Forgive and Repent

Mr. Buturovic, till the end of last week the President of the Penal Department of the Supreme Military Court, is in favor of two forms of amnesty, and at the same time adequate punishment.

The fear of revenge on the part of their own state is the overwhelming feeling of hundreds of the citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. There are thousands of young men who did not want to respond to the call to military service. There are tens of thousands of men who fled the country or who went into hiding inside the country before being mobilized. A large number of reservists left their war units or refused to return to them. In conditions of the direct danger of war, which was proclaimed by the then rump Presidency of the SFRY, military conscripts were threatened by draconian penalties: e.g. from five years' imprisonment to the death penalty, for going abroad.

Buturovic has another way of thinking: "Putting to one side the political. social, ethical and other aspects, it is technically impossible: neither the courts nor the prisons would be able to cope with this kind of task. How can it be in the interests of any normal country to have outside its borders or in its prisons tens of thousands of young people, unless there is the wish for revenge," Buturovic added, explaining why a group of like-minded people proposed amnesty for the so-called deserters to the Federal Parliament.

However, even if the new Yugoslavia were to forgive the "deserters" the fact that they didn't want to protect their fellow citizens, the question remains open whether, if they were to return to the country, they would have to deal with new calls to "military exercises" in a real war. This uncertainty is what keeps them from coming back.

According to Mr. Buturovic the problem will to a great extent disappear with the appearance of new generations, "because it is one thing to fight outside and another to defend one's country from foreign aggressors". What also remains to be seen is whether the institution of "conscientious objection", provided for in the Constitution of the FRY, by which recruits will be able to opt for civil duties, will be able to be applied to reservists.

Mr. Buturovic also proposes pardon for "those accused of armed rebellion at the expense of Constitutionally established national or social structure or security of the SFRY". This applies to the captured Croatian soldiers and other people who have been accused, or are in the process of being accused, for such acts.

By adopting the Constitution of the FRY and marking of new borders, like the factual recognition of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the sense behind present and future prosecution for armed rebellion against the former community of states, disappears. Buturovic considers that those who have already been condemned for this should be pardoned. In his interview to VREME he warned that the possibilities for abuse in this matter are "practically unlimited" inasmuch as the same legal criteria are not valid for all. "It is interesting that there are those who are persecuted for national, political or party membership. I don't say this is done, but if the criteria of legality are abandoned, anything is possible", he emphasized.

Amnesty would be "a wise step on the part of the state which would contribute towards the reputation of the new state, and pardon as the beginning of peace-making is not be a sign of weakness, but of strength". This is part of the proposal sent to the federal parliament by Buturovic. "The new state should initiate pardon in order to win over its citizens, which is one of the preconditions of peace", he emphasizes.

Along with the proposal for two types of amnesty, Buturovic has two for the punishment of war criminals and those who instigated the war and crimes. "The initiative for the forming of a commission for the establishment of war crimes has been so deformed that I am ashamed of having brought it up", says Buturovic. It has been tailored to research only into crimes against Serbs, as if Serbs did nothing wrong in this war. The commission is made up, according to him, of inexpert people ("Why are there poets instead of lawyers?") and, "what is worse, it is full of rabid nationalists". He added that it should be made up of experts of criminal law, forensic medicine and psychiatry from all over the territory of former Yugoslavia ("there are enough who are not nationalists or politically biased"). Buturovic emphasized to VREME that obviously the data on war crimes and criminals would have to be enough for the state to put into motion its mechanisms, primarily the courts. "I know for sure that charges have already been brought against a number of people "on our side" for the murder of civilians and robbery. I don't understand why this has not been made public," he said.

Mr. Buturovic demands that those who are guilty of this war without directly dirtying their hands should also be punished. In particular he points his finger at the media, "especially the television". "How many corpses were shown as an indictment without any proof," he adds, reminding us that there are legal prohibitions against the spreading of unproved information and the instigation of national hatred and lynching.

First of all the fighting must stop, says Buturovic, concluding: "One day they will all have to answer for the crimes: those who carried them out, those who ordered their carrying out and those who were instigators. There is no crime that can be justified by the crimes of others, otherwise we will all be exterminated."