AMERICAN CROATS DENOUNCE COMMENTARY IN "WASHINGTON TIMES"

WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (Hina) - The Croatian American Association (CAA) on Sunday reacted vehemently to a commentary recently published in The Washington Times about alleged war crimes committed during and after Croatian military and police liberation operations "Storm" and "Flash" in 1995. In a letter to the paper's editorial office, CAA president Frank Brozovich recalled that according to information provided by the CIA, published in The New York Times, as well as eight separate reports by the State Department, it had been confirmed that 90 per cent of war crimes (in the region of the former Yugoslavia) had been committed by Serbs. The Washington Times last week issued a commentary by Doug Bandow, an associate of Washington's Cato Institute. Bandow attempted to show the damaging effect of American policy -- from recognising Croatia's independence to its silent condoning of the Storm operation. Bandow wrote crimes against Serbs in the so-called Krajina had lasted until 1998. With conspicuous bias Bandow continued the wrongdoing -- war crimes, in fact, do not, of course, justify the bad conduct of Serbs. On the other hand, the author expressed support for the secession explaining that if Croatians deserved their own country, why would Serbs not deserve their own. Leading the new, independent Croatia was Franjo Tudjman, an anti- Semitic bandit who did not wish to guarantee any protection for the Serb minority, Bandow wrote. In conclusion, he described the policy of the United States and the West as rotten as they, allegedly, demanded that Serbs always and anywhere remain at the mercy of their enemies. The CAA says Bandow is trying to assert (Yugoslavia's ex-president) Slobodan Milosevic's propaganda. The Croat association recalled the 12,000 killed civilians and 700,000 exiled people in Croatia caused by the Serb aggression in 1991. The author's bias is confirmed by his speech before the Congress committee for international relations in March of 1999. At the time, during a discussion on NATO strikes on Yugoslavia, Bandow claimed armed conflicts in Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo could hardly reach the level of crime in today's world, and certainly did not represent genocide. Washington Times' reader from Canada, Hrvoje Lukatela, also wrote to the paper to protest against the commentary. He recalled the constitutional rights of all republics once comprising the former Yugoslavia to self-orientation and secession, the referendum carried out in Croatia in 1990 and the recognition of internal as well as international borders. (hina) lml