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Saturday, April 16, 2011

April 16, 2011 Gotovina ad custodiam condemnatus

Gotovina ad custodiam condemnatus [Gotovina sentenced to prison]

Ante Gotovina, pristinus praefectus Croaticus, scelerum bello civili commissorum a iudicio Nationum Unitarum Hagensi ad custodiam XXIV annorum condemnatus est. 
 [Ante Gotovina, the former military commander of Croatia, has been sentenced by the judicial panel of the United Nations at the Hague to serve 24 years in prison for crimes he committed during the civil war]

Praeter Gotovinam, qui mense Decembri anno MMV comprehensus erat, etiam Mladen Markac et Ivan Cernak, praefecti Croatici, accusati sunt.
 [Besides Gotovina, who was taken into custody December 2005, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cernak, also Croatian military commanders, were charged.]

Quorum alter custodiam condemnatus , alter (scil. Cermak) liberatus est. 
 [One of these men was convicted, the other, Cermak, was acquitted.]

Gotovina ipse nocens habetur, 
 [Gotovina himself is found guilty,]

quia humanitate omissa ius belli neglexerit, 
 [because he ignored the rules of war and humanity,]

homines occiderit aut abduxerit, 
 [he killed and kidnapped people]

oppida diripuerit aut deleverit, 
 [he plundered and demolished cities,]

facinora inhumana et crudelia fecerit. 
 [and he committed inhumane and cruel crimes.]

Tamen se ipse dixit esse innocentem.
 [And yet he claimed himself to be innocent.]

Item Gotovina et Markac „actionis sceleratae“ condemnati sunt;
 [Likewise, Gotovina and Markac were convicted of "acts of evil."]

cuius actionis erat propositum,
 [about which action it had previously been proven,]

ut omnes Serbi e regione Krajina expellerentur.
 [that all of the Serbs had been forcefully expelled from the region of Krajina.]

Nihilo minus iudex, cum sententiam diceret, Franjum Tudjman, praesidem Croatiae defunctum, auctorem horum scelerum appellavit.
 [Nevertheless, the judge, when he pronounced the sentence, called the deceased president of Croatia, Franjus Tudjman, the original author of these crimes.]

Sed patroni reorum nuntiaverunt se huic iudicio intercessuros,
 [But the attorneys of the defendants announced that they would seek an appeal to this verdict,]

quia iudices omnia argumenta sua neglexissent:
 [since the judges had not taken into consideration all of their arguments.]

quaecumque Gotovina fecisset, cum legibus militaribus congruere.
 [They claimed that whatever acts Gotovina had previously done were in accordance to military law.]

Gotovina, cum regionem Krajinam Serbis expulsis recuperasset, summus praefectus factus est.
 [Gotovina, when he had recaptured the region of Krajinam and driven the Serbs out, was then promoted to top commander.]

In eo bello plus DC cives Serbici occisi sunt, plus CL milia vi sunt expulsi.
[More than 600 Serbian civilians were killed in this war, while more than 150,000 of them were driven out by force.]

Mense Iulio anno MMI Gotovina fugae se mandavit.
 [In July 2001 Gotovina ordered them into exile.]

Ea causa diu prohibebat, ne de Croatia Unioni Europaeae asciscenda ageretur.
 [For a long time, the situation prevented the European Union from interceding in the matters of Croatia.]

Tamen etiamnunc multi sunt, qui censeant ad Krajinam „liberandam“ omnem vim adhibitam iustam ac legitimam fuisse.
 [Nonetheless, there are still many people who believe that force taken to "liberate" Krajina was justified and legitimate.]

Recuperatio Krajinae pro liberatione nationali habetur.
 [The recapturing of Krajina was held up as a symbol of national liberation.]

Zagrabiae, in platea „Ban Jelacic“, per magnum quadrum televisificum multitudo sententiam iudicum percipere potuit.
 [A crowd of people in Zagrabia, in the Ban Jelacic plain, was there to receive the judges' sentence on a large television screen.]

Sententia dicta turba fremuit;
 [The crowd roared with the sentence was declared;]

nonnullis lacrimae obortae sunt, in iis multi veterani eius belli.
 [Many people broke down in tears, among them many veterans of this very war.]

Et ecclesia catholica et prima ministra Jadranka Kosor poposcerant, ut praefecti liberarentur.
 [Both the Catholic Church and the prime minister, Jadranka Kosor, had beforehand demanded that the commanders be freed.]

Praeter ceteros Gotovina in Croatia heros nationalis habetur, quod integritatem rei publicae servaverit.
 [Apart from the others, Gotovina was seen as a national hero in Croatia for protecting the sovereignty of his commonwealth.]

Iam pridie mille fere veterani illius belli pro praefectis reclamaverant :
 [The day before, nearly a thousand veterans of that conflict protested in support of the commanders:]

taciti, vestitu pristino militari induti per mediam Zagrabiam ierunt.
 [they quietly marched through the center of Zagrabia, dressed in their old military uniforms.]

Deinde in aede cathedrali res divina habebatur.
 [At the time, the matter was also proclaimed a divine miracle by the national church.]

Iam antea episcopi catholici gregem suum hortati erant, ut pro praefectis precarentur.
 [Beforehand, the Catholics <?> have urged their congregation to come out in support of the commanders.]

Etiamnunc, anno XVI. post bellum finitum, centenae civium caedes nondum sunt vindicatae.
[Even now, in the year 2011 and with the war over,  hundreds of civilians have yet to find justice for their deaths.]

Scripsit Volfgangus Austriacus - 16/04/2011 12h13, Written by Wolfgang Austriac, translated by RMBullard