Dario Kordic’s disgraceful statement that he does not regret his actions during the 1992-95 war demonstrates a lamentable lack of shame and empathy with all those who were killed by the forces he led during those years, EU Delegation tweeted Monday, following the convicted war criminal’s statements from a leaked video.

“The war crimes against innocent civilians that Kordic was imprisoned for have been exhaustively documented and proven in court. These are established facts. Instead of reflecting on the lives that his actions destroyed and the consequences for the families of his victims, he chose to make outrageous comments that glorify his actions and perpetuate the trauma of all who were affected by the war,” EU Delegation to BiH wrote.

They concluded by saying that “such comments keep Bosnia and Herzegovina trapped by the legacy of its past and should be thoroughly condemned by all those with a commitment to truth, justice and genuine reconciliation.”

N1 published a video of The Hague convict Dario Kordic in which he answers the question “Was it worth the prison and the war?”
On the recording, Kordic says that a friend from the north of Croatia, “our, integral [Croatia],” asked him if it was worth it.

“I said, I would do it all over again, I wouldn't change a second. Every second was worth it,” Kordic said on the video, while the people gathered around him sang the song “It was worth it” by Miroslav Skoro.

It is not known when or where the recording was made.

The International Court for War Crimes in The Hague sentenced Kordic, a wartime commander of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) and vice president of Herzeg-Bosnia, to 25 years in prison for war crimes committed against the Bosniak population in Lasvanska Dolina during the war in central Bosnia in 1993 and 1994. Among the crimes for which Kordic was convicted was the massacre in Ahmici, where the HVO members killed 116 Bosniak civilians on April 16, 1993, including 32 women and 11 children. Kordić was released in 2014, after serving two-thirds of his sentence.