Zagreb, April 16, 2022
Today marks 29 years since the war crimes in Ahmići, when in 1993 the members of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) and special units of the HVO military police, the so-called Jokers, killed 116 Bosniak civilians, of which 11 were children and 32 were women. Two local mosques were destroyed by explosives. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) established and ruled that the crimes in this central Bosnian town were crimes against humanity. One of the commanders of this action and one of the leading politicians in the Bosnian Croat community from 1991 to 1995, Dario Kordić, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Kordić and Čerkez case confirmed the validity of the Trial Chamber’s finding that the crimes in Ahmići were committed within the framework of an international armed conflict in which the Republic of Croatia exercised overall control over the military forces of the HVO.
On Thursday, April 14, together with the ROSA Center for Women Victims of War, the Center for Civic Courage, the Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) from Sarajevo, and the Women's Network of Croatia, we stood in protest at the Ban Jelačić Square, in Zagreb, in order to sincerely and humbly express our condolences to the victims of these war crimes, but also to call on the institutions of the Republic of Croatia to take a strong turn in the existing politics of memory in relation to the war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We have requested that President Zoran Milanović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković issue a public apology on behalf of the Republic of Croatia for the crimes committed in our name in Ahmići in order to encourage our society to deal with the mass violations of human rights, confirm the fact that the crimes took place and that these acts caused immense damage to the victims.
War crimes in Ahmići are a permanent stain and shame of our past. Pointing out and warning about these and other war crimes is a step forward in building sustainable and lasting peace, not only in Croatia but also in the countries of the region.