Two-thirds of Croats believe investigations of war crimes committed during the 1991-95 war of independence, including those by its own troops, are justified and should be pursued, a survey released on Monday showed, according to Reuters. Croatia has made efforts in recent years to come to terms with atrocities its own forces committed against ethnic Serbs, as it advances towards membership of the European Union. Zagreb hopes to join the wealthy grouping by 2010. "The survey shows that most citizens are aware war crimes were also committed on the Croatian side. The results contradict the widespread media perception that most citizens want to push such allegations (of Croat crimes) aside," political analyst Drazen Lalic was quoted as saying by the state news agency Hina. The survey was conducted this summer by Puls, a leading local pollster, and also included Croats and Serbs from areas that had been heavily damaged in the war Zagreb fought against Serb rebels who opposed its independence from Yugoslavia. While almost all of those polled said they knew of atrocities committed by rebel Serb forces, 68 percent said they were also aware of war crimes by Croat troops during government offensives that recaptured most of Serb-held land in 1995. The survey also showed that 80 percent of those who had heard of summary killings of Serb civilians by members of the Croat military regarded those acts as war crimes. However, most of them said they had little confidence that Croatian courts were able to handle war crimes trials properly. A thorough reform of the judiciary is one of the main tasks Zagreb must undertake during its EU membership talks. The released results are preliminary while full research will be released next January, said the organisers of the poll, a local non-governmental Documenta centre, which deals with war crimes issues.
