WASHINGTON TIMES: "IS CLINTON A WAR CRIMINAL?"

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's prosecution is now examining possibilities whether an investigation should be launched against former US President Bill Clinton and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke for their role in the Croatian forces' liberating operation "Storm", an editor at The Washington Times, Jeffrey Kuhner, writes in the daily's issue of Sunday. #L# "It is only a matter of time before they are made to appear before the tribunal," Kuhner said in the article entitled "Is Clinton A War Criminal". The American journalist came to this conclusion on the basis of the case of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, indicted by the Hague-based UN tribunal for his command responsibility for alleged war crimes committed during the 1995 Storm Operation. Kuhner writes that " Gen. Gotovina is not accused of committing or ordering war crimes, but simply of being in charge when alleged atrocities were committed. However, by this standard, the Clinton administration is also guilty. Washington provided valuable military and technical assistance to Operation Storm." "The Bush administration has become increasingly concerned with the implications of the Gotovina case for the United States," he said adding that "the Gotovina case establishes an ominous precedent for U.S. foreign policy." The American journalist says that Operation Storm "served as a model for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan" where the Northern Alliance provided the bulk of the ground forces during the Bush administration's campaign to topple the Taliban regime from power. "But if the theory of "command responsibility" is upheld in the Gotovina case, then the United States can be made accountable for the actions of its allies around the world. There will be nothing preventing the International Criminal Court from making U.S. officials responsible for isolated criminal acts that have been committed by Northern Alliance troops," Kuhner says. In a bid to avert something like that "the State Department is now urging the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, to send cases involving Croatian military officials back to the domestic courts in Zagreb. But Mrs. Del Ponte has refused to cooperate, insisting that Gen. Gotovina be arrested and sent to The Hague," he added. (hina) ms