LETTER TO BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR

by Brian Gallagher, Jasna Celic, Marko Krznaric

The following letter was handed this afternoon to 10 Downing Street.

 

5 August 2005

Prime Minister Tony Blair
10 Downing Street,
London,
SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister

We are writing to you on behalf of ourselves and concerned members of the Croatian community in London as well as friends of our community.

We are concerned over the indictment of Croatian General Ante Gotovina and other Croatian Generals by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague as well as British policy towards Croatia. Today is the tenth anniversary of the commencement of Croatia’s Operation Storm, effectively controlled by the United States in 1995, which liberated large amounts of territory and was instrumental in saving Bosnia-Herzegovina. It stopped Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and brought about the Dayton Peace Accords.

As you are aware, the British government has prevented Croatia from starting negotiations to join the European Union due to Croatia failing to hand over General Gotovina. However, no evidence has been made public suggesting that the Croatian Government is deliberately not trying to find General Gotovina.

We wish to bring to your attention a number of troubling aspects of the indictment against General Gotovina. As is evident from the indictment, the Tribunal is characterising Operation Storm as a criminal enterprise.

Firstly, the Tribunal itself has contradicted the charges against General Gotovina in their evidence at the Milosevic trial. In particular, we refer to Peter Galbraith’s testimony for the prosecutors in which he explicitly stated that no ethnic cleansing took place - charges that are at the heart of the indictment. If the ICTY prosecutors are unconvinced by their own charges, why should anyone else be?

Furthermore, it is well known that Operation Storm was in effect controlled by the United States in order to stop the Greater Serbia project and to bring peace. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was in Srebrenica recently as part of the commemoration of the atrocity that occurred there ten years ago. He spoke of the failure of the international community. It is worth noting that the UN safe haven of Bihac in Bosnia-Herzegovina was besieged was by Serbian forces; had it fallen a Srebrenica style massacre would have followed. Operation Storm saved Bihac from that fate. Without the Croatian action, thousands would have perished at Bihac.

President Bill Clinton in his autobiography points out that the United States had authorised a private military company to improve and train the Croatian military. He points out that he was “rooting” for the Croats during Operation Storm and quotes a Western diplomat as saying that the United States used Croatia as a proxy. As the ICTY is saying that a criminal enterprise took place, it would also be appearing to suggest that President Clinton “rooted” for that. This is not true, and I am sure you would agree that President Clinton acted properly to save the lives of thousands and to bring a terrible war to an end. His actions should not be smeared by the ICTY.

There are many other concerns regarding the indictments, such as the fact that Croat General Blaskic was convicted of many crimes he did not commit, as his appeal showed. This does not inspire confidence in the ability of ICTY judges to throw out bad indictments such as the Gotovina one. Further, there are concerns over the use by the ICTY of questionable evidence from Serbian officials who took part in the occupation of Croatia.

Characterising the liberation of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as a criminal act could well lead to territorial claims against Croatia by Greater Serbia proponents. The charges against Operation Storm, if they are upheld by a court that has already made serious mistakes in the past, could lead to instability in the region.

For that reason, and the other concerns over the Operation Storm indictments, we believe the United Kingdom should press for a review of these charges with a view to dropping them. We also believe that the United Kingdom should drop its objections to Croatia joining the EU for the same reasons; the indictment of General Gotovina cannot be considered reliable.

Further information is available from us should you want it. We hope you take our concerns seriously.

In closing, we recommend Croatia to you personally as a holiday destination. Dubrovnik, Istria and Dalmatia are considered some of the most beautiful parts of Europe, indeed the world. We are sure you would enjoy visiting Croatia with your family.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Gallagher

Jasna Celic

Marko Krznaric