Selected quotes Operation Storm
"Over 175,000 Serbs from the region are believed to have fled, not by ethnic cleansing on the part of Croatian forces but by the call and propaganda of their own leaders."
The parliamentary elections in Croatia Oct 29th 1995, A report prepared by the staff of the commission on security and co-operation in europe.
“The Serb refugees were not forced from their homes at gunpoint and stripped of their jewellery and papers at the border….Their own Serb army and paramilitaries ran with them, or in many cases ahead, leaving the civilians in the lurch. There was no rape on the way, no separation of young men from women and children.”
“I remember being stunned at how quickly victims can turn into villains. In the town of Gibarac just inside the border of Serbia, I watched newly arrived Serb refugees being helped to find shelter by local relatives who went into homes and evicted Croatian families.”
Jonathan Steele June 14, 1999, The Guardian
“From journalists’ reports it appears that civilians fled out of fear rather than as a result of any deliberate Croatian army action. There appears to have been relatively little shelling deliberately targeted at civilians, although there were several incidents of looting of town centres by Croatian soldiers after the towns had been deserted.”
Balkanwatch – August 14th/1995 week in review August 7-13th 1995.
"In an unfortunate and premature assessment, U.N. officials - most notably Yasushi Akashi, the secretary-general's special representative to the former Yugoslavia - alleged that "massive" human rights abuses by Croatian authorities had taken place during the offensive. Evidence of widespread abuse has not emerged, however; the information available at the time was flawed or incomplete and required further investigation and corroboration.
In response to the Croatian Army offensive, (may 1st ’95) Serbian forces have retaliated against non-Serbian civilians. Rebel Serbs launched rockets carrying cluster bombs into downtown Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The attacks were meant to kill and terrorize the civilian population and, therefore, constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. In addition, Serbian refugees fleeing from the Croatian Army offensive in western Slavonia who have sought refuge in the Bosnian Serb-held city of Banja Luka have attacked Croats living in the area and have destroyed Catholic churches and monasteries in the region, killing or expelling clergy and nuns from the area. Croats living in Serb-controlled areas of Croatia have also been terrorized. Serbian and U.N. authorities have done little to prevent the persecution of Croats and other non-Serbs in Serbian-controlled areas of Croatia and Bosnia. "
Human rights watch, July 1995, vol 7 . no.11, regarding Operation Flash
"The feeling in many Western capitals is that the Krajina Serbs deserve whatever they get following their invasion of the Bihac pocket."
The New York Times August 1st 1995
"The mood in Knin is that Krajina's collapse is imminent.."
OMRI Daily Digest I,II, No. 150, 3 August 1995
"One cannot forget that Croatia's patience was severely tested by years of Serbian aggression..."
Klaus Kinkel, Germany's foreign minister
“It is amazing how Croat soldiers whose attack proceeded in as many as thirty directions and along about 100 kilometre-long frontline passed practically unhindered. Apart from rare exceptions such as parts of Banija and Kordun and surroundings of Gracac, everything went smoothly, and they entered towns without shooting a single bullet. And these towns were almost empty, because under still unclarified circumstances almost the entire Serb population had left "Krajina" and chose exodus.”
Gojko Marinkovic, Aimpress, 15 September 1995
"Croatia decided for military action aimed at renewing the integrity of its territory."
Czech President Vaclav Havel, 6th August 1995
“Mr. Chairman, let me refer briefly to the situation in the Krajina. The situation there since the Croatian invasion last week differs from that in eastern Bosnia. We have not heard reports of the kinds of atrocities and human rights violations that so quickly followed the fall of Srebrenica. "
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"International observers have reported scattered human rights abuses, but so far there have been no reports of the massive, systematic abuses we have seen in Bosnia. “
Statement by CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence John Gannon on Ethnic Cleansing and Atrocities in Bosnia Joint SSCI SFRC Open Hearing 9th August 1995
“Another case recently indicted by the ICTY—this one involving alleged war crimes said to have occurred at the end of the war in Croatia—also deserves close attention. The ICTY Prosecutor has indicted General Ante Gotovina in connection with crimes alleged to have been committed by Croatian military forces against Serbian civilian populations in the Krajina region. In the last days before the ceasefire that led to the Dayton Conference, the Croatian Military engaged in an offensive known as Operation Storm. As with the case of General Blaskic, serious questions remain with respect to whether the acts alleged were in fact undertaken with General Gotovina’s knowledge and authorization…”
"Again, the Gotovina indictment affords what may be suitable and distressing examples of the need to ask similar questions about ICTY prosecutorial decisions. Paragraph 20 of the Gotovina indictment charges that the General is responsible for a "large-scale deportation" – a "forced displacement" – of an " estimated 150,000-200,000 Krajina Serbs." Amazingly, that very charge is contradicted by the Prosecutors’ own spokeswoman, Florence Hartman. Ms. Hartman published a book in 1999 in which she wrote that Milosevic, not Croatia, ethnically cleansed the area in question: "It was Belgrade that evacuated the Serbs from Krajina and led them to Banja Luka and northern Bosnia. This was done so that Belgrade could later justify holding on to these Bosnian territories during future peace negotiations over Bosnia and Herzegovina. "
“One might argue that a prosecutor is not bound by the public statements of her official spokesperson, but my concern is that such blatant inconsistencies evidence a lack of prosecutorial care and attention to accuracy. The Gotovina indictment affords a second example. The last paragraph of the indictment (Paragraph 44) alleges that "Croatian forces [said to be under the command of General Gotovina] directed a massive artillery assault on Knin" (the city described by the Serbs as their "capital "). Where did this accusation come from? At least three American journalists who were in the region on the day of the supposed "massive artillery assault" saw no evidence of one. It is a reasonably safe assumption that had there been such an assault the destructive effects would have been evident. It may be even safer to conclude that no investigator or prosecutor from the Hague visited Knin to assess artillery damage. A federal prosecutor in the United States, mindful of the Hyde Amendment, would surely not bring charges of this portent without careful evaluation. A prosecutor acting on behalf of an international tribunal can operate on no lower standard of justification.”
“The recent history of the cases like the Gotovina, Blaskic and Barayagwiza cases suggests that, indeed, proceedings that disserve due process can happen at the Hague and in Rwanda. Unless a fair trial—one in which the accused is given full access to all information in the hands of the prosecution or within his grasp—is assured, there will be little cause to support this Tribunal and even less cause to place confidence in the International Criminal Court yet to come into existence. The world and the United States need these courts. They perform critical roles, but they cannot be embraced and respected unless they exist as a first priority to secure justice, rather than to secure convictions.”
Testimony of Larry Hammond before the House International Relations Committee
