America, The Hague and Ante Gotovina: The Railroading of a Former U.S. Ally

BODY: GREAT POWERS LIKE AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD to be too sentimental about foreign friends whose purpose has been served. But sometimes it pays to keep faith with individuals who collaborate successfully in one's policy goals. This is particularly so when those concerned know the inside story of U.S. covert activity and when their fate sets a precedent that jeopardizes U.S. personnel. Such is the case of the former Croatian General Ante Gotovina, arrested in Tenerife in December for alleged war crimes and now in prison at The Hague. Gotovina's arrest was widely welcomed. Even the Croatian government was delighted, since the failure to apprehend him had served as a reason, or excuse, to delay Croatian membership of the European Union. He had been on the run since 2001, when he was first indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Aptly for a man whose name translates as "Tony Cash," Ante Gotovina had a high price on his head -- $5 million from the U.S. State Department alone. Gotovina was made for the role of international ogre. At different times a French legionary, soldier of fortune in South America, "muscle" in the political underworld of Paris, he was the kind of shady swashbuckler that the world of NGOs, diplomats, and international lawyers loves to hate. Gotovina was also no fool. He had a shrewd idea that he would never gain a fair trial. So he disappeared. Or more precisely he "appeared" wherever it was convenient to locate him. The ICTY chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, claimed that she "knew" he was in Croatia. In September 2005, she also knew that the Vatican "knew" exactly which Croatian monastery he was in. This turned out to be completely wrong. When he was arrested three months later, Gotovina's passports revealed that he had been in Tahiti, Argentina, Chile, China, Russia, the Czech Republic, Mauritania, and Mauritius, but not Croatia. By now, though, Gotovina was notorious. His name was uttered in the same breath as those of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. But unlike the butchers of Sarajevo and Srebrenica, Gotovina is not accused of ordering anyone's murder, let alone genocide. The military operation, "Storm," conducted by Croatia in early August 1995 to recover territory, the so-called Serb Republic of Krajina (SRK), occupied by rebel Serbs supported by Belgrade, was an act not of aggression but of self-defense. The indictment mentions 150 Serb civilians as having died. These deaths were caused by Croat civilians bent on revenge, while Croatian police did nothing to help. That was, indeed, shameful. But it happened after the conclusion of the military campaign, not during it. Responsibility for maintaining order had been formally transferred by the Croatian government from the military to the civil authorities. Gotovina himself was no longer even in the area. He had joined Muslim and Croat forces in the continuing campaign within Bosnia. Despite these facts, which are not contested, Gotovina is now accused by the court of a series of crimes which could result in his lengthy incarceration. The explanation lies in the opening section of the indictment. This describes Operation "Storm" as part of a "joint criminal enterprise, the common purpose of which was the forcible and permanent removal of the Serb population from the Krajina region." The question, though, is: If "Storm" was indeed a "criminal enterprise," were high officials of the United States not also morally, and even criminally, culpable? IN FACT, EVEN TO POSE THE QUESTION exposes the foolishness and injustice of the case. The United States does not participate in or close its eyes to war crimes. Yet the U.S. certainly encouraged, assisted, and monitored "Storm" at every stage. The various accounts of what happened -- official and unofficial -- make that crystal clear. The CIA knew what was happening, because it had provided the intelligence and technical support to make it happen. The Pentagon knew, because approved U.S. military advisers were involved. The White House and the State Department knew, because since the previous year's Washington Agreement it had been U.S. policy to create a Croatian-Bosnian military alliance to roll back Serb territorial gains, so as to make a just peace possible. One should recall the dire position. After four years of aggression, Greater Serbia had come to occupy 70 percent of Bosnia and a third of Croatia. Britain and France had vetoed America's plan to lift the arms embargo against Bosnia and to launch air strikes at Serb forces. The UN "safe areas" in Srebrenica and Zepa had fallen. Thousands of Muslim men and boys were being massacred. Sarajevo was under continuous siege. Above all, another strategically vital "safe area" at Bihac in northwest Bosnia was under attack by Serb forces from Bosnia and from the SRK. The fall of Bihac would not only have created another humanitarian tragedy. It would have put the seal of victory on Serb aggression and prevented a viable Bosnia from surviving. Only in these circumstances was "Storm" finally launched. It was a minor military triumph, a textbook NATO-style operation based on overwhelming fire-power, real time intelligence, efficient logistic support, and the avoidance of civilian casualties. Within 72 hours Krajina was re-occupied. As Croatian and Muslim armies then attacked Serb forces inside Bosnia and U.S.-led NATO air strikes broke Serbia's will to resist, the outlines of a new, imposed peace settlement emerged. Flawed as the Dayton Agreement of that November was, it has since brought peace, reconstruction, and some return of refugees. A less satisfactory result of "Storm" was the mass departure of the Serb population -- probably between 80,000 and 150,000 people -- from the area. The indictment alleges that this was the whole purpose of the operation. But the exodus was ordered by the Serb leadership itself, for its own reasons. The text of the order from Milan Martic, so-called president of the SRK, was published some weeks later in the Belgrade journal Politika. It was endorsed by the SRK military chief, General Mile Mrksic, an appointee of Milosevic. The military evacuation was designed to retrieve heavy armor to be used in Bosnia. But why the civilians? The answer makes complete sense in Balkan terms. It was to advance Belgrade's policies of ethnic cleansing and re-settlement of Serbs in eastern Bosnia and Kosovo, parts of a planned Greater Serbia. Accounts given in evidence before the ICTY show exactly how the Krajina Serbs were funneled down to these areas. Whether the Croatian government was pleased or displeased to see the Serb exodus is unclear. President Franjo Tudjman had ambiguous feelings about the Serbs, as opposed to Muslims, whom he despised. But whatever Tudjman and others felt is irrelevant. The point has been made very clearly by Peter Galbraith, U.S. ambassador to Croatia at the time: "The fact is, the [Serb] population left before the Croatian army got there. You can't deport people who have already left." THE CHARGES AGAINST GOTOVINA are baseless. They are also in the widest sense politically motivated. They were brought primarily because the ICTY needed to prove to Serb opinion that it was not biased against Serbia. This, it was hoped, would make it easier to arrest Karadzic and Mladic, both still at large. But there were other motivations too. It suits many international interests to place aggressors and victims of aggression on an equal footing when rewriting the history of recent Balkan wars. The implication that all sides were equally to blame goes some way towards vindicating the egregious policy failures of the European Union and particularly Britain. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, the British Foreign Office has pursued a policy consistently favorable to Belgrade and hostile to Croatia and Bosnia. Britain has been the main block to Croatia's bid for EU membership. It is now very keen to see Gotovina sentenced. Britain is also a leading proponent of universal international jurisdiction, of which the ICTY was the forbear and the International Criminal Court is the full expression. The main loser from this trial -- apart from Gotovina -- is the United States. Its successful intervention to end the Bosnian war will be effectively criminalized. It will be exposed as an unreliable sponsor of potential surrogates in areas where it wants to exert influence. It will have its intelligence methods and sources embarrassingly revealed. On top of all that, if it is finally established that commanders of legitimate operations which incidentally lead to the exodus of civilian populations can be tried as participants in a criminal enterprise, it is difficult to see how future U.S. interventions can safely be conducted at all. So there is more at stake in The Hague than the rights of Tony Cash. Robin Harris was a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit. He writes on the Balkans and is the author of Dubrovnik: A History (London: Saqi, 2003).

Here is what the Serbs of Krajina and the Serbs of Belgrade said in August 1995 about who is responsible for the evacuation of the Serb population from Croatia. Notice no blame on Gotovina, Tudjman, Susak, etc. Later, when it became convenient to rewrite history, Milosevic and Co. once again blamed the Croats.

BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

August 24, 1995, Thursday

SECTION: Part 2 Central Europe, the Balkins; FORMER YUGOSLAVIA; CROATIA;
EE/D2390/C

LENGTH: 423 words

HEADLINE: KRAJINA SERBS;
Martic ordered Krajina evacuation - Tanjug

SOURCE: Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1359 gmt 22 Aug 95

BODY:
[24] The Speaker of the Serb Krajina assembly, Rajko Lezajic, has told a
press conference in Belgrade that the order to evacuate the population of
Krajina was issued by Krajina leader Milan Martic supported by the commander of Krajina Serb army, General Mile Mrksic. The following are excerpts from a report
by the Tanjug news agency:

Belgrade, 22nd August: The president of the assembly of the Republic of Serb Krajina RSK; in Croatia , Speaker Rajko Lezajic, said today that the decision on the evacuation of the population from Krajina , made by the RSK president
Milan Martic and the commander of the main HQ of the Serb army of Krajina Mile
Mrksic , was unreasonable.

At a press conference in Belgrade, also attended by the interior minister in the RSK government, Milivoj Vojinovic, the prime minister' s adviser Milan
Ivanic, and RSK commissioner for refugees Milan Trbulin, Lezajic stressed that
"as the president of the assembly, he was neither consulted nor informed about
that decision" .

Ivanic distributed to journalists copies of the order to evacuate the
population, signed by RSK President Milan Martic. He added that " the session of
the Supreme Defence Council did not have a quorum because, instead of five
members, only two attended - Martic and (army commander Gen Mile) Mrksic" .

Stressing that the assembly and the government do not recognize the
occupation of the RSK, Lezajic put forward RSK authorities' 10 requests to the
international community.

They requested the international community to prevent Croatia from executing its genocidal plans, to ensure Croatia's army leaves the occupied area of the
RSK and proclaim it demilitarized zone, to protect the lives of the Serbs who
remained there and the property of the Serbs who have been driven out, and
immediately to initiate a negotiating process between the RSK and Croatia to
reach an agreement on the return of the expelled people.

"We demand that the sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FRY be lifted immediately," Lezajic said and added that Yugoslavia "provided shelter
for the refugees and made utmost effort in caring for them" ...

Asked about the possibility of holding someone responsible for the fall of
the western part of the RSK, Vojinovic said that no order on military withdrawal
had been issued, but that Gen Mrksic offered to resign at a government session.

According to the president of the assembly, the resignation will be discussed
at a session of the assembly, which appointed the army commander...

LOAD-DATE: August 23, 1995

BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

August 29, 1995, Tuesday

SECTION: Part 2 Central Europe, the Balkins; FORMER YUGOSLAVIA; CROATIA;
EE/D2394/C

LENGTH: 667 words

HEADLINE: KRAJINA SERBS;
Belgrade Radio blames Krajina Serb leaders for defeat

SOURCE: Source: Serbian TV, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1730 gmt 26 Aug 95

BODY:
[11] A Belgrade Radio commentator has accused the former chairman of the Serb
Krajina parliament, Rajko Lezajic of sharing the blame for the loss of the
Serb Krajina to Croatia with the Serb Krajina President Milan Martic. Lezajic
had said that Martic should be tried for grand treason. The following is the
text of a report by Serbian TV quoting the commentary:

This is what a Belgrade Radio commentary says: In the centre of Belgrade a
few days ago, the gentlemen of the leadership of the expelled and, one would
also say, deceived people of the Republic of Serb Krajina, tried to explain to
the Yugoslav and world public that only one man and these warmongering
assistants of his are to blame for the Krajina drama. They said so and left,
convinced that they have achieved their aim, cleansed themselves of the blemish and shame, promising their expelled and decimated people to return them again,
albeit not to their homes, but the burned down remains there.

The leadership, that of the assembly or Milan Babic's government, was neither
consulted nor informed about the Krajina president's intention of ordering the
people to perform an act unprecedented in their long history. Thus, they said so
and offered an alleged corpus delicti: President Milan Martic's order about the people's withdrawal and its suffering.

This truly unreasonable act was preceded by, whether we accept it or not, a
too long introduction. Let us for a moment recall the way Krajina Prime Minister
Borislav Mikelic was overthrown and replaced, or - perhaps that is even better -
the course of the Geneva negotiations or the talks about accepting the Vance
plan for Krajina. The still living participant in all this and former chairman
of the Krajina parliament, Mr Rajko Lezajic, now says that he had no idea
about the real intentions of his president who, as he put it, should be tried
for grand treason. And, to make the wonder still greater, immediately after
that, he concludes that there has been no rift in the Serb Krajina leadership,
not even between him and Milan Martic.

In the recent events, immediately preceding the upset of the already former
Prime Minister Borislav Mikelic - whose option was a peaceful solution to the
Krajina issue - the most active person was the Krajina assembly chairman
himself. And now, for war mongering he accuses Milan Martic alone.

The fall of western Slavonia perhaps meant little to the Krajina assembly
chairman. Not a single bullet of defence was fired from the territory of the
Serb Republic where Radovan Karadzic's forces were deployed, although such an
obligation existed in the wake of forming the joint military council. We suppose
that Chairman Lezajic has not forgotten that it is his very signature that
footed the decision to form the joint military council. For Mr Lezajic, there
was no reason for a rift with Milan Martic even when at the time of the attack
on western Slavonia, his president moved the most elite unit from Okucani to a
place where it was threatened with liquidation.

It is a strange and certainly painful option chosen by Lezajic and his clique
if it is known - and it indeed is known - that the decision to interrupt
negotiations on economic cooperation with Croatia was, among others, initialled by him as well. How is it possible that nobody knew about the decision made by
their President Martic, when Croatia had been announcing the aggression for days
and the time and date standing on the proffered corpus delicti clearly show that
it was certainly known in advance that this will happen soon. The next question is on what the Krajina government and parliament did to prevent the drama there from happening and to provide the people with a more secure place from which
they could defend their century-old homes.

Perhaps the answer should be given - albeit honestly - by Krajina Assembly
Chairman Mr Rajko Lezajic himself, the deputies, and everybody who supported
such a policy, it is said in the Belgrade Radio commentary.

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