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» Media Watch » (E) Quite obviously an operation to liberate territory
(E) Quite obviously an operation to liberate territory |
By Nenad N. Bach |
Published
11/25/2001
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Media Watch
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(E) Quite obviously an operation to liberate territory
CROWN, HIC, Croatian American Times, feel free to distribute, republish, This was published - in slightly edited form - in InterLib No.5, the newslettter of the Liberal International Group (although these are my personal views and not the Group's) and consequently has been read by a number of British Liberal parliamentarians. For illustrations, the Veritas website may be of interest, with its "Krajina" images and reference from Blewitt. Brian InterLib No.5 November 2001 The Gotovina War Crimes Indictment Brian Gallagher The recent controversial indictment of Croatian General Ante Gotovina by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is in many ways as significant as the forthcoming Milosevic trial. Gotovina is charged with ethnic cleansing - 'deportation' – of 'Krajina' Serbs in Croatia's 1995 'Operation Storm' campaign to liberate its territories held since the Serb invasion of 1991. The charges also include his responsibility for murders of Serbs and destruction of property during and in the aftermath of Operation Storm. Before Gotovina has even stepped foot in The Hague - his whereabouts are unknown - questions and doubts about this indictment have been raised in Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal. To find out what is problematic about this indictment, a quick re-cap of what happened in Croatia is required. In 1991, the Yugoslav Army invaded, occupied and ethnically cleansed one third of Croatia. This included the destruction of Vukovar. In the occupied territories the illegal structure of 'Krajina' was set up. In the process, at least 15,000 Croats were slaughtered and at least 170,000 ethnically cleansed. The UN rolled in. Their mandate was to re-integrate territory with Croatia, disarm the combatants and return refugees. The UN failed to carry out this mandate, effectively protecting Serb gains. Ethnic cleansing of the remaining Croats continued. Furthermore, Croat cities were bombarded from the occupied territories. 'Krajina' Serbs even launched an invasion into Bosnia-Herzegovina to attack the UN safe haven of Bihac. This included aircraft bombing the enclave with napalm and cluster bombs. By August 1995 the situation was critical; if Bihac – strategically positioned - fell, 'Greater Serbia' would have been effectively established. Shortly after Srebrenica, the fate of the citizens of Bihac would not be difficult to imagine. Operation Storm was implemented. The 'Krajina' Serb leadership ordered the Serbs to leave, and most left ahead of the Croatian Army advance. Large swathes of Croatian territory was recovered, Bihac was saved and further chunks of Bosnia-Herzegovina liberated. The ‘Greater Serbia’ project was stopped dead and the end of the war the result. Since then, over 3,000 Croat corpses have been dug up in the formerly occupied territories; an indicator of what 'Krajina' was built on and why many Serbs were keen to leave. As can be seen, 'Operation Storm' was a more than legitimate operation yet the ICTY characterise it as an ethnic cleansing exercise. ICTY indictments carry background histories to events. None of the above facts are mentioned in the Gotovina indictment - bar a comment that the Croatian government stated that one third of Croatia was controlled by the Yugoslav army and local Serbs. The omission of information such as how 'Krajina' was created gives the impression that 'Krajina' is a historic Serb dominated province that had always existed. Most of Croatia's Serbs didn't even live in the occupied territories. 'Krajina' was the term for the Austro-Hungarian 'Military Frontier' abolished in 1881. There has never been any Serb 'Krajina' province. The correct terms for the areas occupied are their historic names of Lika, Kordun and Dalmatinska Zagora; ignored in the indictment. In a bizarre contradiction, the Milosevic indictment for Croatia does describe the horror involved in setting up ‘Krajina’ which it describes as nothing less than part of a "criminal enterprise". It gives short shrift to the whole ‘Krajina’ business, referring to "Croatian Serbs" rather than "Krajina Serbs" as in the Gotovina indictment. It refers quite clearly to the Serbs "occupying" this territory. The indictment talks of the ethnic cleansing of one third of Croatia, hundreds of murders, camps, torture, the creation of 'Greater Serbia' etc. The horrors of the Serb occupation go a long way to explain the unfortunate murders of Serbs and arson that took pla ce during and after Operation Storm. This is not to excuse such behaviour, which the Croat authorities should indeed punish, but to put it into context. The Gotovina indictment goes so far as to refer to 'Krajina' as having "officially" declared independence. The Prosecution has effectively recognised it as a legitimate state. This ignores both international law and legitimises the methods - ethnic cleansing – by which it was created. UN resolutions previously referred to the areas as "occupied territories". The director of the Serbian 'Veritas' organisation, which claims to be a human rights organisation documenting crimes against Serbs, already considers this indictment to be the basis of restoring 'Krajina'. Veritas has been working very closely with the ICTY for some years. This is dubious enough, given the organisations political aims. Aims clearly shown by the 'Krajina' images on their home page - www.veritas.org.yu. It comes as a bit shock then to see on their website this group being given a glowing reference by the ICTY-as well as the UN and Red Cross - apparently in order to help Veritas raise funds for its projects. Whilst one may accept that the ICTY Prosecutor has to deal with many people, giving a reference to a group that makes statements in support of restoring a structure based upon violations of international humanitarian law and illegally appropriating territory of a UN member beggars belief - especially as the Prosecutors have themselves referred to the establishment of these structures as a "Criminal enterprise". It is well known that the Croats were assisted in 'Operation Storm' by US intelligence. The Americans may not take kindly to this indictment. What is important - as revealed by Newsweek - is that US intelligence material, including satellite images, help prove that Gotovina is innocent of the charges, in particular the deportation charges. As the former US ambassador to Croatia put it "You can't deport people who have already left". Given that the orders by the Serb leadership to evacuate Croatia have also been on the public record for some time, the Prosecutor may be in for a tough time. But why is the Prosecutor behaving in such a contradictory manner? Clearly, there are different factions at work in The Hague. One group obviously does not want to spare anyone's blushes and is going for the jugular of those who committed the most war crimes. The other is more concerned about creating an illusion of "all sides equally guilty". But why? The Croatian war is sensitive. As is known, Milosevic was originally backed by the Western powers. "All sides equally guilty" was the mantra of both Serb propagandists and Western governments. 'Operation Storm' angered many in the West who wanted to see the Serbs win quickly and have their gains legitimised by 'peace plans' cooked up by David Owen, Carl Bildt etc. 'Operation Storm' made fools of all these people. The late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman is named as a co-offender on the indictment; a blatantly political move. Srebrinica is also relevant. Had Bihac fallen, there would have been another massacre. The UN allowed the 'Krajina' Serbs to besiege and napalm Bihac; the very forces the UN were supposed to be disarming. The UN was prepared to countenance another Srebrenica. Not something many want known, hence the attempts to criminalize 'Operation Storm'. When one considers the full truth of the war, Operation Storm is quite obviously an operation to liberate territory. All countries have the right to self-defence, and given that the Prosecutors themselves refer to Croatia as having been part-occupied in the Milosevic indictment then to characterise Operation Storm as nothing more than an ethnic cleansing operation is a bit much - especially when negotiations with the Serbs were fruitless after 4 years. Due to the indictment’s distortion of the historical record, just one 'guilty' verdict on any Gotovina charge and the ‘all sides equally guilty’ view of history becomes 'legitimate' in the eyes of those who seek to propagate that view: truth and memory are very seriously under attack here. This is a case that all concerned with a permanent war crimes court should observe very closely indeed. Both the Gotovina "Operation Storm" and Milosevic "Croatia" indictments are available at the ICTY website at: http://www.un.org/icty/ - I recommend all interested should compare and contrast the treatment of the ‘Krajina’ structures in them. © Brian Gallagher distributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com
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