Croatians protest ICTY sentence of Gotovina and Markac in Los Angeles скачать в хорошем качестве

Croatians protest ICTY sentence of Gotovina and Markac in Los Angeles

www.FreeCroatianGenerals.com Jack Baric, director and producer of the Ante Gotovina documentary "Searching for a Storm" speaks during a protest at the Federal Building in Los Angeles where members of the Croatian community held a protest rejecting the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia guilty verdict sentencing generals Gotovina and Mladen Markac to 24 and 18 years in prison. As global citizens, we categorically reject the verdict of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which found Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač guilty of war crimes, sentencing them to 24 and 18 years in prison respectively. The Croatian generals were convicted for their role in leading Operation Storm, a military action planned with United States assistance, to win back Croatian territories, which had been occupied for four years by forces loyal to Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, "the Butcher of the Balkans." "The greatest failure of the West since the 1930's," is how former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke described the efforts of the United Nations to stop Serb aggression during the war in Croatia and Bosnia. This recognition of the UN's complete failure is what motivated Holbrooke and President Clinton to aid Croatia with the necessary assistance to execute Operation Storm, the military action that drove Milosevic to agree to the Dayton Peace Accords and end the war. The ICTY has been strongly criticized worldwide for attempting to create a narrative that absolves UN guilt for treating the conflict as a civil war instead of a war of aggression by Milosevic. It is widely believed that had the UN acted against Milosevic as the conflict's main culprit, hundreds of thousands of people might not have been killed, and millions more displaced from their homes. With an eye on how history will judge the war, the ICTY felt compelled to find Gotovina and Markac guilty because if they were not guilty then it is the UN that is guilty for their wartime policies that severely restricted Croatia and Bosnia from defending themselves. In fact, UN officials began branding Operation Storm a war crime just a few hours into its launch, before having even one ounce of evidence, and the guilty verdict further serves to illustrate grave concerns about the political nature of the court. Quite frankly, in a democratic society it's not possible for the cop, the prosecutor, the judge and the jury to all be one -- and that exactly describes the UN's role. Justice demands a reexamination of the case of the Croatian generals and the legitimacy of the UN court. It is time to judge the judges.