WASHINGTON TIMES: USA SHOULD BLOCK DEL PONTE'S RE-APPOINTMENT

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Hina) - The United States should use its veto at the United Nations' Security Council to block the extension of the term of office of the current UN war crimes tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, the Washington Times' assistant editor, Jeffrey Kuhner, wrote in the editorial in Monday's issue of this daily. #L# Kuhner expressed his disappointment with the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and asserted that "the prosecutor's office has engaged in abuses of power and issued flawed indictments that pose a threat to U.S. national interests." To corroborate his claim, Kuhner cited the example of the process against a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, in which "despite the overwhelming evidence that the Butcher of Belgrade masterminded the ethnic-cleansing campaigns in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, the prosecution has so far failed to document Mr. Milosevic's numerous crimes. These include the destruction of Vukovar, the massacre of more than 7,000 civilians at Srebrenica, the savage shelling of Sarajevo, and the murder of countless ethnic Albanians, whose graves are now being discovered all over Serbia." He says del Ponte is trying to establish the balance in the guilt and that's why she issued an indictment against Croatian General Ante Gotovina ascribing to him "the command responsibility" for the events during the liberating Storm operation in 1995. According to Kuhner, "the theory of "command responsibility" violates the basic tenet of the definition of a war crime ? the principle of personal responsibility for one's actions. The Croatian general is not accused of individually committing or ordering atrocities; he is simply guilty of being in "command" when alleged war crimes were committed." The Washington Times says that "rather than dropping the charges against Gen. Gotovina, Mrs. Del Ponte's office is now examining whether to expand the indictment to include high-ranking U.S. officials..." "Troubled by the implications of the Gotovina indictment, the State Department has asked the prosecutor's office to transfer cases involving Croatian military officials back to the domestic courts in Zagreb," the daily added. The editorial says that del Ponte has asked for the extension of her term of office until the completion of the Milosevic trial The Bush Administration should demand an independent investigation in the work of the Prosecutor's Office or at least use its veto at the Security Council to block her re-appointment, Kuhner writes. (hina) ms