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>From http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020708-3102700.htm
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The Washington Times
www.washtimes.com
Balkans tribunal turns to Clinton
Jeffrey T. Kuhner
THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 7/8/2002
ZAGREB, Croatia � The Balkans war crimes tribunal is examining whether
charges are warranted against former President Clinton and his aides for supporting
a 1995 military offensive by Croatia that recaptured territory then held by rebel
Serbian forces.
The Croatian World Congress sent a letter last week demanding that Carla Del
Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY), open a criminal investigation into Mr. Clinton and other top
officials of his administration for "aiding and abetting indicted Croatian Gen. Ante
Gotovina in a 1995 Croatian military operation known as 'Operation Storm.'"
When asked if the prosecutor's office plans to indict Mr. Clinton and U.S.
officials,
Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for Mrs. Del Ponte, said: "We are working on the
basis of an ongoing investigation."
Besides Mr. Clinton, others named in the complaint are former National Security
Adviser Anthony Lake, former Deputy National Security Adviser Samuel Berger,
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter
Galbraith.
Fears that American officials and soldiers will be prosecuted for participating in
U.N.- backed peacekeeping efforts lie behind the Bush administration's threat to
scuttle the present U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.
The threat is part of a dispute involving a separate but similar U.N. tribunal,
the
International Criminal Court, which was modeled after the ICTY and opened its doors
last week. Both courts are based in The Hague.
The Balkans court angered U.S. officials two years ago when it acknowledged it
was looking into a similar complaint against NATO commanders for their role in the
1999 U.S.-led bombing campaign in Yugoslavia.
Court officials said at the time they felt obliged to look into all complaints
placed
before them, but they dropped the matter after a preliminary investigation.
Gen. Gotovina was indicted by the ICTY in June 2001 on charges that he
exercised "command responsibility" over a military campaign in which 150 Serbian
civilians were killed.
Secretly supported by the Clinton administration, Croatian forces launched a
massive three-day military offensive � known as "Operation Storm" � on Aug. 4,
1995, in which Croatia recovered territories occupied by rebel Serbs following
Zagreb's drive for independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
The Croatian World Congress, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that
advises the United Nations, said it believes neither Gen. Gotovina nor Clinton
administration officials are guilty of war crimes.
However, it said that if Mrs. Del Ponte insists on prosecuting Gen. Gotovina, then
American officials should be prosecuted in the interests of "evenhanded justice"
because they played a pivotal role in aiding the general's campaign in Operation
Storm.
The Croatian World Congress said the U.S. administration gave the green light
for the operation and provided diplomatic and political support for it.
But the NGO stressed that "the most just outcome would be to withdraw the
indictment against Gen. Gotovina."
The possibility that the Gotovina case will lead to U.S. officials being indicted
by
the ICTY worries some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the House Committee on
International Relations, said in a May 29 letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
that at committee hearings on the ICTY, "Testimony was presented at our hearing
questioning the factual basis for this indictment.
"It was brought to our attention that the ICTY may investigate U.S. officials for
potential command responsibility in connection with Operation Storm."
Mr. Hyde said the ongoing investigation in the Gotovina case poses "risks" that
U.S. officials would be prosecuted by the "U.N. tribunal for formulating or carrying
out
U.S. government policy."
Gen. Gotovina, 48, was the military commander of Sector South of the operation
that was responsible for the capture of the city Knin.
He is also accused by the prosecutor's office at The Hague of overseeing the
ethnic cleansing of 150,000 Serbs in Croatia who fled the military assault. He is
currently in hiding, his whereabouts unknown.
The United States provided military and technical assistance to Operation Storm
in order to deliver a defeat to then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's goal of
forging an ethnically pure "Greater Serbia."
Copyright � 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Return to the article
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