Gen. Gotovina in prison for 6 months

May 2006

General Ante Gotovina has been in The Hague's prison for 6 months 
 
Gen. Gotovina stopped Mladic and Karadzic's occupation and aggression on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina's territory.  He is indicted by the ICTY for crimes he did not commit; while Mladic and Karadzic, now indicted over ten years, are still on the run. 
 
What does the ICTY have to say about the whereabouts of Mladic and Karadzic? ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and President Fausto Pocar submitted reports to the UN Security Council which state Serbia is "not cooperating." 
 
Del Ponte says: "To sum up, the co-operation provided by Serbia to the ICTY has been and remains very difficult and frustrating. There is serious political and administrative resistance within the system, and a strong political will is needed to overcome those obstacles. On the basis of the facts in my possession, I cannot be convinced that Serbia is ready to arrest Mladić. For a number of reasons, the authorities may still prefer to force him to surrender voluntarily."
 
"The Prosecutor explained at length in her report to the Council last December why Karadžić and Mladić are still at large more than 10 years after they were first indicted. Her assessment remains the same today. Serbia has to do much more to arrest and transfer Ratko Mladić. The arrest of Radovan Karadžić is a shared responsibility of Serbia and the Bosnian Entity of Republika Srpska, as well as NATO and EUFOR. It is pathetic that today, nobody is, as it seems, searching actively for Karadžić." (www.un.org/icty)

Carla Del Ponte also said that impunity for Radovan Karadc and Ratko Mladic, the two most serious architects of the crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who had both been accused of genocide, would represent a terrible blow not only to the Tribunal's success or failure, but also to the future of international justice as a whole. It was inconceivable that the Yugoslav Tribunal would close its doors, while the pair remained at large. At this rate, the ICTY will never close or finish its work waiting for Mladic and Karadzic who have effectively avoided appearing at The Hague for ten years. The ICTY employees are securing lifetime positions of employment at Den Haag all in the name in the "justice."

"It is pathetic that today nobody is searching actively for Karadzic," Del Ponte said.  If the Serbian Government is genuinely interested in capturing Mladic and Karadzic, they should waste no time and immediately consult with the Croatian Government.  Sanader is ideal for locating individuals and can give solid advice and strategy to the Serbs.  Sanader was instrumental in organizing the capture and arrest of Gen. Gotovina and certainly could offer his investigative techniques and assistance to locate Mladic and Karadzic.  To this day, Sanader insists capturing Gen. Gotovina was only done with the intent of getting Croatia into the European Union.  Everyone knows this to be an outright lie.
 
The United Nations Permanent Security Council members need to take a long hard look and face up to the facts that the ICTY, now in operation thirteen years, needs to close down.  There cannot be peace and reconciliation when Mladic and Karadzic are not at The Hague and Milosevic, the architect of the bloodshed in the Former Yugoslavia, is dead. 
 
The ICTY lost all credibility when Carla Del Ponte indicted Croatian journalists for reporting the truth about events at The Hague.  The United Nations must dismantle the ICTY, close its doors and release Croatians who defended their territory, their country and their people from the horrors of Serbian aggression. 
 
The time is now.