WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Hina) - The United States has no reason to believe that the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague is investigating any of its officials, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, commenting on claims that the
tribunal's investigators have questioned a Croatian admiral, Davor Domazet, about the role of the United States in the operations "Medak Pocket" and "Storm".
WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Hina) - The United States has no reason to
believe that the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague is
investigating any of its officials, State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said, commenting on claims that the tribunal's
investigators have questioned a Croatian admiral, Davor Domazet,
about the role of the United States in the operations "Medak Pocket"
and "Storm". #L#
According to Boucher, the United States was not involved in the
planning or implementation of Operation "Storm".
He stated that his country had known something about the
preparations, but had not supported them and had always made it
clear that the problem of reintegrating majority Serb areas should
be solved with political dialogue.
He reminded that Washington had called on the Croatian government,
the leaders of the so-called Krajina Serbs and the Serbian
government to exercise restraint and respect the rights and
security of civilians, prisoners of war, and members of peace
forces.
Boucher believes that the current investigation by representatives
of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) is related to the case of General Ante Gotovina, who he says
must appear before the ICTY.
He called on the runaway Croatian general to surrender to the ICTY.
The Washington Times on Friday reported that the ICTY was
investigating the military assistance of the United States to
Croatia in operations against rebel Serbs.
The actual purpose of the interview with Admiral Domazet was to
obtain information about the role of US intelligence officials in
the operations Medak Pocket and Storm, the daily claims.
ICTY spokeswoman Florence Hartmann yesterday dismissed the
reports.
(hina) rml