From the Guardian,
Saturday September 30, 2000
The president of Croatia, Stipe Mesic, yesterday sacked seven army generals for complaining that the government was insulting the memory of the country's war for independence by prosecuting alleged war criminals for atrocities committed against Serbs.
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The seven Croatian generals who were sacked yesterday - Ante Gotovina, Kresimir Cosic, Damir Krsticevic, Ivan Kapular, Milenko Filipovic, Davor Domazet-Lose and Mirko Norac - were among 12 active and retired generals who made their allegations in an open letter published on Thursday. They were strong supporters of Tudjman's nationalist government.
In the letter they noted "with bitterness" that the 1991 war against Yugoslavia has been presented "as a crime and something filthy, while in fact it was the foundation of Croatia's freedom, independence and sovereignty".
They accused Mr Mesic and the government of "waging a campaign to smear the independence struggle through recent spectacular arrests".
The generals were referring to the new government's decision to hold trials as well as to cooperate with the war-crimes tribunal in the Hague, even if the perpetrators were Croats.
Investigators from the tribunal began looking for the graves of an estimated 120 Serbs in Gospic, central Croatia, earlier this year.
In forcing them into retirement, Mr Mesic cited a constitutional ban against senior military officials publicly airing political views. "My message to those who think they can bring down the government with pamphlets is that they are playing the wrong hand," he said, adding that the army must be "depoliticised".
"Whoever wants to be involved in politics has the right to do so; I won't suggest which party they should join. But while they are in the army they will not be publishing pamphlets," Mr Mesic said.
The generals' protest follows the arrest earlier this month of four Croats suspected of killing Serb civilians in Gospic in 1991. Police also arrested several soldiers accused of slaughtering civilians in neighbouring Bosnia.
Angry war veterans have been demonstrating against the arrests in Gospic on a daily basis for several weeks.
In September, Milan Levar, a key witness, was killed by a bomb outside his home in Gospic. He had helped to defend the town in 1991 when local Serbs rebelled against Croatia's declaration of independence. But he was so shocked by his own side's actions that he decided to give evidence to the war-crimes tribunal in the Hague.
Reporters in Gospic were threatened by the crowd during an arrest there two weeks ago. A radio reporter in Zagreb was also accosted by a man who put a pistol into his mouth, threatening to kill him.