ZAGREB, Aug 21 (Hina) - An association for the protection of Croatia's Homeland Defence War has confirmed Newsweek magazine's allegations that U.S. intelligence services were acquainted in detail with the course of Operation Storm and
the events in its wake, and that Croatia and the U.S. were in strategic partnership. Washington gave the green light for Storm, a summer 1995 operation which liberated Croatian territories then occupied by Serb rebels, assessing it was the most acceptable solution for peace in the region, HONOS president Nenad Ivankovic told reporters in Zagreb on Tuesday. The Americans followed its course in detail through the CIA, and the highest United States officials assessed it as an entirely legitimate Croatian military operation in which no systematic crimes were committed, Ivankovic added. He said HONOS had received such information from reliable Croatian sources, generals Mar
ZAGREB, Aug 21 (Hina) - An association for the protection of
Croatia's Homeland Defence War has confirmed Newsweek magazine's
allegations that U.S. intelligence services were acquainted in
detail with the course of Operation Storm and the events in its
wake, and that Croatia and the U.S. were in strategic partnership.
Washington gave the green light for Storm, a summer 1995 operation
which liberated Croatian territories then occupied by Serb rebels,
assessing it was the most acceptable solution for peace in the
region, HONOS president Nenad Ivankovic told reporters in Zagreb on
Tuesday.
The Americans followed its course in detail through the CIA, and the
highest United States officials assessed it as an entirely
legitimate Croatian military operation in which no systematic
crimes were committed, Ivankovic added.
He said HONOS had received such information from reliable Croatian
sources, generals Markica Rebic and Ante Gotovina, the president of
the Croatian Identity and Prosperity (HIP) association, Miroslav
Tudjman, and Croatian archives on cooperation with U.S.
intelligence services.
Ivankovic said no systematic crimes were committed during Storm,
especially not of the kind mentioned in an indictment against
General Gotovina, whom the UN tribunal at The Hague has accused of
war crimes against Croatian Serbs. Any other conclusion would imply
Washington knew about the crimes and deliberately suppressed the
fact, he added.
Ivankovic said this meant the Gotovina indictment was fabricated
and aimed at revising recent history and criminalising the Homeland
War.
HONOS calls on the government to produce the entire documentation
corroborating the Newsweek article, hold consultations with the
key figures in Operation Storm, and draw up a new platform on
cooperation with the Hague tribunal.
The first step must be to quash a government decision on the
execution of the Hague indictments and withdraw an arrest warrant
for Gotovina, Ivankovic said.
Asked if he was familiar with the retired general's whereabouts and
if Gotovina was guarded by some 50 armed men, Ivankovic declined to
comment.
Besides Gotovina, the Hague tribunal last month indicted another
Croatian general for crimes allegedly committed during Storm,
Rahim Ademi, who has surrendered and is currently detained at
Scheveningen prison.
(hina) ha