Balkan justice joust

The Washington Times ^ | October 24, 2004 | By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

[Jane_N]

The Bush administration is now demanding that the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, bring her prosecutions to an end.

Washington is insisting that war crimes cases relating to the Balkan wars of the 1990s be tried either in domestic courts or be given an amnesty. This shift not only marks a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward the ICTY, but more importantly, it is a fatal blow to the power and credibility of Mrs. Del Ponte.

In a recent interview, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton told me Washington is deeply concerned that the ICTY, rather than fostering ethnic reconciliation, has emerged as a threat to regional stability. "There is a very real risk that the ICTY prosecutions will not resolve the situation in the Balkans," Mr. Bolton said, "but will create new animosities that lead to tensions in the future."

He emphasized the Bush administration is demanding war crimes cases at The Hague be sent back to national domestic courts. Mr. Bolton and other senior State Department officials are finally realizing what Mrs. Del Ponte and her fellow left-wing globalists have refused to acknowledge: The ICTY has degenerated into a politicized tribunal that has failed to live up to its original mandate.

The irony is that the Clinton administration was largely responsible for creating the ICTY. Washington, however, now realizes that it has unleashed a Frankenstein monster. Instead of being an impartial body that seeks to punish those who committed or ordered war crimes, the tribunal has become a vehicle by which Mrs. Del Ponte has sought to rewrite the history of the Balkan wars. She has abused her office by issuing deeply flawed and weak indictments.

[Jane_N]

"The irony is that the Clinton administration was largely responsible for creating the ICTY. Washington, however, now realizes that it has unleashed a Frankenstein monster."

[johniegrad]

Imagine the implications if X42 became the unelected king of the world.

[Diogenesis]

"The irony is that the Clinton administration was largely responsible for creating the ICTY."

Secretary of Defense Cohen, Impeached Bill Clinton, Albright, and long-accepted CODE-level thief
and document destroyer National Security Adviser Sandy Berger,
holding court in the Ronald Reagan Building on April 25, 1999
The Impeached Bill Clinton: "We were all making comments
we shouldn't have about how the meeting was getting very boring.
So finally we decided we had to make like the monkey. Cohen
started this 'hear no evil,' and then I was next so I spoke no evil,
then Madeleine saw no evil, so Sandy Berger said, 'I'm evil.'" -

[oilfieldtrash]

I am glad I voted absentee ballot for Bush this election. I hope he keeps it up.

[Hoplite]

Washington, however, now realizes that it has unleashed a Frankenstein monster. Instead of being an impartial body that seeks to punish those who committed or ordered war crimes, the tribunal has become a vehicle by which Mrs. Del Ponte has sought to rewrite the history of the Balkan wars. She has abused her office by issuing deeply flawed and weak indictments. The most obvious example is the bogus indictment against fugitive Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina, the commander of a 1995 military operation that effectively ended the Croatian-Serbian conflict.

Well there you have it - Gotovina and the Croats are innocent of crimes during Operation Storm according to your article.

Have fun with your Serb friends on this one, and I'll leave it to you to try and figure out why the Bush administration continues to push for Gotovina, Mladic, and Karadzic's extraditions as well as keeping Serbia's feet over the fire in regards to their non-cooperation with the ICTY.

[Diocletian]

Yes, Kuhner gets the Gotovina case 100% correct.

[Hoplite]

Kuhner has made it onto FR before.

I'm not too concerned about his opinion on Balkan matters, nor, do I suspect, is anybody else.

[Diocletian]

Thx for the link, I'll dig into that article later and comment upon it.

[Decombobulator]

I don't think the author is saying that Gotovina's indictment is bogus because he shouldn't have been indicted, but rather because the indictment against him wasn't serious enough.

In any case the US's withdrawal of support for the ICTY is an interesting development but not unexpected considering the US is strongly opposed to the idea of a world court.

[Diocletian]

I don't think the author is saying that Gotovina's indictment is bogus because he shouldn't have been indicted, but rather because the indictment against him wasn't serious enough. Incorrect. You should familiarize yourself first with Kuhner's other articles on the topic, then familiarize yourself with the Gotovina "case".

[Doctor13]

It appears that these monkeys think it amusing to destroy a Christian people to appease the Muslim world.

[Doctor13]

Kuhner, a long-time defender of Croatia's war criminals, said nothing when Serbs were being sent to The Hague beginning with the trial of Dusko Tadic in 1996 to the present-day trial of Slobodan Milosevic. (Balkan justice joust, 24 Oct. 2004). Now that Croatia’s ox is being gored, it appears Kuhner is changing his tune when he wrote, "The irony is that the Clinton administration was largely responsible for creating the ICTY. Washington, however, now realizes that it has unleashed a Frankenstein monster. Instead of being an impartial body that seeks to punish those who committed or ordered war crimes, the tribunal has become a vehicle by which Mrs. Del Ponte has sought to rewrite the history of the Balkan wars. She has abused her office by issuing deeply flawed and weak indictments. The most obvious example is the bogus indictment against fugitive Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina, the commander of a 1995 military operation that effectively ended the Croatian-Serbian conflict"

A BBC report of 9 October 2003 stated that "The United States Government has offered a report of up to $5 million for the capture of a Croatian general accused of war crimes. Ante Gotovina is the Hague Tribunal's third most wanted man and is accused of arranging the killing of at least 150 Serb civilians and the expulsion of 150,000 others following a government operation in 1995 to recapture territory held by rebels." However, Chicago-based lawyer for General Gotovina, Luka Misetic, announced in Belgrade in 2003 that his client will never give himself up to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Many observers have suggested that the Croatian authorities allowed him to escape through their lack of action after the Tribunal brought charges against him.

As far as the Serbs are concerned, del Ponte is like a mad dog that has tasted Serbian blood and will not rest until she devours her prey.