Exonerative Accusations

The decision by the Belgrade military court to sentence General Vladimir Trifunovic and his Varazdin corps officers to long prison terms for "undermining the defence capabilities of the armed forces of Yugoslavia" (simply said: treason) got a lot of publicity in Croatia.

In some newspaper reactions there was satisfaction and reminders that Croatia had also sentenced Trifunovic to 15 years for war crimes. The fact that the same man was sentenced in two states for his behavior during the seven-day Varazdin war as both a war criminal and traitor and that the defence arguments used in the Croatian trial were used by the prosecution in Serbia (and vice versa), i.e. that all this is not really logical, was noted only by the Split-based weekly Feral Tribune.

"Vlado Trifunovic's military career came full circle when he decided to act on his conscience, and give up the senseless fight to save his almost 300 officers and men and the city of Varazdin from destruction. Courts in Serbia and Croatia branded the last days of his army career with war crimes and treason. That's the way things will remain if he's left to his own resources and feeble public support," Feral said.

The district court in Varazdin sentenced Trifunovic in absentia to 15 years in prison in the spring of 1993. The sentence was later confirmed by the Croatian supreme court. The same court also sentenced Colonel Berislav Popov (sentenced to six years in Belgrade) to 15 years. Lt. Colonel Vladimir Davidovic got 10 years (18 months in Belgrade). The Varazdin court found that Trifunovic, Popov and Davidovic disregarded regulations on protecting civilians during the clashes in September 1991 and ordered random offensive action against civilian facilities and nearby suburbs. It also established that the orders issued by these three men led to the death of one civilian, the serious wounding of another and material damage to facilities totalling 617,200,000 dinars, which was a crime against humanity and international law, and a war crime against the civilian population.

The Croatian supreme court never even listened to the objections of lawyer Camovski on the legitimacy of the defence of the Varazdin corps under Trifunovic's command. Camovski said Croatia was formally still a part of Yugoslavia in September 1991 and the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) as the only armed force on its territory had the right and duty to defend itself if attacked. Both the Varazdin and supreme courts rejected this argument and allowed the only mitigating circumstance that Trifunovic "finally took a reasonable decision that professional soldiers rarely take".

Because of that decision Varazdin wasn't destroyed in the many ways it could have been.

Because of the mitigating circumstance that the Varazdin corps could have launched 32 tons of steel a minute but didn't, General Trifunovic became a traitor in the Belgrade trial and got 11 years in prison.

Many things in both trials, Feral noted, show that Trifunovic is neither a war criminal or traitor and that it will be hard to prove either charge given the circumstances.