(15 Nov 2012) SHOTLIST
1. Mid of General Ante Gotovina poster in the harbour in his hometown of Pakostane in southern Croatia
2. Wide of sunset in the harbour
3. Close of the poster
4. Wide of a pedestrian walking past mural depicting General Ante Gotovina and Croatian flag with text reading (Croatian) "Welcome to the town of General Gotovina"
5. Close of Gotovina on mural
6. Tilt down of church in Pakostane
7. Mid of people entering church
8. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Josko Tomic, Pakostane resident:
"Like majority of the population in our area, I expect our generals to return and in my opinion, there was no reason for them to go there. Unfortunately high politics are involved there."
9. Wide of people in front of the church before a mass and prayers for the generals
++NIGHT SHOTS++
10. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Milivoj Kurtov, Mayor of Pakostane:
"I expect tomorrow good news, happy news, I hope the General will be here with us tomorrow. That is what we want, what we pray for and what we expect."
11. Mid of a group of youths walking towards the church
12. Wide of mass inside the church
13. Mid of faithful praying in church
14. Mid of Faithful at church door
STORYLINE
Croatians in General Ante Gotovina's home town of Pakostane are anxiously awaiting Friday's appeal verdict in the war crimes case against him in The Hague.
Gotovina, who is hailed by many Croats as a hero of the Balkan conflict, was convicted of war crimes by a UN court last April and sentenced to 24 years in prison for a campaign of shelling, shootings and expulsions aimed at driving Serbs out of a Croatian border region in 1995.
The conviction of Gotovina was a blow to the Croatian view of its wartime generals as national heroes who reclaimed Croatian land from a more powerful Serb force.
"Like majority of the population in our area, I expect our generals to return and in my opinion, there was no reason for them to go there. Unfortunately high politics are involved there, " said Pakostane resident Josko Tomic.
Gotovina was convicted of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, deportation, persecution and inhuman acts, during and immediately after a lightning campaign called Operation Storm that seized back land along Croatia's eastern border taken over by rebel Serbs early in the Balkan wars.
Dozens of Serbs were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes.
Croatia's ethnic war was one of a string of conflicts that erupted across the Balkans with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The most deadly was in Bosnia, where Serbs battled Muslims and Croats in a four-year struggle that claimed some 100,000 lives.
In Croatia, ethnic Serbs backed by Serbia held the Krajina region for years. But as Belgrade's forces were stretched in the closing days of the Bosnian war - and as former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic turned his back on the Croatian Serb rebels - Croatian forces seized the opportunity to strike back.
Croatian troops opened Operation Storm with artillery barrages that forced thousands of Serbs to flee their homes. Soldiers and special police then roamed from village to village, killing and abusing villagers - many of them elderly, according to The Hague judgment.
Gotovina, a charismatic 55-year-old former French Legionnaire, became a symbol for what Croatians saw as a war of liberation against neighbouring Serbia's expansionist policies.
Posters of him were plastered around the country after he went on the run following his indictment in 2001.
Catholic churches in Croatia will hold special services later on Thursday dedicated to Gotovina.
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