Press Realeses

Date: 7/22/2002, Type: Press Realeses, Media: No data

It was with great surprise that I read the comments of Mr. Ivan Zvonimir Cicak in his column of 20 July 2002 regarding my client, General Ante Gotovina. In his column, Mr. Cicak accuses General Gotovina of "unacceptable cowardice," for his failure to surrender to the Hague Tribunal, and alleges that General Gotovina is "unprepared to sacrifice himself for Croatia to the end."

My surprise arises from the fact that, until this point, Mr. Cicak has several times defended General Gotovina to Western reporters and told them the truth: that there is no evidence to suggest that General Gotovina is guilty of war crimes or ethnic cleansing.

For example, Mr. Cicak told Newsweek that, "I cannot find a single document or fact which points to Gotovina" as the man who ordered atrocities.

As the former head of the Croatian Helsinki Committee and a man who investigated alleged human rights violations after Operation Storm, Mr. Cicak`s support for General Gotovina`s innocence has been an important indicator to international observers that the indictment of General Gotovina by Carla Del Ponte is in fact a great injustice.

I wish to publicly express my appreciation to Mr. Cicak for his principled stance with respect to my client.

Unfortunately, I must also express my strong disapproval of Mr. Cicak`s characterization of General Gotovina as a "coward" and his claim that General Gotovina is "not prepared to sacrifice himself for Croatia to the end."

With these statements, Mr. Cicak suggests that General Gotovina`s decision to refuse to surrender himself to the ICTY is borne out of selfishness. I wish to assure him that, just as he sacrificed himself in 1991 through 1995 by putting his life in danger for the defense of his homeland, General Gotovina is sacrificing himself to this day for his homeland and for every one of the soldiers who served under his command.

General Gotovina was indicted as a symbol of the Croatian Armed Forces, because the indictment does not allege that General Gotovina personally committed war crimes, but that the "Croatian Armed Forces" under his command committed ethnic cleansing.

He refuses to allow Carla Del Ponte`s office to defame the honor and integrity of so many men who fought with him under his command and who sacrificed their lives in defense of their country.

General Gotovina`s actions are not motivated by a fear of a trial, but rather by the fact that he is suspicious of a tribunal where the Prosecutor has twice now violated his fundamental human rights: first by wrongfully indicting him, and then by refusing to withdraw the indictment.

Let me remind Mr. Cicak that it is Carla Del Ponte who is currently in serious violation of international law. International law demands that a prosecutor withdraw an indictment if she knows that it is no longer justifiable or if there is insufficient evidence to support the indictment.

As Mr. Cicak knows so well, there is no evidence to support the accusations that General Gotovina is responsible for ethnic cleansing.

More importantly, Madam Del Ponte also knows this very well, yet she continues to ignore her obligations under international law.

General Gotovina refuses to cooperate with the ICTY because he believes that the charges against him are the product of a highly politicized institution that wishes to convict him in order to prove that "all sides were equally guilty" of war crimes.

Let me further remind Mr. Cicak that General Gotovina is not alone in his belief that international tribunals can be highly politicized: the United States has refused to endorse the new International Criminal Court precisely because it believes that such international tribunals can be highly politicized and threaten to bring false allegations against U.S. citizens for purely political purposes.

General Gotovina is no more a "coward" for refusing to participate in a politicized process than is George Bush for refusing to submit U.S. citizens to the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court.

General Gotovina has sacrificed much in the past year fighting for the honor of his Army and his homeland.

Indeed, I doubt very much that Mr. Cicak believes that General Gotovina`s life for the past year has been worthy of a General who liberated his country and his people.

He is prepared to sacrifice himself even further.

If Carla Del Ponte were to tell General Gotovina that he would never have to serve a day in jail and that he would immediately be a free man if he would simply plead guilty to the charges against him, General Gotovina would reject her offer.

He would rather go to trial and risk spending the rest of his life in jail, rather than defame himself and the Croatian Armed Forces by admitting to something that was not true.

Does this sound like a man who is selfish and "not prepared to sacrifice himself to the end for Croatia?"

Who is, therefore, the real coward? A man who would rather risk spending time in prison than admit to something that neither he nor the Croatian Armed Forces did? Or a prosecutor who refuses to withdraw an indictment she knows is unjust, because she fears embarrassment?

Again, I thank Mr. Cicak for publicly stating that there is no evidence to support the indictment of General Gotovina.

I hope that Mr. Cicak, as a human rights activist, will fight to protect my client`s rights under international law to have that unfounded indictment withdrawn.

Respectfully,

Luka Misetic