Letter to and from Lord Robertson

Dear All, 

I don't know if I should laugh or cry - this is the ridiculously brief
reply I received form NATO. It certainly does not address any of the
issues I raised.
Hilda

Op-ed

All these contacts are valuable. Thank you Hilda.

NB

Dear Ms. Foley,

Thank you for your letter to Lord Robertson with regard to the current
strategic situation. Lord Robertson has asked me to write to you and 
thank you for taking the time to write to him. He wishes to assure you 
that he takes all correspondence most seriously.

Yours sincerely,

Annette Willacy
Personal Assistant 


My letter: 
Lord Robertson
NATO Secretary General
NATO Headquarters
Blvd. Leopold III
1110 Brussels, Belgium
Nov. 10, 2002


Dear Lord Robertson,

It is rather perplexing that NATO wishes Croatia to accept total regional
cooperation with the very nation that has subjugated it and led a brutal
war against it in the past century - Serbia. Why should Croatia be
closely associated with nations with which it shares no common cultural
or historical ties except ones by force and decisions in the last century
- again by the Western Powers? Croatia is a western-oriented, 
central European nation, not Eastern European or Balkan. Certainly NATO 
members Greece and Turkey are in the Balkans and cannot be considered
Western European, yet Croatia, right across from Italy is being
designated as an East European, Balkan country. Why this difference?

Croatia's army is far more experienced and ready for NATO membership than
any of the others lately considered for acceptance. It is simply a lame
excuse to say that Croatia is not ready for NATO because its army
is"politicized". Croatia's army never influenced elections, yet Turkey
has been in NATO in spite of a strong military influence in its nation. 


In turn, NATO is already accepting Yugoslavia/Serbia into some of its
policy groups, SEEGROUP and SEECAP, a country which has far more indicted
war criminals than any other of the recent wars in former 
Yugoslavia and which it still refuses to extradite. One of them, Seselj, 
is still a member of Parliament! In addition its army is still communist
and not under the government's control. That fact was clearly illustrated
recently as repeatedly military equipment and intelligence was
transferred to Iraq. 

Croatian authorities caught the latest shipment in full cooperation with
NATO and other Western intelligence. What has Croatia earned for such
full cooperation? - A push into Serbia's arms with the SAA nonsense and
no foreseeable date of admittance into NATO. In view of the Iraq
scandal, Serbia should be removed from SEEGROUP and SEECAP as it has no
place in determining any NATO policies. 

Furthermore, are you aware that Yugoslavia's president Kostunica has 
made public statements during the recent election campaign that
"Republika Srpska" in Bosnia is only temporarily separated from Serbia
and will eventually be part of Serbia? In that case it would border
Croatia's "Krajina" region that Serb rebels and Yugoslav army occupied
during the war. How long before Serbia tries to take also that region? 
It is obvious that Serbia is not a peace-loving nation but one always
looking for expansion into others' lands by any means. 

It is wrong to plan any "mini-NATO" in Eastern Europe that only divides
nations into East and West again. Croatia should have the right to join
NATO on its own merits, not in some "group setting" that does not
naturally exist. Croatia does not want to be pushed into associations
with countries like Albania and former Yugoslav republics Serbia ,
Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia, which have been repeatedly cited as the
worst countries of Eastern Europe in regard to smuggling, especially in
human beings and drugs, lawlessness and other criminality. ( See Jane's
Intelligence Review, Nov. 04 2002). Note that Croatia is not cited in
any such reports. It simply does not belong in such company. There has
been too much injustice and unfairness toward Croatia and hopefully NATO
will recognize this and correct it. 

Very truly yours,

Hilda M. Foley
Public Relations
National Federation of Croatian Americans
13272 Orange Knoll
Santa Ana, Va. 92705 USA