Political analyst Zarko Puhovski said on Friday that he had wanted to testify before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in his capacity as head of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) for the sake of civilians killed in the aftermath of the 1995 Operation Storm.

Commenting in an interview with the N1 broadcaster on the latest statement by President Zoran Milanovic, who in an interview with RTL called Puhovski “a household commentator for RTL who testified (in 1971) against Croatian students, but also did something much worse – he went to The Hague to testify in a way that could have been fatal for Croatia.”

“I wanted to testify, I was wrong to think that the tribunal would enter it at least in its records… I went to The Hague as the then president of the HHO and the editor of a book containing lists of war victims, which was the first and sole analysis of that topic before the trial. One should remember that there was euphoria in 1995, not only because of the (war) victory but everyone was saying that Operation Storm was the most impeccable operation ever. That is when I started speaking about civilians killed in the aftermath of Operation Storm,” said Puhovski.

He added that after his testimony a judge addressed him, asking him to remain in the trial chamber so as to ask him about details to help him better understand the situation in Croatia in 1995.

“No way was I sent away as an unreliable witness,” Puhovski said.