General Ante Gotovina
I do not apologise if my posts on the Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac ICTY processes render my readers giddy. If the Generals can suffer incarceration pining for liberty and justice they deserve, tolerating with dignity the exasperating concoctions of theories the prosecution keeps churning out like there’s no tomorrow with vicious force then I continue harbouring the need to write on the issues of justice and truth over and over again.
Regretfully, the international criminal justice pathways (especially where the Prosecution loses or doesn’t have a reasonable compass of justice) exert such effects that one finds oneself needing to visit and revisit, over and over again, the matters before the court. All this, beckoning justice to finally arrive and set the Generals free.
The case of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac is in all probability one of the first cases ever (in the world) to deal with the assessment of complex targeting decisions involving artillery shelling against a range of military targets in populated areas during a military operation for the liberation of occupied territory. It is a case that will affect the whole of international community and has extraordinary importance for future operations and conflicts. But, besides that, it is a case where the Prosecution seems to be pulling “tricks” willy-nilly out of their sleeve in order to convict the Generals where there is no evidence for that or where there has been no due process afforded to the accused. And further more, this case touches the whole nation of people – Croatia – their dignity, their human right to defend themselves from aggression, their right to self-preservation, their right to live on their own land.
By many indications from the ICTY Appeal Chamber it seems most likely that Gotovina and Markac appeal will be upheld. That is, the Trial Chamber judgment of participation in joint criminal enterprise and deportation of Serbs from Croatia in relation to the liberating Operation Storm (August 1995) will most likely be overturned by the Appeal Chamber. Joint criminal enterprise was defined (alleged) by the Trial Chamber as unlawful or excessive artillery shelling during Operation Storm designed to drive the Serb population out of Croatia. The Trial Chamber made that judgment against the Generals using their own made-up and impossible rule, which said that any artillery shelling that fell beyond 200 meters from military target was unlawful.
As the Appeal progressed it became more and more clear that the judgment of joint criminal enterprise and deportation of Serb population from Croatia cannot hold water. It cannot stand on the evidence in court and it cannot stand on any international standards of military operations of the same kind. So, another fishing expedition against the Generals began: could the Appeal Chamber perhaps find them guilty of alternate modes of liability or something else?!
On 31 August Gotovina’s defence has filed a reply to ICTY Prosecution’s brief on why the Croatian Generals should be found guilty of alternate modes of liability.
Gotovina’s defence in its reply to the prosecution brief on alternate modes of liability, like Markac’s defence, claims that the Trial Chamber judgment (April 2011) contains no grounds whatsoever for the Appeal Chamber to find Gotovina guilty of aiding and abetting a joint criminal enterprise or for his command responsibility.
Gotovina’s defence seeks acquittal of all responsibility should the Appeal Chamber find that he was not a member of joint criminal enterprise. It concludes its reply to the prosecution brief on alternate modes of liability with:
“The Trial Chamber made none of the findings necessary to convict Appellant for aiding and abetting or command responsibility. If the Appeals Chamber finds that Gotovina was not JCE member and not liable for unlawful artillery attacks, it should overturn his conviction and enter a Judgment of not guilty on all counts.
If the Appeals Chamber were to consider that it has jurisdiction to consider Gotovina’s responsibility under these modes of liability, it should grant leave to the Appellant to be heard orally in relation to these alternative modes of liability.”
Indeed, the original trial (April 2011 judgment) provided no findings for the conviction of aiding and abetting joint criminal enterprise or command responsibility (for which the Prosecution says the Generals should be convicted if original conviction of participating in joint criminal enterprise and unlawful artillery shelling is defeated on this Appeal).
The ICTY prosecution had the Trial Chamber wrapped around its politically charged finger it seems. There’s no other way to explain the extensive errors it made in April 2011 when it found that Croatian artillery shelling were unlawful. Let’s for a moment put aside the fact that Operation Storm saw no civilian casualties confirmed as such during the Trial hearings, and let’s just remember that some 95% of Croatian artillery shelling during Operation Storm fell within 200 meters from target. This was such highly professional military operation that not many world military commanders from 17 years ago could boast of.
And yes, if the Appeal finds that artillery shelling was indeed lawful then the joint criminal enterprise and deportation of Serbs falls in the water – no crime committed. So, how can the Prosecution seek that the Generals be then found guilty of aiding and abetting a crime which did not happen?!
If I ever came across a political skunk – this is it!
The Prosecution’s viciousness goes further, even. It wants the Croatian Generals to also be found guilty in line with command responsibility for individual crimes committed by individual soldiers (who were under their command during Operation Storm) after Operation Storm finished and after Gotovina was no longer in Croatia but in Bosnia saving Bihac from Serb occupation, saving more than 180,000 lives and stopping a second “Srebrenica” massacre by the Serbs.
During the Trial the Prosecution said the Generals were guilty of joint criminal enterprise because some artillery shelling was not within 200 meters from target. This is likely to be defeated by the Appeal.
During the Appeal the Prosecution wants the Generals to be found guilty of alleged crimes never tested in court and – of contemptible personal behavior of individual soldiers hundreds of kilometers away from the Generals at the time. It must be utterly horrendous for the Croatian Generals to have to put up with such profound injustice.
Whatever happens in the ICTY for the Croatian Generals Gotovina and Markac – they were, they are, they will remain heroes of independent and democratic Croatia. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)