crimes Tribunal, also located in the Hague.
Let us, for now, ignore speculation of that sort. However, in all of this clamoring and national euphoria, we are setting aside an important question: if the crimes were committed, and no one claims they weren't, and if General Bobetko is not culpable, as he ordered a legitimate military action "with the goal of liberating territory", what has the government done to find and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes? Granic replies that he believes that the judiciary will establish responsibility of those who acted outside the parameters of a military action, that in the last two years tens of investigations have been initiated, and that, although it is difficult to bring the investigations to completion, he believes that sufficient evidence and information has been collected to bring these investigations to their final phase.
We do not know in which phase these investigations are and what sort of problems beset them, but we know that what has happened and is happening in courts in Karlovac, Rijeka and Split is demonstrating everything but efficiency of the judiciary and true readiness of the government to deal with these problems. Therefore, the Homeland War is not the problem here. The true problem is bringing to justice those who committed crimes in that war, ordered that crimes be committed, or failed to prosecute perpetrators while aware of their crimes. Consequently, the government is hoping for impossible, to at the same time defend "its position" in front of the Hague Tribunal and offer evidence that we are able to deal with war crimes on our own. The true problem is not whether we are facing sanctions, but whether we want to live in a state and society in which the rule of law is respected, whether we want to live in the society where crimes can be committed with impunity, regardless of who the perpetrators are. This government, it seems, does not have the guts to resolve that dilemma, so the only course of action left to it is legal-formal-political exhibitionism that may keep it in power.