Outgoing Croatian president Stjepan Mesic commuted the sentences or pardoned 14 war criminals on Thursday in a move that has angered Serbs.

One of those who had his sentence commuted by a year was Sinisa Rimac, convicted of participating in the notorious murder of prominent Zagreb Serb family, including a 12 year girl.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said of incident:

“When the outgoing Croatian president pardons a criminal who killed Serb children just because they are of a different ethnicity, then that is an act that deserves every condemnation, a deeply anti-civilised and anti-European decision [coming] from the other side of common sense,”

I agree with Tadic. What possible reason could the President have had to do this at a time when Serbian – Croatian relations are already strained by the tit for tat genocide charges laid against each other at The Hague.

Was it a calculated offence against Serbs? If it was then why did he commute the sentence of a Serb too?

Given it happened on the eve of his first visit to Kosovo, the evidence suggests it was a deliberate provocation. Its purpose? Only he knows.

Tadic Slams
Mesic for Serb Killer Sentence :: BalkanInsight.com