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Coverup at the Hague tribunal
Mercenary Outfit on Contract to the Pentagon behind 1995 Ethnic Massacres in the Krajina region of Croatia
www.globalresearch.ca July 2003
The URL of this article
is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO307D.html
The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) has asked:
"to interview retired [Croatian] general Mirko Norac as a suspect over two military operations during the 1991-95 war, a government statement said.
Norac, 34, was sentenced in March by a Croatian court to a 12 years in jail for organizing the executions of at least 50 ethnic Serbs civilians in October 1991 near the central town of Gospic.
He is the highest ranking Croatian officer to be sentenced by a local court for war crimes committed during the 1991-95 war with Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs, who opposed Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia.
The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) wants to interview Norac about a 1993 operation in the so-called Medak pocket, in central Croatia, and a 1995 operation -- dubbed Storm -- which practically ended the conflict." AFP, 19 July, 2003).
On 21 July, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) acknowledged the role of MPRI, a US mercenary Outfit on contract to the Pentagon in Operation Storm, the 1995 ethnic massacres in the Krajina region of Serbia. Since the 1990s, both the ICTY and the media have been involved in a coverup of the role of the US military in the 1993 Medak pocket and 1995 Operation Storm ethnic massacres.
Below you will find the following texts:
1. Transcript of
CBS New Story: Croatian Atrocities being forgotten:
http://www.cbc.ca/MRL/clips/ram-audio/dyer1_wr030721.ram
2. Part of a text
by Michel Chossudovsky on the role of MPRI, in Krajina first published
in 1999 as part of a larger study entitled NATO has Installed a Reign
of Terror in Kosovo, ( http://www.iacenter.org/warcrime/chossu.htm or
http://www.softmakers.com/fry/docs/chossudovsky.htm )
Croatian Atrocities being forgotten
CBC Report
21 Jul 2003 9:32:11 OTTAWA
Canadian officers say they are frustrated by inaction over a 1995 ethnic cleansing operation by Croatians against Serbs – one in which the Croats may have had western help.
They documented numerous atrocities during Operation Storm, which was a four-day campaign by the Croats to recover land held in central and southern Croatia for four years by Serbian militias.
However, not one person has been arrested and brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
More than 200,000 Serbs were expelled, and thousands were killed.
"Just amazing. You can see the holes in the back of the head," said Capt. Gerry Carron, showing pictures he took to document the killings.
"We found people in wells," he said. "There was an old lady we found head-first in a well. Why did they do that?"
Some top military officers said the expertise required to plan and execute Operation Storm meant it couldn't have been done by the Croats alone.
Croatia's American consultant
Fingers have been
pointed at Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a U.S. consulting
company based in Alexandria, Virginia.
The company's Web site points to an article in which the Croatian government
praised the job MPRI has done for it – although MPRI has denied involvement
in Operation Storm.
"I don't think it was the Croats themselves that did that," said Maj.-Gen. Alain Fourand, who commanded UN forces in the area of Operation Storm, adding he suspected it was MPRI.
Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, who will be going to Afghanistan to command Canadian troops, also said he doubts the Croats themselves pulled off Operation Storm.
"That was done by people who really knew what they were doing," he said, adding he didn't think the Croats had the expertise.
Croatia was getting assistance in other ways. Argentina supplied artillery used in Operation Storm – despite a UN ban and even though their own soldiers were working there as peacekeepers.
Looking back, Carron said peacekeepers may have made things worse by disarming the Serbs while the Croats re-armed.
Canadian officers say the involvement of the West could explain the foot-dragging on prosecution, although the tribunal said the case is largely circumstantial.
The Canadians also believe the Croatian commander of Operation Storm is being protected by supporters in Croatia's government, and that not enough diplomatic pressure is being exerted.
Written by CBC News
Online staff