ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - The president of the Association for the Protection of Homeland War Values (HONOS), Nenad Ivankovic, on Tuesday presented the press with a copy of a letter by US Congressmen Henry J. Hyde and Christopher H.
Smith with regard to the case of General Ante Gotovina, forwarded to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - The president of the Association for the
Protection of Homeland War Values (HONOS), Nenad Ivankovic, on
Tuesday presented the press with a copy of a letter by US
Congressmen Henry J. Hyde and Christopher H. Smith with regard to
the case of General Ante Gotovina, forwarded to US Secretary of
State Colin Powell. #L#
According to Ivankovic, the congressmen express their concern that
the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague could, if it were to follow
the logic of the indictment against Gotovina, launch an
investigation against and indict US officials for their potential
command responsibility because the USA offered intelligence
support to Croatia during the "Storm" operation against
Milosevic's forces. He added that the congressmen reminded of a
session of the Congress's Committee on Human Rights, held in
February this year, when witnesses who testified questioned the
basis of the charges against Gotovina, who under the indictment
failed to prevent the expulsion of thousands of Serb civilians
during the "Storm" operation. They reminded that at the time the US
Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, had said that Serb
civilians were not forced to flee during the "Storm" operation.
Ivankovic said that there was no doubt that the Croatian government
and media were keeping the Gotovina case hidden under the carpet
while at the same time it was becoming an international affair.
He further presented an article published on May 10 in The
Washington Times, entitled "Victory of US Democracy", which he said
to some extent clarified the background of the congressmen's
letter.
The author of the commentary, Jeffrey T. Kuhner, who welcomes the
decision of Bush's government to back down on an agreement on the
establishment of an international criminal court, says that
Gotovina's case reveals the threat international war crimes
tribunals pose to the interests of the United States.
Gotovina is not charged for executing or commanding war crimes but
simply because he was a commander at the time the crimes were
committed. This could mean that the USA is also guilty because it
offered support to Croatia during the "Storm" operation, reads the
article.
Ivankovic claims that the Croatian government is withholding
relevant documents from Gotovina's attorneys. He further claims
that the reason for this is the fact that one of the documents,
concerning a special meeting between Generals Gotovina and
Zvonimir Cervenko and the then Defence Minister Gojko Susak and
President Tudjman, that took place on July 17, 1995 on Brijuni
Islands and reportedly focused on the ethnic cleansing of Serb
civilians in the operation "Storm", is in fact a forgery.
(hina) rml