Fw: U.S., Clinton Accused of War Atrocities

[Andrej Tisma]

> 
> Washington Times
> April 22, 2002 
> 
> U.S., CLINTON ACCUSED OF WAR ATROCITIES
> 
> By Jeffrey T. Kuhner 
> 
> The lawyer for a Croatian general indicted by the war crimes 
> tribunal in The Hague says his client's case opens the 
> possibility that former President Clinton will be charged 
> with crimes against humanity for authorizing a Croatian 
> military offensive in 1995 that recaptured territory from 
> rebel Serbs. 
> 
> "According to the unjust indictment brought against my client, 
> there is a basis for an investigation and indictment of 
> high-ranking Clinton administration officials who oversaw 
> Operation Storm," said Luka Misetic, the defense attorney for 
> Gen. Ante Gotovina. The high-ranking Croatian general was 
> indicted in June 2001 by the prosecutor's office at the U.N. 
> War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague 
> on charges that he exercised "command responsibility" over 
> the military campaign in which 150 Serbian civilians were killed.
>  
> Secretly supported by the Clinton administration, Croatian forces 
> launched a three-day massive military offensive - known as 
> "Operation Storm" - on Aug. 5, 1995 in which Croatia recovered 
> territories occupied by rebel Serbs following Croatia's bloody 
> drive for independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. 
> 
> Gen. Gotovina was the military commander of Sector South of 
> the operation, which was responsible for the capture of the 
> rebel-held city of Knin. He is also accused of overseeing the 
> ethnic cleansing of 150,000 Serbs who fled from Croatia during 
> the military offensive.
>  
> The United States provided military and technical assistance to 
> Operation Storm in order to block then-Serbian President 
> Slobodan Milosevic's goal of forging an ethnically pure "Greater 
> Serbia."
>  
> The Clinton administration viewed Croatia's military campaign as 
> pivotal to tilting the strategic balance of power in the region 
> against Serbian forces, paving the way for the 1995 Dayton 
> Peace Accords that ended the war in neighboring Bosnia. 
> 
> However, Mr. Misetic said U.S. support and approval for the military 
> offensive means the indictment against Gen. Gotovina could lead to 
> the prosecution by The Hague tribunal of Mr. Clinton and other 
> high-ranking U.S. officials on charges of having command responsibility 
> for war crimes that were committed during the operation. 
> 
> "The theory against Gotovina can now be brought against Clinton, 
> [Assistant Secretary of State Richard] Holbrooke and all the way down 
> the U.S. chain of command. On the prosecution's logic, they should be 
> indicted as well. They knew the attack was coming and gave it the green 
> light," Mr. Misetic said. 
> 
> "The prosecutor's office is punting on an issue that is clearly there.
> They 
> are claiming that ethnic cleansing took place during this operation.
> They 
> are claiming that by virtue of his position, Gotovina had knowledge of
> war 
> crimes. His knowledge was shared and given to him by the Pentagon," 
> he said. 
> 
> Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte, 
> said the tribunal is not challenging the legitimacy of Croatia's
> military 
> offensive but individual atrocities carried out by Croatian soldiers
> whose 
> actions fell under the responsibility of Gen. Gotovina.
>  
> "It is not Operation Storm that is being indicted, but the crimes that 
> were committed during and afterward," Mrs. Hartmann said.  U.S. 
> support for the operation "has to be established," she said. "I don't 
> know that the [Clinton] administration was involved."
>  
> Asked whether the prosecutor\'s office was planning to issue 
> indictments against either Mr. Clinton or other administation officials,
> 
> Mrs. Hartmann said: "We have no comment because there is no 
> evidence to substantiate the charges of Gen. Gotovina's lawyers. 
> They can make their case with evidence to the court."
>  
> Mr. Misetic dismissed Mrs. Hartmann's comments as "blatant 
> hypocrisy." 
>