Ante Gotovina
Posted on 03/13/2005 1:52:16 PM PST by Lukasz
Barring a last-minute breakthrough, Croatia faces being told it cannot start EU membership talks this week as planned, because it is not fully cooperating in finding a fugitive war crimes suspect, diplomats say.
Croatia, hoping to be the second former Yugoslav republic to join the European Union as early as 2007, was told in December that it could in theory start talks with Brussels on March 17 -- this Thursday.
But that green light was conditional in providing "full cooperation" with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in a manhunt for fugitive general Ante Gotovina.
And the Hague-based court's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte -- whose views will provide an important input to the decision to be made by EU foreign ministers on Wednesday -- has made it clear she does not believe Croatia's repeated protestations that it does not know whether Gotovina is.
"Despite all public and private assurances from Zagreb, Ante Gotovina remains within reach of the Croatian authorities," she said in a letter to the EU's Luxembourg presidency last week.
Gotovina, a 48-year-old retired general, is considered a war hero by many Croatians but is wanted by the UN war crimes court for the alleged murder of at least 150 ethnic Serbs during the final stages of Croatia's 1991-95 war. He is also accused of plundering Serbs' property during the war, during which Serb rebels opposed Croatia's breakaway from the former Yugoslavia.
Croatia leaders including President Stipe Mesic have travelled to Brussels in the last week to lobby the EU, stressing that they are already doing everything they can. In the increasingly tense diplomatic standoff, much has been made of the exact meaning of "full cooperation" by Zagreb with the ICTY.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said last week that he could foresee a green light to start talks even if Gotovina is not actually handed to The Hague. But any hopes generated in Zagreb by those comments were deflated later in the week when a "large majority" of EU states, in talks among high-level diplomats in Brussels, came out against starting talks as planned. Only a small group of countries -- Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia's fellow ex-Yugoslav republic Slovenia -- back Croatia's bid. Under EU rules, a decision to start membership talks needs unanimous backing from all EU states.
Croatia, whose EU credentials have been boosted notably by a huge influx of European holidaymakers and second home owners in recent years, has warned that its EU entry is crucial in a still-fragile Balkan region.
Neighbouring Slovenia -- among 10 mostly ex-communist countries which joined the EU last year -- backs that argument. It notes that a poll this month showed that almost half of Croatians do not believe they will benefit from EU entry.
"It could change the political mood in Croatia and have negative effects on Slovenia and the neighbouring countries," Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said on Friday.
The EU states' ambassadors will meet again in Brussels on Tuesday to prepare for the ministerial talks. Diplomats say they will agree a framework for the negotiations as a "sign of encouragement" to Zagreb. But unless Gotovina -- whose supposed whereabouts in recent weeks has included everywhere from France to Patagonia -- makes a sudden reappearance, Zagreb will have to put its EU hopes on ice.
"Miracles exist, but it is very unlikely at the current time that negotiations will start" on March 17, said one Brussels diplomat.
Ante Gotovina
Isn't Gotovina the Croatian Erwin Rommel? Who's going to give him up for a Spanish judge in the Hague?
It seems that EU does not object the proceed from the NAZI crimes being enjoyed by Croatian state and her citizens.
It seems that EU does not object the largest ethnic cleansing of 1990s Balkan wars. Everything is nice and dandy, except Gen. Gotovina's surrender to illegal tribunal in The Hague.
The fact is, if Croatia get admitted into EU before the victims of WWII Nazi genocide are remunerated and the victims of 199Os ethnic cleansing are allowed to return, EU will be on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.
Didn't the Krajina offensive avert a SREBENICA-STYLE SLAUGHTER of even greater proportions by Serbian troops and paramilitaries at the Bihac pocket? Isn't that one of the main reasons Washington greenlighted it in the first place?
Bihac was where pro-Yugoslav Muslims fought under Fikret Abdic against the Sarajevo/Izetbegovic regime. Once Krajina fell, these Muslims were ethnically cleansed into Croatia where they were trapped for awhile (Croatia kept them there), and they lived in terrible "chicken coup" conditions.
The Velika Kladusa Refugees
A particularly interesting, yet relatively unexamined, instance of political violence concerns the refugees created as a result of the actions of a breakaway Muslim faction led by the charismatic businessman Fikret Abdic during the war in former Yugoslavia. Under the leadership of Abdic, a group of about 25,000 refugees fled their town—Velika Kladusa in the Bihac pocket—twice during the war in Bosnia. (See timeline, Appendix 1) The first exodus occurred in late 1994 when the Bosnian government army defeated Abdic’s forces. That exile ended in early 1995 when the refugees formed an army to retake their hometown from the Bosnian 5th Corps, which was deployed by the Muslim-led government. When the Bosnian Army pushed Abdic’s supporters out of Bosnia a second time in August 1995, the exiles were unable to mobilize militarily. The refugees either returned peacefully or resettled to third countries. What accounts for the different outcomes in each case?
http://web.mit.edu/cis/www/migration/pubs/rrwp/5_militarized.html
Only if Clinton and US Generals hired by MPRI were clairvoyants and that is not very likely.
Operation Storm (Oluja in Croatian) was planned BEFORE alleged Srebrenica genocide took place in July 1995. MPRI was fully involved, as well as USAF (suppression of Krajina Serb Command and Control)
There are also other factual errors in your speculation. There were no Serbian troops in Bosnia. You refer to troops of Bosnian Serbs (BSA) and that is not same.
Bosnian Muslims in Bihac pocket were the enemies of Sarajevo Muslim government, not the Serbs in Bosnia or Krajina.
The fact is that Slick Willie GREENLIGHTED the biggest ethnic cleansing of 1990s Balkans civil war.
And that's where your reference to SREBRENICA kicks in.
SREBRENICA was drummed up as "genocide" only AFTER OPERATION STORM WAS FINISHED.
Srebrenica was used as a smokescreen to cover Clinton's involvement in this war crime.
Something tells me that you knew it already.
bump
The reason why it was greenlighted was that the powers that be in the ragion and outside interests wanted the war done by winter of 95. That was a showdown and everyone knew that the Croatians, Bosnian Croatians and Bosnian muslims could not defeat the Krajina Serbs and/or the Bosnian Serbs on their own.
The Serbs of Bosna were too well-versed in muslim and Croatian military doctrine to be defeated. NATO knew the weaknesses of the Bos Serb military and had the mean to exploit them, which they did. But, at the same time, what did not register on anyones horizon at C/C was the adabtibility of the Bos Serb Army to adjust.
Tbough, you are BS'ing everyone on here, evident in your past threads.
1) NATO's air-force
2) NATO's control over PR
3) MPRI training
etc, etc...
A hero, no doubt...a great man, no doubt. No wonder the UN and The Hague want him....
Once again, you get everything horribly wrong.
The Hague might be attempting to commission a new Balkan wars museum, they are just collecting their artifacts for the judicial display wing of the museum.
The Serbs could only do so much in offering them refuge since they were beginning to feel the strain. plus, the Krajina Serb leadership had become obtuse and incompetant.
Yeah, they were abandoned, and the ABiH 5th unleashed on them.
the 5th couldnt do much except in the initial assault. Many times, Serb troops would go home for a few days without coordination of how many are on pass/leave. Leaving many gaps and short on manpower.
And where is Abdic now? Why don't you tell everyone where Croatia keeps him now?
Gee, how did the Bosnian Serb forces adjust, by fleeing in a panic? And what was Croat and Bosnian military doctrine-fighting a vastly superior enemy with hunting rifles, molotov cocktails and homemade grenades(pre-1994, anyway)?
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