VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON

THE U.N. SPIRIT AT SREBRENICA LIVES ON AT THE HAGUE

by Brian Gallagher

The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1005 - 05.03.04

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague has often colluded with Serbian interests in much the same way UN personnel did throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia. This is obscured by Serbian complaints that the Tribunal is biased against them. Not only have they openly provided intelligence to the Serbs, they have not investigated major Serbian war crimes suspects in relation to crimes in Croatia. This is no doubt due to a political effort by the Prosecutor's office to revise and distort history to play down Serbian aggression and show that "all sides are equally guilty".

The attitude of the Office of the Prosecutor can be clearly seen by their views on Srebrenica. The UN has been condemned and held responsible by many for the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian men and boys. Indeed, the Milosevic trial itself has seen testimony damning the UN role at Srebrenica.

One would think then that UN personnel would be investigated for their involvement in war crimes by the Hague Prosecutor. Not a bit of it. On the contrary, the Prosecutor seems to think the UN's role was an innocent one. In 2000, the pro-prosecutor Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) wrote that a group called the 'Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinje' had - quite reasonably - asked the Prosecutor to investigate UN officials such as former Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali for complicity in the massacre at Srebrenica. Deputy Prosecutor Graham Blewitt had this to say: "Some common sense has to be exercised here." He elaborated further, "To suggest the UN in its role as peacemaker in the former Yugoslavia, and particularly in Bosnia, had motives which would amount to crimes is unrealistic."

A prosecution witness in the Milosevic trial, former Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Diego Arria, has claimed that UN personnel - including Boutros-Boutros Ghali - deliberately withheld intelligence from the security council. This may have prevented action to save lives. Arria had warned of a massacre at Srebrenica; he was ignored. He has called this the biggest cover-up in UN history. Will Graham Blewitt now start an investigation? I suspect not. UN officials will breathe easy.

The Office of the Prosecutor has often provided intelligence on their investigations to the Serbs - no doubt helping suspects elude justice. The Hague Prosecutor used to produce sealed indictments - meaning suspects could be arrested by surprise. In 2001, IWPR reported that the Hague Prosecutor handed over sealed indictments to the Bosnian Serb leadership in Bosnia-Herzegovina. They in turn promptly handed these indictments to the suspects, without arresting them. The suspects were thus alerted to the fact they were being hunted, and would no doubt adopt a low profile.

Deputy Prosecutor Blewitt's comments on the matter seemed more geared to exonerating Bosnian Serb leaders of blame for this leak. "I do not believe the government did it intentionally. The responsibility is on an individual in the government who wanted to slow down justice" he said.

The Bosnian Serb leadership have never been supportive of the Tribunal. What possessed the Office of the Prosecutor to hand over such sensitive material? And why did Blewitt minimize the responsibility of the Bosnian Serb leadership?

Had the indictments been leaked by the Office of the Prosecutor there would have been an outcry. But as they were leaked by the Bosnian Serbs - having been given them officially by the Prosecutor - there was no such outcry.

In 2003, The UK's Spectator magazine criticised Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte for handing over intelligence on the whereabouts of Radovan Karadzic to the Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic. The Spectator pointed out that Djukanovic was under investigation by Italian judges for directing a cigarette-smuggling ring and was facing an OSCE/Council of Europe investigation for allegedly nobbling a prosecution of alleged human traffickers high in government.

Another charmer that Del Ponte handed intelligence to was assassinated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindic, this time on Ratko Mladic. Djindic was lauded in the West for being a democrat and so on. In reality he was a Greater Serbia enthusiast and admirer of Radovan Karadzic. Not really the sort of person a prosecutor should give such intelligence to. Del Ponte claimed that Djindic told her he was going to hand over Mladic. She actually believed this. Given that he had not already done so and that in the supposed crackdown that followed his death Mladic was not arrested, it seems that Djindic and his 'reformers' took Del Ponte for quite a ride. Does the Hague Prosecutor still have any intelligence the Serbs don't know?

Then we have Savo Strbac and his 'Veritas' organisation - ostensibly an organisation providing information on the alleged wrongs to Serbs by Croats. Strbac and Veritas work closely with the Hague Prosecutor in order to prosecute Croats. This beggars belief. Strbac is an unapologetic believer in a Greater Serbia. His Veritas website - www.veritas.org.yu - carries Greater Serbia imagery on its homepage.

He was a senior official in the occupation 'Republika Srpska Krajina' (RSK) structure in Croatia between 1991-5. The RSK was set up on the back of ethnic cleansing and mass murder - including the destruction of Vukovar. It actively persecuted Croats. It was part of the "criminal enterprise" as related in the Hague's own Milosevic indictment. The Prosecutor has been working with Veritas since 1994 - when Veritas operated from occupied Croat territory. All investigations into Croats are compromised by Strbac's involvement.

Strbac himself was named in the Milosevic trial by a prosecution witness as head of a bodies exchange commission. During one exchange of bodies with Bosnia six of the dead the Serbs handed over were murdered for this purpose. It was stated that the commission was fully aware of this.

Yet Strbac and his organisation are considered perfectly suitable by the Prosecutor to assist in prosecuting Croats.

Its gets worse. The Prosecutor gave Strbac a 'Letter of Endorsement' to help raise funds for his organisation, which he proudly displays on his website. That says it all.

Serbs complain they are disproportionately targeted by the Prosecutor. In reality, not enough Serb war criminals have been indicted. The majority of Serbian war crimes in Croatia have not been investigated properly - if at all. How is it that Yugoslav Chief of Staff General Zivota Panic, who oversaw the destruction of Vukovar and the slaughter of Eastern Slavonia for months was left to live out his final years in peace, recently dying in his bed, undisturbed by Carla del Ponte?

In contrast, Croatian Chief of Staff Bobetko died in his bed with a dubious indictment for an alleged massacre that was on a vastly smaller scale than Panic's atrocities.

Clearly, the prosecutor is not operating on the basis of charging those responsible for the worst crimes. She must therefore be operating on a political basis - the UN one of "all sides are equally guilty".

When one considers all this, much becomes clear. We see that the UN policies in former Yugoslavia of colluding with Serbs have been carried over to the Hague Prosecutor. The result of all this is that those Serbs responsible for slaughtering thousands in Croatia, destroying cities and ethnically cleansing one third of the country have got away with it. Who, exactly, is demanding the bringing to book of all those - possibly thousands of - Serbs responsible for what happened to Croats? No-one. Certainly not the Hague Prosecutor.

The UN spirit at Srebrenica lives on.

© Brian Gallagher

My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightly in the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter at www.croatiafocus.com