Prime Minister Oreskovic says Seselj verdict prosecution's defeat, tribunal's disgrace

Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said in Vukovar on Thursday that the acquittal of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj was a defeat of the Hague war crimes tribunal's prosecution and a disgrace for the UN court.

"He is a man who we all know and who committed evil for which he has never shown remorse, neither then nor now," Oreskovic told reporters, adding that Seselj was still burning the Croatian and European Union flags.

Oreskovic was hopeful that Serbia would react. "The road to the EU is the right path and we hope to see the right decisions and the right conduct by our neighbour."

He reiterated that the requirements for Serbia's EU entry were clear from the beginning. "Just as we met all the requirements, so will Serbia have to ," he said, adding that the Seselj verdict "hasn't changed anything... Serbia must now show that it will react in the right direction."

Oreskovic arrived in Vukovar this morning for a two-day visit to Vukovar-Srijem County, which he began by laying a wreath and lighting candles at the Homeland War Victims Memorial Cemetery. He will pay his respects to those killed in the defence of Vukovar in 1991 also at the Ovcara mass grave.

The president of the Alliance of Families of the Detained and the Missing in the Homeland War, Ljiljana Alvir, condemned Seselj's acquittal, telling Hina she was appalled by the verdict.

"This verdict is unbelievable and one wonders if justice exists. We witnessed that (Seselj) took part in and incited atrocities and crimes, from Ovcara, across Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)," she said. "There are so many mass graves across Croatia and BiH and so many mutilated families that one can ask if justice is politics or something we mortals can't understand."

(Text: Hina)

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