ŽARKOVIĆ: THE MECHANISM CONTINUED THE BAD PRACTICE OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

BANJA LUKA, FEBRUARY 5 /SRNA/ - The President of the Association of Serbs Expelled from Western Slavonia Krsta Žarković believes that the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, by rejecting the early release of former President of the Republika Srpska Krajina Milan Martić, has shown that it has continued the bad practice of the Hague Tribunal, allegedly against the interests of the Serbian people.

"The Mechanism has shown that it is not well-intentioned, fair, and that it does not respect the law of the EU and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. This is unheard of and completely unacceptable because it represents a complete attempt to break the Serbian people in Croatia," Žarković told SRNA.

Žarković noted that in similar cases involving convicted Croats or Albanians from Kosovo, the Mechanism allegedly makes decisions in favor of release.

He emphasized that Estonia, which he claims is not favorable toward the Serbian people, informed the Mechanism in time that Martić had served two-thirds of his prison sentence and thereby met the requirement for early release.

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague announced yesterday that it rejected Martić's request for early release.

The explanation of the decision states that Martić formally met the condition for his request to be considered, having served two-thirds of his 35-year prison sentence, but that early release was not supported due to the "extremely high gravity of the crimes for which he was convicted and the lack of evidence of rehabilitation."

Martić served as Minister of Defense, Minister of Internal Affairs, and President of the Republika Srpska Krajina. The Hague Tribunal sentenced him to 35 years in prison. He surrendered in 2002 and was sentenced five years later.

He was charged with ordering rocket attacks on civilian targets in Zagreb in May 1995, when seven people were killed.