Crisis Strikes Government over Extradition of Generals
AIM Zagreb, July 9, 2001
Indictments issued by The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) against two Croatian generals led the post-Tudjman government into its gravest crisis so far. The sealed indictments arrived in Zagreb a month ago, but their existence was officially confirmed on July 6, when ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte visited Zagreb.
Unconfirmed reports say the indictees are Gen. Ante Gotovina, retired last year, and active Gen. Rahim Ademi. The charges are not known, but Ademi is allegedly charged with crimes committed in the Medak Pocket operation, for pursuing a scorched earth policy, when Croatian forces completely destroyed several Serb villages killing every civilian they found there. The ICTY's interest in Gotovina is linked to Operation Storm, in which he was one of commanding officers, but it is still not known what exactly he is charged with. Among other, he is allegedly accused of excessive use of artillery during the liberation of Knin. Ademi has expressed his readiness to go to The Hague, and it was reported that three years ago the Tudjman government barred him from talking with ICTY investigators. Gotovina is allegedly unprepared to respond to the court summons and can no longer be found at his regular address.
On July 7 the Croatian government, after a day of dramatic deliberation, voted to comply with the Hague court's demands and act on the indictments it was served. As expected, the decision caused a split in the ruling coalition. The Croatian Social Liberal Party of Drazen Budisa, formally the main partner of Prime Minister Ivica Racan's Social Democratic Party, was against the move. The party leadership stuck to its earlier position that no person charged simply for holding a commanding position should be handed over to the Hague court. They instructed their ministers to vote against extradition and to simultaneously hand in their resignations. It is not yet clear whether this means that the Budisa party is leaving the ruling coalition.
Announcing late in the night between July 7 and July 8 that the government had decided to comply with the Hague court's requests, the prime minister also said that he would ask the parliament to organize a vote of confidence in his cabinet. The Parliament is expected to do so on July 8. Racan knows that even if Budisa's Liberals turn their backs on him completely, he could still ensure support from the majority in the parliament. If he is wrong, new elections are unavoidable.
At this point it is hard to estimate how the Budisa party will vote in the Parliament. By opposing the Hague court, the party leadership has weakened both the ruling coalition and itself as well. Namely, of its six ministers only one followed his instructions. The others acted as they individually saw fit -- some disregarded the instructions completely, some abstained, and some supported the government decision but resigned for moral reasons. To justify his attitude and probably to prevent the rift in the party from deepening, Budisa now says that the contents of the Hague indictments was unacceptable. True, he admits he hasn't seen them, but still claims that they describe Croatia's military operations as criminal and say Operation Storm was a deliberate attempt to exile 150,000 Croatian Serbs, and that Croatia is charged with genocide.
Also opposed to the extradition was the Croatian Democratic Union, although a bill on cooperation with the ICTY was adopted five years ago, while it was in power. The bill says that Croatia has to fulfill the international court's demands. But the Union now wants a referendum, claiming the indictments as based on evidence that is not credible, and that the blame of the aggressor and the victim is being equalized.
Certain less influential rightist parties and organizations, as well as veterans' associations are announcing mass protests, riots, blockades of border crossings and major roads. They declared the government decision a coup and an act of high treason. If an attempt to extradite the generals is made, they say, they will paralyze Croatia. They claim that they will oppose extradition through all democratic means, but that other means should not be ruled out either. They told the government not to forget that they were and remain soldiers. What these threats mean at the height of a promising tourist season, on which the economic survival of the state depends, is not hard to guess. The prime minister said he will respond to violence with all legal means and that blockades of the roads this time around would not be tolerated.
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in a special address to the nation strongly backed the government's decision to respond positively to the demands coming from The Hague. Stressing that the decision was the only option, Mesic described the "mounting tensions and the atmosphere of a state emergency" as totally unacceptable. According to him, the indictments from the ICTY should have been expected, and added that the Croatian public still "does not know the full and actual truth about everything that happened and was done during the war." He called on all institutions and bodies of the state to demonstrate seriousness and responsibility, and on citizens not to succumb to provocations: "Do not trust those whose goal is to destabilize the country and avoid their personal responsibility," Mesic said.
The tumultuous Saturday in Banski Dvori heralded more tumultuous days in Croatia. It is generally believed that the Racan government was not at all prepared for the arrival of the Hague indictments, although it was obvious that their arrival was all but inevitable. The post-Tudjman government was given a 500-day grace period by the ICTY chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, but it failed to use that period adequately. It failed to properly use the one month that had passed from the arrival of the sealed indictments in Zagreb -- the prime minister, instead, sent his letter of protest to The Hague and went on vacation. Finally, he did nothing in the ten days that elapsed since Milosevic was transferred to Scheveningen, although it was clear to everybody what was to follow.
It appears that the current government was equally unprepared for the Hague challenges as it was at the beginning of its term of office. During a year and a half its only attainment was a painstakingly organized trial of Gen. Mirko Norac and the Gospic group. Other known crimes have not even been touched by the Croatian judiciary yet, though it was quite obvious that what Croatia failed to do would be done by the Hague court. The prime minister recently complained that the former government destroyed all evidence and that the Hague tribunal was in possession of documents no longer existing in Croatia. This is probably very true, but it is also beyond doubt that in regard to the War for the Fatherland the current authorities are using the same rhetoric as their predecessors. According to it Croatia waged a just, defensive, and a holy war, and nobody was allowed to say otherwise.
The public was also not prepared for the whole truth, primarily because it lacked political will. Belgrade accompanied the extradition of its war lord to The Hague by showing documentaries on Serb war crimes. In Croatia, there were no such shows.
The most powerful media outlet did not even attempt to inform the public in detail about the crimes the Gospic group was charged with, nor of findings at the Knin cemetery. The national TV instead served to promote rightist, anti-Hague groups and rallies.
The post-Tudjman, ostensibly reform-minded government, missed an opportunity to openly deal with Tudjmanism. The arrival of the Hague indictments marked not only a moment of truth, but the time to pay the bills. Unfortunately, the death of Franjo Tudjman has eliminated the possibility of holding the architect of crimes responsible for his misdeeds, as will be the case on the Serb side. The commander in chief is dead, and in his absence his generals, who merely followed his orders will be held responsible instead. In this respect, and only in this respect, the Hague indictments that arrived in Zagreb can indeed be viewed as unjust.
Jelena Lovric
(AIM)