Protest against indictments of Croatians by the United Nations

August 5, 2005

August 5th is the 10th anniversary of the commencement of Operation Storm in Croatia which was instrumental in stopping the plans of Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.

Operation Storm was effectively controlled by the United States. It liberated much of Croatia, and had the effect of saving the UN safe haven of Bihac enclave in Bosnia-Herzegovina from a Srebrenica style fate.   It helped push the Serb forces back in Bosnia-Herzegovina and was instrumental in ending the war, leading to the US brokered Dayton Peace Accords.

General Ante Gotovina was indicted in June 2001 by the prosecutor's office at The Hague on charges that he exercised ‘command responsibility’ over the 1995 military operation “Oluja” (Storm) that resulted in the expulsion of 150,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia. Supported by the Clinton administration, Croatian forces launched a massive, three-day military offensive, in which Croatia recovered territories occupied by rebel Serbs following the country's drive for independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. General Gotovina is not accused of committing or ordering war crimes, but simply of being in charge when alleged atrocities were committed.

The UN war crimes Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has indicted Croatian General Ante Gotovina and two other Generals for Operation Storm, effectively revising history to portray Croatia as an aggressor.  In addition, she has indicted four prominent Croatian journalists for reporting the facts about Operation Storm.

Already, there is talk of restoring the ‘Republika Srpska Krajina’ - the one third of Croatia Milosevic’s forces occupied - on the basis of these indictments.

The indictments present a threat to Croatia’s territorial integrity threatening the stability of the region.  Croatia’s very future has been put under threat.

The UN has produced evidence against Slobodan Milosevic which contradict the charges against General Gotovina, showing that the UN itself does not believe the charges. So why should anyone else? The judges at the UN are useless - Croat General Blaskic was sentenced to 45 years for crimes it turned out he did not commit. 

Croatians worldwide have initiated a petition to the leaders of the international community.  To view the petition, please visit: www.freegeneralgotovina.com