Valentin Ćorić is a Bosnian-Croat politician who is among six defendants charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...

Background

Valentin Ćorić was born on 23 June 1956 in the village of Paoca

Paoča

Paoča is a village in the municipality of Čitluk, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-References:...

, near Čitluk

Citluk

Čitluk is a town and municipality located in Herzegovina, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a municipality of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina....

, in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

, Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

. He graduated with an engineering degree which he put to use working in the Čitluk, bauxite

Bauxite

Bauxite is an aluminium ore and is the main source of aluminium. This form of rock consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, in a mixture with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite, and small amounts of anatase TiO2...

 mines. He moved from mining to military when he became the Commander of the training barracks in Krvavice, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. In 1992 he was appointed Deputy for Security and Commander of the Military Police of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO)

HVO

- Organizations :*Croatian Defence Council , a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War*Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, a unit of the US Geological Survey...

. In late 1993, he switched Ministries to became the Minister of the Interior in the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna.

Indictment

According to the Indictment: Valentin Ćorić was, until around April 1994, "a member of a shadowy organization whose goal was to create an ethnically pure territory to be annexed and merged into a Greater Croatia

Greater Croatia

Greater Croatia is a term applied to certain currents within Croatian nationalism. In one sense, it refers to the territorial scope of the Croatian people, emphasising the ethnicity of those Croats living outside Croatia...

."

The court accuses Ćorić of "inciting political, ethnic and religious hatred while also using force, intimidation and terror, (mostly by mass arrests during which people were killed) to ethnically drive non-Croatians from HVO

HVO

- Organizations :*Croatian Defence Council , a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War*Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, a unit of the US Geological Survey...

controlled territory."http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/valentin_coric_496.html

Charges

Taken from the UN press release:

• nine counts of grave breaches of the Geneva conventions (wilful killing; inhuman treatment (sexual assault); unlawful deportation of a civilian; unlawful transfer of a civilian; unlawful confinement of a civilian; inhuman treatment (conditions of confinement); inhuman treatment; extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly).

• nine counts of violations of the laws or customs of war (cruel treatment (conditions of confinement); cruel treatment; unlawful labour; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or destruction not justified by military necessity; destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion or education; plunder of public or private property; unlawful attack on civilians; unlawful infliction of terror on civilians; cruel treatment), and

• eight counts of crimes against humanity (persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds; murder; rape; deportation; inhumane acts (forcible transfer); imprisonment; inhumane acts (conditions of confinement); inhumane acts).