storm - Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog ...

Prosecutor Nice: Living together, as between the ethnic groups.
Galbraith: For Martić, it was absolutely out of the question. He repeatedly told me that
Serbs and Croats could never live together and that if the area was reintegrated into
Croatia, that he would not stay. Babić I think was more open to the idea that Serbs and
Croats could live together.
Prosecutor Nice: Was he popular amongst the people of Krajina?
Galbraith: He was the most popular politician, particularly in Sectors North and South.
He had been the mayor of Knin. And in my judgement, of course, he was the man who
had actually won the election in 1994.
Prosecutor Nice: What, if any, control did he have of the army?
Galbraith: He had no control over the army. And of course that’s why he was capable of
being intimidated.
Prosecutor Nice: Moving forward. In the course of Operation Storm, did you take a
public position on human rights abuses committed by the Croatian army?
Galbraith: I was and the United States government was repeatedly and publicly critical
of Croatian human rights violations, which were severe and inexcusable.
Prosecutor Nice: How regularly, if at all, did you take these matters to Tuđman?
Galbraith: Well, I mean, I saw him on a number of occasions in this period, as well as
his chief of staff , Hrvoje Šarinić, and other offi cials of the Croatian government, and
on every one of these occasions I raised our concerns about what was happening to the
population in the Krajina, the human rights violations.
Prosecutor Nice: Did you almost famously on one occasion fi nd yourself on a tractor,
preventing violations? And if so, in a summary, tell us how that came about.
Galbraith: Yes. Th ere was a group of about 40,000 Serb refugees who had not been able
to escape to Bosnia and they’d been surrounded by Croatian forces near Topusko in
former Sector North. A ceasefi re was negotiated which permitted them to leave, pass
through the town of Sisak and go onto the highway to Eastern Slavonia and possibly
then on to Serbia. When the fi rst group of these refugees left and passed through the
town of Sisak, they were attacked by a Croatian mob, and it happened that there was an
AP - Associated Press - reporter there. And that was late in the evening. I think it was
the 9th of August. Th e next morning, early, I read the story. And it described the attack.
It described a mother whose car window had been smashed with a brick, pulling shards
of glass out of her baby’s blanket. And it described the Croatian policemen standing
around, laughing, and basically saying, “Th ese people got what they deserved.” I thought
that was an outrage. I read the story over the phone to Hrvoje Šarinić, Tuđman’s chief
of staff . I said if they didn’t do anything about it, I would go down and join the convoy
myself. I made an appointment to see Tuđman at 12.30. I read him the story. I said that
this kind of thing would have a devastating impact on Croatia’s relations with the United
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