Capitol Hill

December 5, 2005

Honorable Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House
Honorable Henry Hyde, Chairman, House International Relations Committee
Honorable Roy Blunt, Majority Leader
Honorable Elton Gallegly, Chariman, European Subcommittee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Congressmen,

On behalf of the Croatian Worldwide Association, we write expressing our strong opposition to Croatians indicted by the International Court Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  In particular, we are against House Resolution 529 as it is currently written. In particular, the following section:

(3) the Government of Croatia should be commended for the significant improvement in its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia  (ICTY) and it should continue to take all necessary steps to ensure that the remaining indictee is located and transferred to the ICTY;

The “remaining indictee” is nevertheless Croatian General Ante Gotovina.  Hence, the man who brought about the defeat of Milosevic's campaign of mass murder and ethnic cleansing--General Gotovina--is being compared and linked by the ICTY to the principal perpetrators of genocide in the region--Karadzic and Mladic. Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte is trying to turn white into black.

The Gotovina indictment is not simply about defending an innocent man who is falsely accused. Again, as the media publications mentioned above all stress: it seeks to rewrite the history of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, equalizing guilt on all sides instead of placing the proper blame where it belongs--Slobodan Milosevic and his rampaging Serb marauders led by Karadzic and Mladic. General Gotovina's leadership of Operation Storm, the 1995 Croatian lightening military offensive, not only restored Croatia's territorial integrity and recaptured territory that had been conquered and ethnically cleansed by rebel Serbs, it also saved tens of thousands of besieged Bosnian Muslim refugees in the enclave of Bihac in northwestern Bosnia. Operation Storm brought about the decisive defeat of Slobodan Milosevic's forces and paved the way for the Dayton Peace accords. This past week, the U.S. paid tribute to the 10th Anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords – the irony.
 
More importantly, by seeking to equalize guilt, the Gotovina indictment threatens the future stability of the Balkans. For by trying to convict General Gotovina for "command responsibility" over Operation Storm, Del Ponte's actions are calling into question the moral and legal legitimacy of the Croatian state within its current borders. The Gotovina indictment, by falsely claiming that Operation Storm sought to deliberately ethnically cleanse 150,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia, provides Serbian revanchists with the moral and legal basis to reclaim large swaths of Croatian territory in the future. In short, the Gotovina indictment lays the groundwork for the resurgence of a Greater Serbia. If General Gotovina is sent to the Hague, where he will be certainly found guilty under the trumped up and bogus charges of "command responsibility," it will result in a great victory for Milosevic's allies and the supporters of a Great Serb empire from the Danube to the Adriatic. Serbia's parliament in Belgrade has already passed a binding resolution that claims the ICTY's indictment of Gotovina gives the Serbs the "political, legal and ethical" basis to "reclaim" one-third of Croatia's territories. In other words, Del Ponte's indictment of Gotovina is sheer madness. It threatens the long-term security and stability not only of Croatia, but of the Balkans in general.

Finally and most importantly, the Gotovina indictment also threatens the long-term national interests of the United States. It has been well-documented and established that Operation Storm was an American-backed offensive. The United States gave its full political, military and intelligence support for the operation. If General Gotovina is found guilty of "command responsibility" over the operation, it will inevitably lead to the ICTY investigating and indicting senior U.S. military officials for having provided crucial military and logistical assistance. Americans may find themselves in the dock as well.

Last week, former Undersecretary of Political Affairs, Marc Grossman wrote an editorial in the Baltimore Sun regarding Kosovo.  Ambassador Grossman stated General Gotovina is a “war criminal” along side with Karadzic and Mladic. This is deeply disturbing that our U.S. Government, past and present officials, publicly state this fallacy about General Gotovina.  In addition, current Undersecretary Nicholas Burns on November 10th, during his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called General Gotovina a “despicable war criminal.”  General Gotovina has already been deemed and declared guilty before he even steps foot in any court.

It is deeply disturbing--and frankly, scandalous--that the United States State Department would continue to support such a blatant judicial witch hunt and miscarriage of justice – the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The world knows Karadzic and Mladic are guilty of heinous atrocities and mass murder; Gotovina is a hero whose actions helped to stop Milosevic's genocidal project of a Greater Serbia. That is why Mladic and Karadzic should go to The Hague, while all charges against Gotovina should be dropped.

Del Ponte's office is full of anti-American ideologues who have been seeking to curtail and undercut U.S. foreign policy in Europe.  Del Ponte has also indicted five Croatian journalists and a former-intelligence officer. The original purpose of the ICTY established in 1993 was to pursue high-level war criminals in the hopes of securing meaningful justice and reconciliation in the region—its mandate was never to abuse its power to jail independent journalists critical of ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. Now, journalists may go to jail.

These indictments are absurd for several reasons: 1) They are an assault on basic press freedoms and Croatia’s democratic institutions; 2) Other reporters who are pro-ICTY, pro-Del Ponte—such as those at the “Institute for War and Peace Reporting” or the Croatian daily, “Novi List”—who revealed the exact same testimony and the identity of the “secret witness” in the Tihomir Blaskic case are not being prosecuted. Hence, this is a case of selective prosecutorial abuse of authority, where Del Ponte’s enemies are being silenced and her supporters are left alone.

Why is Del Ponte pursuing these journalists, all of whom have been critics of the ICTY and her conduct as chief prosecutor, while other pro-ICTY, pro-Del Ponte journalists are left alone? Does this not raise the public perception of a double standard and abuse of power emanating from the Chief Prosecutor’s office?

The Gotovina and journalist indictments are bad no matter how you look at it--morally, legally, geopolitically. It's bad for Croatia, the Balkans and ultimately, the United States.

We hope you seriously consider conducting an investigation and holding hearings regarding the ICTY and then, you decide.  Thank you so very much for your attention to this matter, it is greatly appreciated.

Warm regards,
Jackie Prkic 
President