Human rights activist Natasa Kandic expressed concern over what she said are attempts by Croatia’s top state officials to protect the military from charges of bombing a refugee column in 1995.

Serbian prosecutors indicted four Croatian military pilots who are alleged to have bombed a column of Serb refugees fleeing their homes during Croatian army and police operation Storm to take control of Serb-held areas of the country in August 1995.

Kandic, coordinator of the REKOM Reconciliation Network and former head of the Humanitarian Law Fund (FHP) said that there is clear evidence that the Croatian military bombed the refugee column on August 7-8, 1995. “It’s worrying that the Croatian president and prime minister believe that protecting Croatian Army (HV) personnel from criminal accountability is a national priority even when there is clear evidence that the HV bombed the refugee column twice on August 7 and 8, 1995, killing at least six children,” Kandic said in a Twitter post.

She said that the authorities in the countries of the former Yugoslavia would not be protecting officers instead of victims regardless of ethnicity if rule of law had been established and added that Croatian prosecutors should have determined who ordered the bombing of the refugee column. She said that prosecutors in Bosnia-Herzegovina were also obliged to investigate the HV for the bombing of refugee columns in that country.