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 »  Home  »  Politics  »  A Diplomatic "Hunting Party" - facts never published before by Ms. Hartmann - part 1
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A Diplomatic "Hunting Party" - facts never published before by Ms. Hartmann - part 1
By Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey | Published  09/16/2007 | Politics , Opinions , Media Watch , Friends In Action | Unrated
Overture for the real court opera or a true peace on a horizon.
 

Florence Hartmann, former official of the ICTY,

Sylvie Matton, Author on Betrayal of Srebrenica

Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey, Dayton Signatory

aconvenientgenocide.com


 
If you want to buy the book by Florence Hartmann click here:

Insiders, Cast as Outsiders ---
Speak!

Florence Hartmann makes damning revelations about the betrayal of justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in, "Peace & Punishment." She also points to direct evidence that the same big powers were in complicity with or the least acquiescent to Milosevic's scheme to ethnically cleanse Srebrenica and Zepa. The consequences of such revelation by this recent insider and official of the ICTY are yet to be defined. Ms. Hartmann's detailed evidence, including documentation, has brought about blanket denials and even character assassination. One US State Department official labeled Hartmann's assertions as "offensive" as if the targets of genocide and war crimes have no right to be disgusted by now also being the victims of deception, ruse, and revisionist history.

 

Of course, Ms. Hartman is not the first to make these assertions. Sylvie Matton authored an extensive history on the betrayal of Srebrenica in her, "Srebrenica, an Announced Genocide," ( Srebrenica : Un génocide annoncé ) a detailed investigative work.

 


Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey has been making the point for years now regarding the deal between Milosevic and officials of the big powers to betray Srebrenica and Zepa. He has also given evidence of a deal between Karadzic and Holbrook to negate the indictment of the ICTY and let Karadzic and Mladic walk free. Ambassador Sacirbey demanded the first United Nations investigation into the betrayal of Srebrenica despite obstruction in Republika Srpska and threats from the big capitals. Muhamed, Mo's  book, "A Convenient Genocide, in a fish bowl," is being presented at
aconvenientgenocide.com

 

Florence Hartmann, Sylvie Matton and Ambassador Sacirbey speak of the evidence and the consequences for the region and the victims. 

 

Consequences for BiH, Croatia and the region:

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: We have to demand an investigation from the appropriate institutions. These in turn, would lead closer to consequences. As Bosnian/Herzegovinian Americans, we must demand accountability from US bureaucrats and officials who went against stated US policy legislated and endorsed by the US Congress. As Americans, we have to inform, remind and petition our Congressman to investigate and act.

 

The citizens of Bosnia & Herzegovina should also demand investigation from the BIH Parliament, the BiH Judiciary as well as the OHR. The actions alleged, and I remind from an insider, a recent high official of the ICTY, are clearly politically and criminally sanctionable. We know what we may expect in terms of a response, but we must ask as to at least remind that it is not just the internationals that will seek to sanction BiH leadership, but also vice versa when our trust is betrayed by the internationals charged with promoting peace and justice in BiH. 

Florence Hartmann:  The ICTY had its mandate from the UN Security Council, to apply justice with independence. Article 16 from the Statute states that « the Prosecutor shall act independently as a separate organ of the International Tribunal. He or she shall not seek or receive instructions from any Government or from any other source". The ICTY's responsibility is to the victims, to justice and legality. Nevertheless, the big powers have tried often to dictate the Tribunal agenda.

As I describe in the book by giving access to what happened behind the close doors, from the outset there was an effort to steer justice to justify the actions of the big powers in their response to the war, the genocide. They consistently tried to overlook who was indicted, and then selectively provided evidence and even altered it depending if the Tribunal mandate to establish the truth would harm them or not, Besides, they opposed constantly the idea that the ICTY should have its own police in order to apprehend fugitives so they were also determining who would be arrested versus effectively immunized from the Tribunal.

 

First though, the Tribunal was not even supposed to happen. Despite the hypocrisy surrounding its establishment in 1993, it has succeed to exist and to do part of the job. But in its fight for survival and for independence, the Tribunal has lost some battles.

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: Ms. Hartmann is absolutely right that the proposal of the Tribunal was initially proposed as an empty promise, really an alternative to actually confronting the crimes being committed in BiH. In the summer of 1992 the idea of the Tribunal was floated to the media in response to the pictures and media confirmed stories of concentration camps and mass murder. That was August 1992, and they had to do something to blunt the calls for intervention, to confront Milosevic's forces. So they simply threw out the promise that justice would catch up with the perpetrators, to ease the collective global conscience and calls for preemptive actions against the crimes and criminals.

 

They were only responding to the media stories and outcry in August 1992, but they had strong evidence of the camps and mass executions from the spring of 1992. They tried to keep it secret, at least until we, the BiH Mission to the UN, submitted the secret UNPROFOR documents detailing evidence of such crimes. Through my then deputy Miles Raguz, we were given these secret documents from UNPROFOR headquarters in Zagreb.

 

The ICTY only happened because a few key individuals, and I should name here Cherif Bassiouni, Madeline Albright and Ambassador Diego Arria, took the lead with the BiH Mission to the UN to make the ICTY reality.

 

 

The Motive: To Keep Secret the Dealings and Deals Between Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic, on one side, and Officials Representing the Big Powers, including the US, on the other.


Sylvie Matton:
The betrayal of Srebrenica and Zepa, as more fully outlined in my book from 2 years earlier, "Srebrenica, an Announced Genocide," was orchestrated to give Milosevic what he was demanding: the three eastern enclaves, Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde.

 

The consequence was genocide, and I'm certain no one western official, from Richard Holbrooke to Carl Bildt, would want to admit foreknowledge, much less acquiescence or complicity in the plan regardless of whether it made Dayton possible.

 

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: The history of deals with Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic is long, even after the latter two were indicted. Milosevic had a special protected place. He was painted by most European and US official as a foundation of peace and the new order in the Balkans. Well into his ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo in 1999, he was shielded. People like Holbrooke and Bildt continued to stand between him and the law. They believed that they had effectively blocked all investigations by the ICTY directed against Milosevic, but fortunately that was not the case.


Milosevic was Shielded by His Partners in Deal Making and His Indictment was Blocked for Years


Florence Hartmann:
The ICTY Office of the Prosecutor, (OTP) established that the US had such intelligence capacity and possessed intercept conversations from 1995 involving the Serbian and Bosnian Serb leadership. The ICTY OTP's Request for Assistance, (RFA) asking the US to provide such evidence for the Milosevic case were left with no answer despite the legal obligation to cooperate binding upon all states, and the Rule 70, the ICTY Rules and Procedure granting protective measures if requested for State security.

 

They certainly did not want Milosevic indicted for genocide in BiH, at least in part because of the reflection upon their dealings and actions, or lack of action.

 

When Milosevic was finally in jail, and more thanks to then Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic, the "powers" dissimulated evidence and many potential international witnesses were not authorized, or did not wish to be, by their governments to give testimony, to begin with Richard Holbrooke.

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: Our requests to certain officials and governments, including the US Executive, for evidence to be provided to the International Court of  Justice was met with an impolite no. At other times, we were threatened, intimidated to terminate our ICJ case against Belgrade.

 

 

Karadzic and Mladic were Given Effective Immunity and Shielded. If there was No Deal between Karadzic and Holbrooke, then it Appeared as One.


Sylvie Matton:
If there was no actual deal, then the behavior of everyone concerned was as if there was a deal.

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: In Dayton, we urged that the mandate of IFOR had to specifically include the task to arrest. General Wes Clark told me that such task specifically outlined, would not be agreed to by the Pentagon.

 

Nonetheless, we insisted that all parties to Dayton, including the sponsoring states and organizations, had to perform in accordance with their responsibility under international law, that is to arrest indicted persons. This would mean that they would at least have to arrest if an indicted person came into contact with IFOR. They agreed that this was an appropriate interpretation of their, IFOR's international obligation. Unfortunately, they quickly redefined their obligation or just simply ignored it, once they arrived in BiH. Karadzic and Mladic were allowed to freely travel, visible and with entourage through IFOR checkpoints. Karadzic and` Mladic were deemed essential for cooperation and became partners to IFOR and the OHR rather than pursued indicted war criminals.

 

On several instances, as the legitimate Government of BiH, were actually warned NOT to undertake arrest efforts with respect to these two indicted war criminals, or other suspects. Otherwise, this could be construed as a violation of the Dayton accords. Ultimately the "Rules of the Road" were adopted which effectively deprived the BiH Government of arrest options. IFOR was left as the only legitimate institution with the effective power to arrest. The power was absorbed but the obligation ignored.


On several occasions I have repeated that another US official confirmed to me on the day that such deal was sealed in summer of 1996 that Karadzic was promised by Holbrooke that he would not be arrested.

 

 

"A Gentleman's Agreement" with Karadzic

 

Florence Hartmann: In response to Ambassador Pierre Richard Prosper's invitation to meet with Karadzic's wife to discuss her husband's surrender or "situation," Ljiljana Karadzic responds to COMSFOR (SFOR commander) US General Sylvester, June 4, 2002:

My husband strictly obeyed each and every gentleman's agreement, which is something you must have known. All perquisites have been met for him to become a freeman. The only thing the international community can do is to withdraw the indictment.

 

 

A Timeline of Evidence

 

Florence Hartmann: However, the story starts much earlier, as Ambassador Sacirbey relates back to negotiations in Dayton. In "Peace and Punishment", the book I have just published in France with Flammarion, I reveal:

 

---On 17 October 1996, at NATO HQ, the ICTY chief prosecutor Louise Arbour is told: "It is NATO policy at outset NOT to arrest war criminals."

 

---In 1996, US and UK officials complain in private meetings on "The Hague interference" and assert that the tribunal "complicates matters considerably."

 

---On 17 March 1997, on the very day when new copies of Karadzic and Mladic's arrest warrant are delivered by the ICTY to NATO, Mladic disappears from his HQ in Crna Rijeka near Han Pijesak, in the US sector, and goes to Belgrade.

 

---On 9 July, 1997, at NATO Summit in Madrid, NATO members agree to be obliged by mandate to arrest indicted war criminals, and some arrests take place on the next day. But this new mandate obviously doesn't apply for Karadzic charged for genocide and crimes against humanity but who still walk freely in Bosnia, in such way that international journalists could even conduct interviews with him.

 

---On 31 May 1997, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets with RS President Biljana Plavsic in Banja Luka and asks her to convince Radovan Karadzic to leave Bosnia for "a third country exile as an alternative to trial before the War Crime Tribunal."

 

---On 9 August, 1997, Holbrooke is received once again by Milosevic at the White Palace in Belgrade. Krajisnik joins the meeting. Holbrooke submits to them a copy of Karadzic's interview given to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, published the previous day. The two Serb leaders admit the flagrant violation of the 18 July 96 Agreement. "Such actions would increase the chances of a military action to bring Karadzic to justice," warns Holbrooke. Milosevic responds: ""If you take such action, it will be disaster for all of us. Your nation will regret it." Holbrooke requests that Karadzic conform strictly with Agreement: "Karadzic could be arrested if he does not stay out of Republika Srpska politics." (Karadzic, who had been indicted in the summer of 1995, is still then in Bosnia in the French sector.)

 

---On 27 August, 1997 in a meeting with Louise Arbour, (then ICTY Chief Prosecutor), General Wesley Clark, (then NATO Supreme Commander), states: "if Karadzic was brought to The Hague, he would allege that a deal was made in Dayton with Warren Christopher that Karadzic would never end up in The Hague."

 

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: Again, I have already stated previously that there was in Dayton in 1995 an effort to have us acquiesce to "amnesty." After I alerted the Tribunal, this was effectively blocked. However, I must admit that in Dayton it was not General Clark who pressured for such amnesty but Holbrooke, as was the case in pressing us, me to drop the Genocide case at the ICJ versus Belgrade.

 

 

Karadzic Goes on Russian Plane to Byeloruusia

 

Florence Hartmann:

---1997-1998, After being flown on Russian plane provided by President Yeltsin, Karadzic spends a few months in Byelorussia.

 

---1998 Karadzic returns to Bosnia. Karadzic's friend, Dragomir Kojic, a former chief of Karadzic's police runs Unipak, a company in charge of clearing mines and earning millions of dollars through contracts with Ronco, a US company from Virginia, ( and financed by the State Department), and with IMI of Greece, (financed by EU). Kojic is one of founders for Karadzic's now more secret life and evasion of the ICTY.

 

---1998, Second Half, Paul Nell, a US citizen working at the ICTY, and at the request of Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour has several discrete meetings with Karadzic in order to bring him to surrender. In the internal transmission back to the ICTY, Nell summarizes what Karadzic tells him: "prior to Dayton, Richard Holbrooke told him that if he stood aside he would never be arrested."

 

---On 23 March, 2000, General Wesley Clark confirms to the new ICTY Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, that a green light from Clinton was necessary before any action could be undertaken related to Karadzic's arrest.

 

---On 26 September, 2000 in Langley at CIA HQ, then CIA head George Tenet tells Carla Del Ponte: "I'm chasing guys all over the world. Why can't we catch Bin Laden either? It us 7 days to catch Noriega with 20,000 GI's, in a country that was ours&Karadzic is my number I priority. He is big focus of our efforts. It is the most difficult type of operations. He never speaks over the phone, never signs a document(sic)." However, throughout that time Karadzic had been using phones, messengers and wrote consistently to his family. There was something that did not fit.

 

 

Mladic and The CIA in Serbia

---January 2002 in New York, Zoran Djindjic presents Del Ponte his plan: "I have asked the US to help me to locate Mladic, but they said that they have been ignoring his whereabouts. Nevertheless, we have reached an agreement on Mladic with the CIA." PM Djindjic had authorized the CIA to operate in Serbia including to locate Mladic. Mladic is rather frequently seen in public, but mostly living/hiding in a military compound. Mladic, then, is still not retired from the VJ and enjoys the protection of the Serbian Army and the Supreme Commander, President Vojislav Kostunica. You have then a Prime Minister telling you that Mladic is in Serbia and the CIA who is authorized to chase him who is telling the Tribunal that they can't find him!

 

---March 2003, US War Crimes Ambassador Prosper tells Del Ponte: "You have people in the field who are asking plenty of questions. Who are they? What do they want?" Del Ponte had created a team to track down indicted fugitives but its actions were constantly undermined because by locating Karadzic in several occasions, the ICTY tracking team has proven that the non arrest of Karadzic was deliberate.

 

---October 2003, Colin Powell says to Del Ponte during Washington visit: "I cannot answer the question {why NATO cannot arrest Karadzic?}. I don't know why they did not fix the plan. I don't know. I can not tell you why they are not able to locate him or when they locate him, to arrest him."

 

---January 2004, Del Ponte learns that Karadzic is in Belgrade.

 

---29 January, 2004, requests Ambassador Prosper who was then visiting The Hague, "to get Karadzic and Mladic, (both now in Belgrade), Karadzic is still in Belgrade. It is not too late to act." Prosper requests to consult with his Government.

 

---31 January, 2004 Ambassador Prosper calls Del Ponte to inform her that he has a green light from his administration. However, no action is taken.

 

---2 February, 2004, US Ambassador to Belgrade, William Montgomery, goes public in the Serbian media stating that his Government is satisfied with Serbia's cooperation with The Hague Tribunal and that he hopes it will lead to the transfer of Karadzic and Mladic.

 

---9 February, 2004, Del Ponte decides to tell the press while in Brussels with the EU that Karadzic is in Belgrade in order to force the great powers to fulfill their obligations and bring both accused finally to the Tribunal. Javier Solana, Head of EU Foreign Policy, comments in meeting with Del Ponte: "If Karadzic is indeed in Belgrade, we have then a serious problem." US officials protest to Del Ponte for exerting pressure through the media. For several weeks they sanction her by interrupting all communications with Del Ponte and Her office.

 

---24 February 24, 2004, Del Ponte's ICTY tracking team locates Karadzic in small village in Bosnia, close to Serbian border, after he has recently departed Belgrade. The intelligence is immediately passed to COMSFOR in Sarajevo. A couple of hours later, helicopters overfly the village and effectively alert Karadzic.

 

 

Ambassador Sacirbey: In more recent conversations with members of military teams purportedly tracking Karadzic, I was informed that it was a ruse and/or used as cover for other covert operations that had nothing to do with the ICTY.

 

 

"Only Justification to Stay Present in Bosnia"


Florence Hartmann:

---1 February, 2005, Del Ponte explains to Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative in Bosnia & Herzegovina:

"There are many elements indicating lack of resolve of the international community, of NATO and the EU forces. Since Karadzic and Mladic went into hiding, we have provided a lot of information to NATO, with no result. We have more reason than ever to believe that an agreement was passed with Karadzic. It is impossible to believe in such incapacity of the most powerful states on earth. Is there political will or not. Or the story of the fugitive Karadzic is only a justification to stay present in Bosnia? Despite budgetary constraints we managed to have a three people tracking team - and these three have to find all the fugitives in several countries. But they generate more results and information than some big secret services.

 

 

A Cup of Coffee with a Woman in Foca


Florence Hartmann:

---7 April, 2005, Karadzic is identified by a Dutch journalist purportedly having a cup of coffee with a woman in Foca. Del Ponte asks NATO to check the information. The response from NATO a few days later "Impossible! Karadzic was in Belgrade, from 6th to 8th April, 2005." On the other hand, NATO had only previously to this alleged sighting told Del Ponte that they had lost all track of Karadzic.

 

---July, 2005 Del Ponte decides to call upon the Republika Srpska police to put Karadzic's family under surveillance.

 

---29 July, CIA officer demands an end to the surveillance operation misrepresenting that it was a Tribunal decision to terminate.

 

---August, 2005Del Ponte is informed that the Republika Srpska police has been requested to put an end to the operation. The US apologizes to Del Ponte for "information gap," but offers no other explanation.

 

Republika Srpska Police for Sale


Ambassador Sacirbey:
Could it be that the RS police are being defended as an institution by the CIA and/or other intelligence services, and that is why the current talks on "police reform" are taking such strange turns and twists, and far away from the original EU principles set out? Maybe Dodik has bought their support by selling his own RS police to serve some covert end of outside intelligence services.

 

"The last thing we need would be to criticize each other in front of the media"


Florence Hartman:

---Fall 2005: No Arrests despite. Del Ponte requests her office to establish a list of missed opportunities and obstructions by the international community in the search for Karadzic and Mladic, as preparation for her speech before the UN Security Council in December of 2005.US diplomats and NATO officers put on full court press to dissuade Del Ponte from going public with her information and again promise to bring Karadzic and Mladic to the ICTY. In November Del Ponte also used her legal powers to request from the 7 Fervent Archer Member States, (NATO countries that have ostensibly agreed for their troops in Bosnia to proceed with the arrest of "PIFWC", as they call the persons indicted for war crimes. Initially, in 1997, there were 5, US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands joined later by Italy and Spain), to provide before the end of the year reports on surveillance on Karadzic's family and all relevant information regarding the fugitive. Two states responded with no delay. Not surprisingly as they probably had never had their own technical capacities to participate on any surveillance operation directed at Karadzic. The other states ignored the binding request and some went protesting.

 

---Several ambassadors went to Del Ponte to express their shock and dismay at her request. The US was the most aggressive. Del Ponte had particularly directed the request at the US as they are the only ones in Bosnia equipped adequately for the surveillance and intercepting conversations.

 

---December 2005, in Washington, US officials ask Del Ponte to withdraw her "very unwelcome" RFA, (Request for Assistance). She is directed that such request "should not be made in writing." Then two days before her speech to the UN Security Council, a high US Representative warns Del Ponte: "the last thing we need would be to criticize each other in front of the media."

 

 

Part II of "Insiders Speak"

Coming:

***  US Ambassador demands that no new Belgrade Generals be indicted.

 

*** "This indictment is a problem. Different Countries want the US to take the leadership to tell you, (Del Ponte), whether it should be an indictment or not."

 

*** What happens to Karadzic and Mladic prosecution when ICTY is forced to turn off the lights?

 

*** Evidence is Altered as to Misrepresent the facts Before the ICTY.

 

*** Munir Albacic, BiH Head of Intelligence Removed from Post by OHR, after empowered and receiving resources to work with ICTY.

 

*** Who is Working for Whom, or more accurately, Which service?

 

*** Did "powers" Try to Conceal Dominance of Belgrade over so called "Bosnian Serbs" and "Croatian Serbs."

 

***The betrayal of Srebrenica. 

Op-ed

Muhamed Sacirbey, Florence Hartmann and Sylvie Matton speak out. Ms. Hartmann makes damning revelations about the betrayal of justice in her new book "Peace & Punishment.". Were the Big Powers in complicity to ethnic cleansing? Twist of fiction and reality. Film "The Hunting Party" with Richard Gere talks about the same subject in the same manner...as fiction. The book "Peace and Punishment" talks about the same subject in the same manner...as reality with documents. And they came out at the same time. Coincidence, hard reality or historical materialism ? Hartmann, Matton and Sacirbey speak of the evidence and the consequences  for BiH, Croatia, the region and the victims. CROWN Croatia.org reports, you decide.

NB


If you want to buy the book by Florence Hartmann click here:
http://www.amazon.fr/Paix-ch%C3%A2timent-Florence-Hartmann/dp/2081206692


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