|
Open Letter to:
The Honorable Steven Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
The Honorable Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Dear Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs,
My name is Ivana Arapovic and I am a Canadian citizen as well as
Conservative Party member who enthusiastically supported the Conservatives
at the recent Canada's election. I am concerned with Canada's role in
establishing and supporting the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague and the fate of its current
detainees, especially Croatian General Ante Gotovina.
Amidst the numerous scandals in the ICTY - resulting in even 2 recent
deaths of its detainees (Babic and Milosevic) - Canada can no longer be
proud of being part of that criminal institution because it calls for the
new wave of crimes and unprecedented corruption in the region it deals
with.
Soon upon establishing the ICTY, its stated mission has been crumbling.
Instead of prosecuting the real war criminals so to bring the lasting
peace and stability in the Balkan region, the ICTY's chief prosecutor
Carla Del Ponte has become obsessed with equalizing the guilt between the
aggressor (Serbia) and the victim (Croatia and Croats from Bosnia and
Herzegovina) for the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
Hence, she indicted an innocent man on Croatian side, General Ante
Gotovina, who led the U.S. assisted operation Storm (Oluja 1995), and
ended the hell of Milosevic's dream about creating Greater Serbia across
the territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Carla Del Ponte imagined General Ante Gotovina would be an appropriate
political "counterpart" for Slobodan Milosevic and other Serbian war
criminals such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, although the former
defeated them and stopped their very crimes. His operation, because of
which he is currently awaiting trial in The Hague, was evaluated by the
western military experts as one of the cleanest ones in the contemporary
Western military history. It caused a minimum of the incidents, given its
large scope and an unfavorable balance of forces in the region in which
only Milosevic's frenzied butchers were fully equipped for the war. The
Serbs who fled the country during that operation were ordered to do so by
their own leadership; Croatian authorities invited them to stay and
respect Croatia as their own homeland. However, General Ante Gotovina has
been hunted for since July 2001, captured in December 2005, and
transferred to The Hague for "command and control over all Croatian forces
during Operation Storm." According to the UN website, he's still "at
large," and was even charged in his initial indictment for murdering 2
"victims" who were later found to be alive.
I have very serious concerns now.
* Babic and Milosevic, Serbian war criminals died in The Hague under
mysterious circumstances, regardless of what one may think about their
final judgment. Given Carla Del Ponte tried to equalize the Serbia's
crimes with the Croatia's ones at any price, it is reasonable to assume
that the fanatical lady might try to equalize their death toll in The
Hague as well. General Ante Gotovina is in danger.
* Serbian press even accuses the ICTY of having poisoned Milosevic.
Will Carla Del Ponte be forced now to appease the fierce criticism against
her, and endanger lives of Croatians currently imprisoned in The Hague,
especially that of her key scapegoat General Ante Gotovina, so to calm the
Serbs? Please assist us in providing an urgent confirmation that General
Ante Gotovina as well as others are safe in The Hague. We cannot trust the
ICTY's sources. This is an urgent step, and an honorable thing for Canada,
the country which helped establish the ICTY, to do.
* Judging from Carla Del Ponte's previous practice, now with Milosevic
gone, and Karadzic and Mladic never being captured, she will do anything
to keep the ICTY running, even at the expense of justice. Her only hope is
the trial against General Gotovina, and his criminalization for that
matter, if she wants to maintain her shady business. If she was able to
accuse an honorable man such as General Ante Gotovina, she's capable of
causing him any other damage for the ICTY to survive the current crises.
Unfortunately, no one raises this issue. The detainees in The Hague are
practically in her mercy. Collaborationist Croatian government, comprised
of neo-communists and plain opportunists, has also proved to be eager to
assist Carla Del Ponte in all her demands. These demands have included
silencing the press, discrediting the men whom they would identify as
"politically suitable" targets for indicting (by criminalizing them in
media and elsewhere in all possible ways), intimidation of the opponents
(the indictments have been raised against Croatian journalists and
penalties ordered for their "contempt" of the Tribunal!), and so on. Their
irrational objective to get the clients for Carla Del Ponte are
accompanied by lucrative prizes to those who collaborate, which resulted
in several cases of corruption among both prosecutors' and defense teams,
in "guilt by association" and yet unseen slandering of innocent people.
There are several cases of defense lawyers working against their clients
in order to support her claims and, of course, collect the lucrative
salaries which they would not get otherwise through their legal practice.
(Click here for the types of corruption the ICTY
makes possible.) No one really cares about justice or truth in that
tribunal, and for the detainees awaiting trials. Even by the rules on
detainees, every access to information by independent media has been
blocked; otherwise, the detainees will suffer the ban on visits by their
family or friends. No one really knows anymore what's been going in that
tribunal, or no one who would be interested in letting us know dares to
say. Everyone is intimidated and silenced, otherwise, the ICTY can always,
in collaboration with respective governments (especially in the case of
Croatia), criminalize whomever they like.
* The ICTY has lost every social responsibility and credibility. It
causes great social divisions within the countries and encourages new
conflicts in the region. Croatian government, in particular, uses The
Hague's tribunal to pursue its own opportunist agendas without concern for
real lives and real justice. Carla Del Ponte supports Croatian government
(which is eager to get the seat in European parliament and avoid the
accountability for failed electoral promises in Croatia) so that Croatia
may enter the EU. On the other side, Croatian government supports Carla
Del Ponte in maintaining her unprecedented power over a country with still
fresh wounds from recent wars. (Croatia's deficit, economic policy
failures and corruption were not so badly negative even in the worst war
time as they are now.) There is no other explanation for Carla Del Ponte's
tyrannical power in accusing innocent people, as well as that of
neo-communist and corrupt government in Croatia who assist her, but the
fact that both the ICTY and Croatian Government that pledged
"unconditional cooperation" to The Hague became deeply corrupted.
Otherwise, they have a different story for everyone, while their misdeeds
against innocent people are just outrageous and consistently present on
the record. Another explanation for their power abuse might be, it's
Canada and such other mature democracies who blindly support the ICTY,
which should no longer be the case.
* Carla Del Ponte's hunt for General Ante Gotovina, her prime client,
resulted in total distortions of Croatian's war for independence from Serb
dominated communist Yugoslavia. Hence, we cannot read almost anywhere
about Serbian so-called civilians and their armed forces, armed jusqu'aux
dents; or those innocent civilians on both Serbian and Croatian side who
opposed Milosevic's agenda and lost lives for that reason in Serbian
hands; about Croatia's 10,000 victims (versus alleged 150 Serbian
civilians who died in operation Storm); Serbian/Yugoslav army tanks
running over their own civilians while withdrawing the troops in haste as
Oluja escalated; remaining Serbian revanchists still fighting Croatian
forces and using the civilians as human shields; or Croatian superhuman
effort to escape murderous butchers supported by Milosevic's forces; or
about innocent Croatian lives who lost lives under Serbian occupation as
well as during liberation (a far greater number of Croatians than Serbs
died in operation Storm, who were also civilians or soldiers quickly
mobilized for defense); all this within internationally recognized
Republic of Croatia. In Croatia's war for freedom, Croatia had no army.
The civilians were becoming soldiers overnight and were losing their lives
for the lack of military training against the 4th military power in
Europe, which was Yugoslav army under Milosevic's command and control.
It's been an established truth that General Gotovina's military
professionalism significantly reduced the number of casualties, both among
non-Serbian and Serbian civilians, as well as inexperienced, poorly armed
Croatian soldiers, and he led Croatia to a just victory. By 1995, he was
ready to serve the final blow to Milosevic's forces and stop the genocide
in the immediate war zones, with the assistance of the U.S. If there were
crimes committed by soldiers driven mad by superhuman misery under
Milosevic's 5-year bloody aggression, none of those was commanded or
perpetuated by General Ante Gotovina. He would not lose his control and
calm, and he knew international rules, given he served in the French
foreign legion. However, he could not control all his troops during such
extensive operation as was Oluja. Yet, he ordered for all Croatian cases
of crimes to be prosecuted by relevant authorities.
* Croatian General Ante Gotovina is not a vengeful person, which also
proves the fact that a great number of Serb war criminals were granted the
amnesty following Croatia's victory. Only the righteous and just winner
might have done that.
* Croatian government, or diplomacy, doesn't provide the international
community with the truth on Croatian Homeland war. It does what Carla Del
Ponte says: discredits her potential or current victims. It is a disgrace
that Croatian Government assisted in criminalizing those who made it
possible for them to live in peace and freedom. They are aware of great
injustice they have done to the General Ante Gotovina, and it is too late
for them to face the truth, given their Machiavellian instinct: they know
they destroyed human lives beyond repair and they will look to finish the
job so not to fear any opposition. It is evident from their dirty
campaigns against anyone who opposes them. They seek to make sure they
control everything: from media (which is explicitly forbidden to write
anything critical of the ICTY's faults, no matter how documented
criticisms may be) - to the General's defense team. The communist practice
in intimidating everyone who dares to oppose the blind requests by Carla
Del Ponte and their joint criminal enterprise that the ICTY became, found
a fertile soil in the country that never really transformed itself.
Croatia led the war against Serb aggressor but never found time for its
fair encounter with communist habits still dying hard in Croatia. Hence,
General Ante Gotovina will not get a fair trial at neither ICTY's nor
Croatian tribunal. For the last 4-5 years, since the indictment against
him has been raised, they had enough time to make sure he's "guilty."
* To understand the scope of this injustice, please imagine how it
would like if Canada responded to the terrorists in the way Croatian
government (including its president) responded to the ICTY's requests to
prosecute the man who defeated Milosevic's terrorists in Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is no longer appropriate for Canada to support
the ICTY.
Dear Prime minister and Minister, given that nearly every organized
campaign for the truth about Carla Del Ponte's brutal power has been
discouraged in all possible ways, by means of intimidation, serious
threats, or corruption and opportunism, I appeal to you to take an urgent
action and stop the ICTY.
In the name of Canada's honor, and true universal justice and humanity
that Canada seeks to contribute to the international community, please
make sure that General Ante Gotovina and other innocent ICTY's detainees
are safe.
I also appeal to you for the false indictment against General Ante
Gotovina to be dropped immediately. The mockery of Carle Del Ponte's
justice court is just unbearable at seeing the innocent man imprisoned in
her personal business enterprise without any accountability whatsoever on
her part.
General Ante Gotovina, and certainly not only him, has been trapped in the
ICTY. All information on his fate is controlled by Carla Del Ponte as well
as Croatian government and other parties they deem loyal to them.
How it came to this? The documentation in communist offices is just as
easily forged as human lives destroyed, which is how Gen Gotovina was
transformed from a hero into the suspect for crimes. Carla Del Ponte
congratulated Savo Strbac, the former Greater Serbia participant and the
ICTY associate, for the "documentation" he collected against Croatian
generals in 2001. She told him he worked "very hard" which was reported in
the press, and resulted in the indictment against General Ante Gotovina,
among others.
Canada prides itself for spreading its values internationally, and for
being at the forefront of the effort to play a positive international
role. This is an international issue with bearing on common values, and
national and global security in the 21st century.
If the criminal enterprise against General Ante Gotovina, which was
orchestrated by the ICTY, opportunist Croatian government and Serb war
criminals such as Savo Srbac, continues, it will give a wrong message to
the terrorists and murderers in the future. It will strip us of the right
to defense.
For more information about each and every one of the above mentioned
perpetuators in the ICTY's shameful enterprise, please visit my website at
http://voiceofcroatia.net
Ivana Arapovic
Montreal, QC
|