[Ezekiel2517]

Actually, Hoplite, you need to read the first Gotovina indictment and then compare it to the second. In the first indictment, the charge is that Gotovina ethnically cleansed 150,000 from Croatia. Then after Galbraith testified in the Milosevic case and effectively destroyed the indictment, the prosecutor amended the indictment to argue that the destruction of private property AFTER THE OPERATION amounted to ethnic cleansing in that it prevented Serbs from RETURNING TO THEIR HOMES. Thus, Del Ponte is employing a "get Gotovina at any cost" prosecution. Her problem, however, is that she has indicted Croat generals Cermak and Markac for the same crimes, and in her most recent indictment of Cermak she claims that he took over for Gotovina immediately after the military portion of the Operation was completed (August 6th). Thus, Gotovina is not responsible for the destruction of private property for which Del Ponte has indicted him. All of this only provides further proof that Gotovina is right, in that his prosecution is political and not legal. And it provides further proof of why the U.S. should never join the ICC.

[Hoplite]

The fact that Cermak and Markac are also indicted for crimes perpetrated against Krajina Serbs doesn't get Gotovina off the hook - there's no reason whatsoever not to try each and every Croat, from the murderers who pulled the triggers, up to and including Gotivina, who either planned, abettet, or failed to hold the murderers accountable for their crimes, as part of the conspiracy to commit the crime of the ethnic cleansing of those Serbs who remained behind after their more prudent fellows had fled.

And I'd counter that Croatia's inability to come to grips with it's past is a reason to keep it out of NATO and the EU, until such time as it treats murderers, and those who protect them, like the common criminals they are.