"WASHINGTON TIMES" COMMENTS ON INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES TRIAL

WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Hina) - The "Washington Times" daily on Thursday ran a text by David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union, who used the case of Croatian general Ante Gotovina in his analysis of international war crimes trials to warn about the possibility of American soldiers and officials having to appear before the tribunal. Keene recalled that the former US president Bill Clinton signed the Rome Accords on the establishment of a permanent war crimes tribunal, but the Senate failed to ratify them. Concerned about the fact that after ratification by 60 countries the agreement will come into force, Keene said the law on the protection of US army members, passed last year, was insufficient to protect Americans from prosecution. To show his estimates are not exaggerated, Keene used the example of the indictment against Ante Gotovina. He writes that Clinton's administration in 1995 got the Croatian army to launch an offensive against Serb troops in Croatia and Bosnia, known under the name "Storm". Evidence indicates that Washington planned and steered the entire operation, Keene claims, citing the writing of London's "Observer" and memoirs of US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. We apparently told the Croats when to attack, which towns to take control of and when to stop. Holbrooke clearly states they did exactly what we wanted, Keene writes. He recalls the tribunal's prosecution indicted Gotovina, describing Storm as an ethnic cleansing operation aimed at shoving out thousands of Serbs from their homes. Gotovina was not indicted for personally committing or ordering the crime, but under command responsibility for the crimes of others, Keene said. Following this logic, liability could be extended to Clinton and members of his government, Keene warned. (hina) lml sb