Croats Protest Inquiry Into Ex-General

Protests grew against the war crimes investigation of a retired army general Friday as Croatia’s prime minister urged demonstrators to refrain from violence and support “democracy and the rule of law.”

Several key roads in central and southern Croatia remained blocked Friday by thousands of angry veterans of the country’s 1991 war for independence. The veterans were protesting the opening of an investigation against retired Gen. Mirko Norac, suspected of killing dozens of Serbian civilians during the war.

Norac, 33, who remains at large with an arrest warrant pending against him, is considered by many to be a war hero.

The former ruling party of late President Franjo Tudjman supported the protests and has triggered a heated debate in parliament Friday, accusing the government of betraying its war heroes.

More protests were announced for the weekend.

Such fierce opposition--the most serious challenge to the year-old pro-Western government--prompted Prime Minister Ivica Racan to meet with President Stipe Mesic and parliament Speaker Zlatko Tomcic late Friday.

Afterward, Racan said that the new government “is faced with . . . pressure and violence.”

“We are rejecting it,” Racan said. “This democratically elected government will protect and defend Croatia as a legal state. We call on Croats to show support for Croatia’s democracy and the rule of law.”

The government so far has hesitated to deploy police against demonstrators, fearing that such a move could lead to clashes.

Tudjman’s party ruled Croatia during the last decade and turned a blind eye to wartime crimes committed by Croats. The move isolated Croatia from the international community and pushed the nation to the brink of sanctions.

The new coalition government, which took power a year ago, has pledged to cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague and has opened its own war crimes probes.

Norac and 11 other generals were forcibly retired by Mesic in September after they accused the new government of tarnishing the independence war by prosecuting Croat suspects.