http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020518-6896170.htm
Excellent letter here from CAA published in Washington Times. Another aspect ofthe Gotovina cases makes it into the mainstream press: Bihac. This is what Isaid last year: "Srebrinica is also relevant. Had Bihac fallen, there wouldhave been another massacre. The UN allowed the ´Krajina´ Serbs to besiege andnapalm Bihac; the very forces the UN were supposed to be disarming. The UN wasprepared to countenance another Srebrenica. Not something many want known, hencethe attempts to criminalize ´Operation Storm´. "
It is worth noting that the indictment fails to mention Bihac at all in itsskewed history.
It all starts to creeep out into the mainstream. The vested interest the UN havein prosecuting Gotovina is something we should not ignore.
Brian
Washington Times
18 May
Hague tribunal could spell trouble for former U.S. officials
By explaining that the consequences of the case of Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovinaare far more serious for the United States than those of the Slobodan Miloseviccase, Op-Ed contributor Jeffrey T. Kuhner revealed something about whichofficial Washington has done much whispering ("A win for Americandemocracy," May 10).
Although the Bush administration has withdrawn from the permanent InternationalCriminal Court (ICC) to protect American foreign policy from internationalbureaucrats, the United States may yet have problems with the highly politicizedand unregulated structure of the temporary International Criminal Tribunal forthe former Yugoslavia in the Hague.
Just after Dutch U.N. peacekeeping troops could not prevent 7,000 Bosnian Muslimmen and boys from being slaughtered by the Bosnian Serb army in Srebrenica insummer 1995, the Clinton administration was intent on using force to stop a muchlarger massacre of Bosnian Muslims in the city of Bihac. The result was that theUnited States and its NATO allies provided air power in an unofficial alliancewith the Croatian army to reverse the effects of ethnic cleansing by BosnianSerbs.
In his book "To End a War," former Assistant Secretary of State forEuropean and Canadian Affairs Richard Holbrooke quotes then-Ambassador RobertFrasure saying that the Croats were our "junkyard dogs because we weredesperate."
Gen. Gotovina started an offensive known as Operation Storm with the fullknowledge of the Clinton administration, and Mr. Holbrooke told the Croatianleadership to halt Gen. Gotovina after Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic hadagreed to the principles that eventually led to the signing of the Dayton PeaceAccords and an end to the Bosnian war.
Because Predator intelligence drones allowed the Pentagon to monitor everydetail of Gen. Gotovina's ground offensive around the clock, it is obvious thatwar crimes could not have occurred without U.S. knowledge.
Is Gen. Gotovina responsible for war crimes? Probably not. But given the factthat Operation Storm began with at least passive U.S. approval, was conductedunder full U.S. surveillance and was halted by the United States when ourobjectives had been achieved, it would seem that prosecution of Gen. Gotovina inthe Hague on grounds of command responsibility would have similar implicationsfor Clinton administration officials.
GEORGE RUDMAN
National president
Croatian-American Association
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020518-6896170.htm
Excellent letter here from CAA published in Washington Times. Another aspect ofthe Gotovina cases makes it into the mainstream press: Bihac. This is what Isaid last year: "Srebrinica is also relevant. Had Bihac fallen, there wouldhave been another massacre. The UN allowed the ´Krajina´ Serbs to besiege andnapalm Bihac; the very forces the UN were supposed to be disarming. The UN wasprepared to countenance another Srebrenica. Not something many want known, hencethe attempts to criminalize ´Operation Storm´. "
It is worth noting that the indictment fails to mention Bihac at all in itsskewed history.
It all starts to creeep out into the mainstream. The vested interest the UN havein prosecuting Gotovina is something we should not ignore.
Brian
Washington Times
18 May
Hague tribunal could spell trouble for former U.S. officials
By explaining that the consequences of the case of Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovinaare far more serious for the United States than those of the Slobodan Miloseviccase, Op-Ed contributor Jeffrey T. Kuhner revealed something about whichofficial Washington has done much whispering ("A win for Americandemocracy," May 10).
Although the Bush administration has withdrawn from the permanent InternationalCriminal Court (ICC) to protect American foreign policy from internationalbureaucrats, the United States may yet have problems with the highly politicizedand unregulated structure of the temporary International Criminal Tribunal forthe former Yugoslavia in the Hague.
Just after Dutch U.N. peacekeeping troops could not prevent 7,000 Bosnian Muslimmen and boys from being slaughtered by the Bosnian Serb army in Srebrenica insummer 1995, the Clinton administration was intent on using force to stop a muchlarger massacre of Bosnian Muslims in the city of Bihac. The result was that theUnited States and its NATO allies provided air power in an unofficial alliancewith the Croatian army to reverse the effects of ethnic cleansing by BosnianSerbs.
In his book "To End a War," former Assistant Secretary of State forEuropean and Canadian Affairs Richard Holbrooke quotes then-Ambassador RobertFrasure saying that the Croats were our "junkyard dogs because we weredesperate."
Gen. Gotovina started an offensive known as Operation Storm with the fullknowledge of the Clinton administration, and Mr. Holbrooke told the Croatianleadership to halt Gen. Gotovina after Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic hadagreed to the principles that eventually led to the signing of the Dayton PeaceAccords and an end to the Bosnian war.
Because Predator intelligence drones allowed the Pentagon to monitor everydetail of Gen. Gotovina's ground offensive around the clock, it is obvious thatwar crimes could not have occurred without U.S. knowledge.
Is Gen. Gotovina responsible for war crimes? Probably not. But given the factthat Operation Storm began with at least passive U.S. approval, was conductedunder full U.S. surveillance and was halted by the United States when ourobjectives had been achieved, it would seem that prosecution of Gen. Gotovina inthe Hague on grounds of command responsibility would have similar implicationsfor Clinton administration officials.
GEORGE RUDMAN
National president
Croatian-American Association