[Nettime-bold] (Fwd) Letter to Bush re ICTY

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

This letter, perhaps, summarizes the resentement of Croatian-
Americans with the ICTY. With a few 'below the belt' blows, like 
critique of ICTY appointing judges "from non-democratic countries", 
it perhaps just adds fuel on fire against ICC within current US 
administration. Amidst the many times repeated mantras about 
Serbian aggression and Croatian victimization, the letter 
concentrates on the tribunal's main curious habit: to strictly 
demand ever more from those who showed their preparedness to 
comply, while increasing its leniency to those who stubbornly 
refuse to cooperate. This can discourage the supposedly good 
guys, I guess it's the point of the letter. But what do Croatian-
Americans want from Bush? To cancel funding to UN because of 
the ICTY? Now when Milosevic is in the dock?! It won't happen.
ivo


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From:           	jkraljic@gwtlaw.com

	September 7, 2001


President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.

		Re:	The International War Crimes Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia


Dear President Bush:

	I am the President of the National Federation of Croatian
Americans (NFCA), a national umbrella group whose member organizations
have approximately 130,000 members.

	The NFCA and Croatian-Americans in general have been following
with keen interest the proceedings brought before the International War
Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague (ICTY).  As you
are no doubt aware, Croats were one of the main victims of the war in
the former Yugoslavia waged by Serbia and led by Slobodan Milosevic in
the early 1990s.  As a result, we applaud the role of the ICTY and the
international community in bringing Serb war criminals to justice.

	Nevertheless, we are extremely perturbed with respect to some
recent actions taken by the ICTY and request you to direct the State
Department and other relevant government agencies to examine our
concerns.

	Last week, the ICTY announced that Biljana Plavsic, one of the
three leaders of the Bosnian Serb Republic, who has been indicted for,
among other things, genocide, complicity to commit genocide,
extermination, murder and willful killing, was released on her own
recognizance pending her trial.  No bail was set for the release nor was
any valid justification given for the release.

	Even more disturbing is that Ms. Plavsic is to be allowed to go
to Serbia.  Despite Serbia's surrender of former President Slobodan
Milosevic to the ICTY, Serbia continues to refuse to surrender numerous
indictees to the ICTY and has had a failing record when it comes to
cooperating with the ICTY.  Among others, Serbia refuses to surrender
Milan Milutinovic, who currently serves as Serbia's President, indicted
for crimes committed in Kosovo, and Veselin Sljivancanin, indicted for
crimes committed in Vukovar, Croatia.

	To release Ms. Plavsic and allow her to return to a nation which
shows no sign of fulfilling its international obligations is, to put it
mildly, a case of poor judgment, or, to put bluntly, a case of
stupidity.

	We are further concerned with the ICTY's failure to devote its
limited resources to its most important pending cases.  As you may be
aware, because of, among other things, the ICTY's limited budget,
defendants have been known to wait for more than a year from the time
they surrender to the ICTY until their trial.  The trials themselves
often last as long if not longer.

	Because of this, we believe the ICTY should concentrate on
indicting and prosecuting those who have committed the most heinous
crimes.  This is both logical and just.

	It is a well known fact that the overwhelming majority of crimes
committed in the wars in the former Yugoslavia were committed by Serbs,
led by Mr. Milosevic.  Despite this, we still today, more than 10 years
since the outbreak of the war in the former Yugoslavia, have yet to see
any indictment against Mr. Milosevic for crimes committed in Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, where approximately 220,000 people were killed
and millions were displaced.

	While the ICTY has promised to bring such indictments by
October, the reasons it did not do so before appear unfathomable.  The
ICTY has justified the delay in bringing the proposed indictments due to
the complexity of bringing charges against a former head of state.  Such
reasoning is simply disingenuous in light of the fact that the ICTY had
no trouble in quickly bringing indictments against Mr. Milosevic for
crimes committed by forces under his control in Kosovo.

	While the ICTY has been dragging its heels in efficiently
prosecuting Mr. Milosevic, it has seen fit to harass the Croatian
government over alleged crimes committed by Croatian armed forces in the
early 1990s.  The magnitude of these crimes pales in comparison to those
committed by Mr. Milosevic.  Recent indictments against Croatian
Generals Ademi and Gotovina, for instance, allege that forces under
their control killed, in the aggregate, approximately 173 civilians.
Though the life of each individual must be valued and though innocent
victims must see their day in court, one cannot, in light the ICTY's
financial restraints, justify the ICTY's all-out efforts to prosecute
such alleged crimes to the detriment of prosecuting the main culprits.

	These recent indictments have raised a great level of
indignation in Croatia against the ICTY and have placed the Croatian
government in a difficult position.  Croats see that their government is
fulfilling all of its international obligations while Serbia is not.
The ICTY's failures to properly put the horse before the cart, to bring
to trial and justice those responsible for the most egregious crimes
during the wars in the former Yugoslavia and, indeed, for commencing the
war with the premeditated intent to ethnically cleanse large portions of
Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, has led to increasing instability,
extremism and cynicism in Croatia which threatens the future of
democracy in that country.

	The ICTY, created by the United Nations Security Council, has
clearly not been subject to close oversight. I believe that this has led
not only to the problems noted above but also to such absurdities as
appointing judges to the ICTY from non-democratic countries and allowing
the use of hearsay evidence.

	I respectfully urge you to take such steps as are in your power
to endeavor to have the ICTY and its officials be accountable for their
actions and inactions.

							Respectfully,


							John P. Kraljic
							President,
National Federation of Croatian Americans

cc:	Carla Del Ponte, ICTY
	Graham Blewitt, ICTY
	

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