Trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia against its own troops

Abstract

This paper is an overview of the trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia, from the beginning of the war (1991-1995) to the present, focusing primarily on trials against own troops. To this end, the paper first studies Croatia's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the reception of the Court's judgments against Croatian nationals. Then, the study analyzes the trials before domestic courts for war crimes from 1990 to the present. Emblematic cases will be analyzed, paying attention to the judicial dynamics - the course of the trials, the obstacles, the judgments, and the elements taken into account in the establishment of the penalties and their epilogue. It is a summary of the critical moments for understanding what kind of justice is delivered before national courts in Croatia while referring to the domestic reception of an international court's judgments.  Finally, we point to a systemic and structural problem that failed to resolve itself in the three decades since the beginning of the country's transition to democracy.