Sacrificing the Rights of the Accused for the "Success" of International Criminal Justice

In going through some of my old papers, I came across a speech I delivered at a conference in The Hague in November 2000 titled, "Sacrificing the Rights of the Accused for the 'Success' of International Criminal Justice."  Re-reading it 14 years later, I was struck by how timely the speech is even today in light of the split in international criminal justice that has resulted from several high profile acquittals at the ICTY in recent years.

I believe the split in international criminal justice ultimately can be summarized by the words of the Rwandan Justice Minister whom I quoted in my speech in the year 2000:

"If one would weigh the potential injustice to one man against the injustice to millions of people, a strictly legal interpretation of the issues would not be one to make."

The sentiment in this one sentence captures the gulf in international criminal justice between those who believe that international courts should limit their decisions to strict application of the law to the evidence, and those who believe that the "greater good" of "justice for the victims" sometimes requires that judges find ways to convict defendants even if the Prosecution has failed to bring forward sufficient evidence of guilt.

I reprint below the text of my entire speech from November 2000:

Sacrificing the Rights of the Accused for the

“Success” of International Criminal Justice

By Luka S. Misetic

            As the international community comes closer to its goal of establishing a permanent international criminal court to try those accused of violations of international humanitarian law, it is important that we look to the experiences of the two ad hoc tribunals to determine whether we can learn anything that will help us to improve the international criminal justice system.  For several years, it has been the perspectives of the prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (“ICTR”) that have been publicized in legal, political and media circles.  I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide a different perspective to this discussion of international criminal justice:  the viewpoint of the defence.

            The ultimate success of international criminal law, and more specifically the ICC, ICTY and ICTR, should be measured not by the number of convictions achieved by each institution, but rather by whether “justice” was served in the trials before these international bodies. The process by which a verdict is reached is just as important as the verdict itself.  While this is a proposition that is widely accepted in principle, it has been my experience that there is disagreement in practice as to what constitutes “due process of law” in the international context.  From the perspectives of many defence lawyers at the ICTY, outside considerations can often infringe upon the due process rights of the accused.

            In order to understand how outside pressures on the ad hoc tribunals can impact the rights of the accused, one must start by examining the origins of both tribunals.  The ICTY and ICTR were both created directly by resolution of the United Nations Security Council.  The ICTY, for example, was established under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter as an “enforcement measure” to restore peace to the former Yugoslavia.  The Security Council had made a specific finding that violations of international humanitarian law had constituted a “threat to peace” in the region, and thus the Security Council under Chapter VII could address that threat to peace by creating the ICTY. 

            From this beginning it is clear that the ICTY was established by an executive (not legislative) organ and charged with a specific political purpose: to restore peace in the region.  This political purpose is made even more clear in the official name of the ICTY: “the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991.”  [Emphasis added].  Note that the title does not proclaim to be the “International Tribunal for the Trial of Persons Accused of Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991.”  The ICTY’s official title reflects the desire of the Security Council and the international community at large to address and punish serious violations of international humanitarian law.

            The ad hoc nature of these two tribunals, and the political circumstances that led to their establishment, have led to many shortcomings when it comes to protection of due process rights for the accused as guaranteed in Statutes of the tribunals.  Both the Office of the Prosecutor and the Tribunals’ Judiciary feel the burden of their mandates, which are to “restore peace” to the former Yugoslavia and to “prosecute persons responsible” for war crimes.  The reality is that “restoration of peace” and successful “prosecutions of persons responsible” are measured by one thing: convictions.  It would be difficult indeed to convince members of the “international community,” including NATO states that risked the lives of their soldiers to apprehend many of the accused at the ICTY, that acquittals should be viewed as a success and would “restore peace” to the region.

            Other outside pressures can impact the ad hoc tribunals.  Both the ICTY and the ICTR must annually seek funding from the United Nations General Assembly.  As anyone familiar with the process of fundraising will know, increased funding is very much related to whether the project for which funding is sought will be successful. Again, it is difficult to imagine that the ICTY could successfully obtain a budget increase by convincing the General Assembly that it was successfully acquitting people brought before the tribunal.  Indeed, the opposite is true:  the arguments made in recent years to the General Assembly often focus on the “success” of the Tribunal in apprehending and convicting those accused by the Prosecutor of war crimes.  In addition, the two ad hoc tribunals bear the burden of being the precursors to the ICC.  The success or failure of the ICTY and ICTR could have a great impact on the establishment of the ICC.  Acquittals would not have the effect of creating momentum for the establishment of a permanent court.

            Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the nature of the ad hoc tribunals makes them susceptible to pressure from outside forces.  Because the tribunals do not have a police force, an intelligence service, or an ability to gain immediate and unfettered access to the territory they are investigating, the ICTY and ICTR are very much dependent upon the cooperation of governments and international institutions.  For example, the tribunals have no ability to make arrests, gather intelligence data, or secure a crime site for investigation.  Without the cooperation of NATO and countries from the region, the ICTY and ICTR would be unable to fulfill their mandates.

            These outside pressures have impacted the work of the ICTY and ICTR.  Fundamental rights of due process, such as the accused’s right to confront witnesses against him, the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the right to a speedy trial without delay, and the right to be free from unlawful arrest have all been stretched, if not violated, on at least one occasion.  In the Tadic case, the first case before either tribunal, the Trial Chamber allowed the Prosecution to call witnesses whose true identities were withheld not only from the public, but from the defendant and his attorneys.  This gross violation of due process rights was compounded when it was later discovered that the two anonymous witnesses against Tadic had lied about their identities to the Trial Chamber and in fact had been coached by the secret services of the Bosnian government.

In the Kordic trial, public criticism of the slow pace of most trials at the ICTY led the Trial Chamber to allow the prosecution to script its questions with its witnesses on direct examination.  Furthermore, the prosecution was allowed to lead its witnesses by asking a series of “yes or no” questions.  In the case I tried before the ICTY, Prosecutor v. Furundzija, most of the testimony in the case (including that of accusing witness) was held in closed session and outside of public scrutiny.  This, in my view, violated Mr. Furundzija’s right to a public trial.  To this day, none of the testimony that is relevant to Mr. Furundzija’s guilt or innocence is available to the public.

The case of Stevan Todorovic provides a clear example of the political realities that face the ICTY.  Todorovic stood accused by the ICTY of serious violations of international humanitarian law, including crimes against humanity.  He remained a fugitive, however, evading arrest by NATO forces stationed in Bosnia by hiding out in neighboring Serbia.  NATO had no mandate to be present in Serbia or to make arrests on the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.  Nevertheless, in September 1998, NATO announced that it had arrested Todorovic and was transferring him from Bosnia to The Hague for trial. 

            Todorovic’s defence counsel immediately moved to invalidate the arrest on the basis that Todorovic had been illegally kidnapped in Serbia by bounty hunters paid by NATO, then transferred to Bosnia where he was arrested by NATO forces.  The defence contended that this type of conduct by NATO was illegal under international law and tainted his arrest.  In a move that raised tensions between the Tribunal and NATO, the Trial Chamber in the case issued a subpoena to NATO and to the U.S. General who was in charge of the operation at the time, General Eric Shinseki.  The subpoena sought all information regarding the nature and circumstances of NATO’s arrest of Todorovic.

               The United States immediately objected, and used its leverage over the Tribunal to attempt to stop the subpoena.  The United States filed a statement with the Trial Chamber that made the threat explicitly clear:  the United States would stop making arrests unless the subpoena was withdrawn.  The statement was as follows:  "It should be of concern to all supporters of the tribunal's objectives that the resolution of these issues will affect the ability - and willingness - of S-For and other entities and States to detain PIFWCs [people indicted for war crimes], now and in the future."  A tribunal insider was quoted in the Guardian of London as saying that the Trial Chamber’s subpoena would “cut off the hand that feeds you.”  Once again, the rights of the accused to be free from unlawful arrest were being threatened by political concerns.   Approximately two months after the Trial Chamber’s subpoena, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had reached a plea bargain with Todorovic, thus eliminating the need to issue a subpoena to NATO and Gen. Shinseki.  Nevertheless, the Todorovic case provides an example of how the political circumstances of the ad hoc tribunals can have an impact on whether the rights of the accused will be enforced.

            Perhaps the clearest example of political pressure influencing the ad hoc tribunals is the Barayagwiza case before the ICTR.  In that case, the accused had been held for three years without charge.  Finally, defence counsel filed a motion seeking the release of the accused on the basis that his right to a speedy trial without delay had been violated.  The Appeals Chamber of the ICTR (which is the same Appeals Chamber for both ad hoc tribunals), after hearing the arguments, granted the defence motion and ordered that the accused be released.  In so doing, the Appeals Chamber held that “nothing short of the credibility of the tribunal is at stake, and to allow these proceedings to continue would amount to a travesty of justice.”  Because the Appeals Chamber is the highest authority at either tribunal, this decision was final and no appeal could be taken from the ruling of the Appeals Chamber.

            Immediately, however, politics intruded into the work of the Appeals Chamber.  The government of Rwanda, which sought Barayagwiza’s conviction, immediately protested and declared that it would no longer cooperate with the ICTR.  Indeed, Rwanda denied visas to all members of the Office of the Prosecutor, which made it impossible for the Prosecutor to conduct investigations in Rwanda or to prepare for trial.  In short, without Rwanda’s cooperation, the work of the ICTR would come to a halt.  A New York Times article from December 19, 1999 reflects the reaction of Rwanda and the mood that began to prevail in U.N. circles:

                 "If one would weigh the potential injustice to one man against the injustice to millions of people, a strictly legal interpretation of the issues would not be one to make," said Richard Sezibera, the Rwandan ambassador to the United States.

                 "If one wanted to make a comparison -- that is not explicitly accurate but indicative -- it would be like releasing Goebbels of Nazi Germany on a technicality," he added. "And that is not acceptable. It should not be acceptable to the world."

Due process rights are “technicalities” which should not impede the drive to convictions, according to the Rwandan ambassador. 

               A similar view was adopted by the Prosecutor herself, Carla Del Ponte.  Despite the fact that the decisions of the Appeals Chamber are final, Del Ponte brought a motion on the basis that the Prosecutor had “new evidence” which would cause the Appeals Chamber to reverse itself.  In reality, this was nothing more than an excuse so that the Appeals Chamber, in light of the political firestorm that had resulted, could reverse itself.  Del Ponte made no secret that this was her real motive, and she made this clear in her argument to the Appeals Chamber.  The Washington Post reported her comments as follows:

                "Whether we like it or not, we must come to terms with the reality that our ability to continue our investigations depends on Rwanda," she told the five-judge panel. Without the help of the country where the genocide occurred and so many witnesses reside, "we might as well open the doors to the prison."

               "It is my hope," she said in closing, "that Barayagwiza will not be the one to decide the fate of this tribunal after he decided on the Rwanda genocide in 1994."

Del Ponte thus made no secret of the fact that political considerations, and not necessarily the law and due process, required that the Appeals Chamber reverse itself.

            Surprisingly, this view was not only espoused by the Prosecutor, but by the Chief Judge of the ICTR herself.  In an article that appeared in the Washington Post on March 10, 2000, Judge Navanathem Pillay made perfectly clear the point that I too wish to make:  due process rights of the accused are often viewed as secondary to the political considerations surrounding the tribunals.  Judge Pillay is quoted as follows:

               "We are 52 years after Nuremberg, trying to apply rules of fair trial procedures that are expected of us in the year 2000," said Navanethem Pillay, the South African who serves as chief judge and president of the Arusha tribunal. But the refined nature of Western law, she said, can make a clumsy fit with the

               political reality that led to the tribunal. The court was created in November 1994 by the U.N. Security Council that had sat on its hands for six months rather than try to stop the slaughter.

               "No matter what an independent jurist you are, you have to take into account public opinion," Pillay said. "Can you imagine the uproar if the Oklahoma City suspect or the Unabomber was set free?"

Judge Pillay thus admits that “public opinion” influences the work of the ICTR, and that due process rights do not necessarily fit into the political purpose of the ICTR (and presumably the ICTY).    After hearing the arguments, the Appeals Chamber reversed itself and ordered that Barayagwiza continue to be held in custody for trial before the ICTR.  It seems that the political considerations discussed by Carla Del Ponte and Judge Pillay did take priority over the due process rights of Barayagwiza.

            The Todorovic and Barayagwiza cases provide perfect examples of the problems facing international tribunals in protecting and enforcing the rights of the accused at the international level.  While there is unanimous agreement on the principle that the rights of the accused, as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, should and must be respected, there is far less unanimity when it comes time to put into practice the rights that appear on paper.  The emerging system of international criminal justice will, in my opinion, only be a success when it is able to resolve issues like those raised in Todorovic and Barayagwiza by relying only on the law and the right to due process, without any reference to outside political concerns.

The Cost of Prosecution and Defence at the ICTY

by Luka Misetic

Every year or so, a new publication decides to recycle news about Croatia's spending on the defence of General Gotovina, and repackage it as an "exclusive."  I blogged about this last year here.  Now comes BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network) with another article, claiming to be an "investigation" about "suspect payments," which reports inter alia about how much Croatia allegedly spent on the defence of Croatia's three generals accused before the ICTY in the Operation Storm case.

Let me first point out the obvious.  Croatia spent a significant amount of money (whatever the amount really is)[1] on the defence of three men who turned out to be innocent, wrongfully accused by the Office of the Prosecutor, a point ignored in the BIRN piece.  One would think that in any retrospective discussion of the merits of spending on ICTY indictees, the ultimate determination of guilt or innocence would at least be a factor for consideration.

Second, Article 21 of the ICTY Statute acknowledges the Accused's fundamental right to "have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence" "in full equality" with the Prosecution.   Defence spending thus should be compared with Prosecution spending to assess whether spending was generally equal in the case and thus in line with the Accused's fundamental rights, or whether spending was disproportionate.

According to UN documents, the Prosecution's budgets for the years 2006-2013 were as follows:

ICTY Prosecution Budgets

2006-2007:  $96,169,000.00 USD, or approximately $48,084,000.00 USD per 2006 and 2007;

2008-2009: $104,579,000.00 USD, or approximately $52,289,500.00 USD per 2008 and 2009;

2010-2011: $79,810,000.00 USD, or approximately $39,905,000.00 per 2010 and 2011; and

2012-2013: $59,518,000.00 USD, or approximately $29,759,000.00 per 2012 and 2013.

Thus, for the seven years of the Gotovina trial and appeal, the Prosecution had at its disposal a total of $310,000,000.00USD (I am excluding the budget for 2013 from the above numbers because Gotovina ended in 2012).  These figures do not take into account that the Prosecution conducted its investigation of the Gotovina case in the ten years prior to 2006, on which the Prosecution undoubtedly spent several million additional USD that are not reflected in the above numbers. 

Obviously, the $310,000,000USD was spent by the Prosecution for all of its cases and not just on the Gotovina case alone.  However, Gotovina was one of the Prosecution's higher profile cases (Gotovina having been mentioned in Security Council resolutions along with Karadzic and Mladic as the Tribunal's highest profile cases) and certainly received more Prosecution resources than the average ICTY case.  The Prosecution staffed its Gotovina team with at least ten trial attorneys, two case managers, three full time investigators, a military analyst unit, and an untold number of interpreters and other staff.  It is not unreasonable to think that up to one-tenth of the Prosecution's budget was committed to Gotovina, but a specific calculation of Prosecution spending on a case-by-case basis is impossible given that the Prosecution's costs are fixed while many of its resources (like attorneys, staff, office space, travel costs, etc) are used on more than one case.

Nevertheless, if one takes into account Prosecution spending from 1995 until the end of 2012 on the Gotovina case alone, it is probable that the level of Prosecution and Defence spending was roughly the same, which is exactly what Article 21 of the Tribunal's Statute guarantees:  "full equality" between the Prosecution and Defence in the preparation of their cases.  Gotovina was one of the rare ICTY cases where equality of arms with the Prosecution was actually achieved. The fact that this "full equality" was guaranteed by the United Nations, but funded by Croatia, is a benefit to the United Nations budget.

Whether Croatia should get a refund from the United Nations as a result of Carla Del Ponte's gross incompetence in falsely accusing three innocent Croatian Army officers is perhaps a topic to be discussed in the next journalistic "investigation" about costs at the ICTY.

__________________

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[1] I do not know the actual numbers because I was not privy to information about the contracts of other lawyers and other defence teams with Croatia.

The Competence of Judge Güney and the Boomerang Effect

Declarations of war often have a boomerang effect, causing more damage to the attacker than the attacker had ever anticipated.  Just ask George Bush what happened after he declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq.  In The Hague, the war launched on the ICTY’s judges in early 2013 continues.   As I have noted previously, Judge Theodor Meron has been subjected to what I figuratively refer to as a “Joint Criminal Enterprise” by a disgruntled few.  More recently, Judge Frederic Harhoff discovered the “boomerang effect” when he launched an attack on Judge Meron in an email to 56 of his “closest friends,” only to find himself attacked on multiple fronts by multiple defendants and ultimately disqualified from the Seselj case by a panel of his judicial colleagues.

Today comes a new attack on ICTY Judge Mehmet Güney of Turkey, this time on the pages of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (“SZ”).  In an article titled, “The Fight for Supremacy on the UN Tribunal,” the SZ reports (citing those sinister “anonymous sources,” but widely believed to be sourced by a certain “Balkan journalist” based in The Hague) that Judge Güney is “no longer really sure on his feet,” that he “communicates only in writing,”  and “is no longer able to monitor long conversations and at meetings loses his orientation.”  Moreover, the “anonymous sources” allege that Judge Meron is “pulling Judge Güney along with him for as long as Judge Meron thinks he needs Judge Güney’s vote.” SZ then states that had Judge Güney not voted with the “American President of the Tribunal, then there would be no stunning 3-2 decision in favor of the acquittal of the two Croats.”

The article concludes by stating that a “medical examination of one of the judges can only be ordered by the President of the Tribunal,” and therefore the “incompetent” Judge Güney cannot be removed from the ICTY before the end of his mandate in 2015 unless the judges elect a new judge to replace Judge Meron as President of the ICTY on October 1^st.  This statement, combined with the article’s title, (“The Fight for Supremacy on the UN Tribunal”), makes it clear that the article is really just part of the campaign to discredit Judge Meron on the eve of ICTY elections for President of the Tribunal, a campaign which has been organized for months by the “Balkan journalist” based in The Hague.

But let’s look at the substance of the allegations against Judge Güney, who supposedly can “communicate only in writing” and is “pulled along by Judge Meron.”  The Gotovina Appeals Chamber Judgement was delivered on 16 November 2012.  Meanwhile, Judge Güney was the Presiding Judge and the Pre-Appeal Judge in the appeal of Milan Lukic, whose appellate judgement was delivered on 4 December 2012, almost three weeks after the Gotovina Appeals Judgement.  As the Presiding Judge and the Pre-Appeal Judge in Lukic, Judge Güney had primary responsibility for administration of that case, including resolving motions and preparing the actual Judgement.  Accordingly, those now anonymously attacking Judge Güney are also calling into question the legitimacy of the appeals convictions of Milan and Sredoje Lukic.  Indeed, if the Judge most responsible for preparation of the Lukic Judgement was incompetent, then the Judgement is not sound and must be reviewed.

But was Judge Güney really able to “communicate only in writing”?  The video of the delivery of the Lukic Judgement (again, delivered three weeks after the Gotovina and Markac acquittals), suggests that Judge Güney was able to communicate verbally without any problems.  Furthermore, he delivered the Judgement for 36 consecutive minutes, contradicting the claim that he is “no longer able to monitor long conversations and at meetings loses his orientation.”

It should be noted that Judge Meron was not a member of the Lukic Appeals Chamber, so Judge Meron was not there to “pull along” Judge Güney, as the SZ article claims.   Moreover, Judge Güney was a member of a 3-2 majority (along with Judges Agius and Morrison) that voted to grant two of Sredoje Lukic’s grounds of appeal.  Unless the “anonymous sources” of SZ are willing to go so far as to suggest that Judges Agius and Morrison (like allegedly Judge Meron) are also “manipulators of the incompetent Judge Güney,” the 3-2 vote in Lukic suggests that Judge Güney is able to reach decisions competently and independently of Judge Meron or anyone else.

Finally, it should be noted that the Lukic and Gotovina Appeals Chambers had three common judges:  Judges Güney, Agius and Pocar.  If Judge Güney were “incompetent” at the time of the delivery of the Gotovina Appeals Chamber Judgement, Judges Agius and Pocar would have had to know about it.  They would have had a duty to disclose to the parties in the Gotovina case that they believed one of their colleagues was incompetent at the time of judicial deliberations.  Instead, Judges Agius and Pocar, despite vigorously dissenting from the Majority decision, never suggested in their dissents that the Majority had reached its decision where one member of the Majority was incompetent.  Moreover, Judges Pocar and Agius then went on to sit with their colleague in the Lukic case, where they not only did not disclose any concern about Judge Güney’s fitness to be a member of the Appeals Chamber, but also had no concern about Judge Güney being named the Presiding Judge in the case. Indeed, Judge Agius in the Judgement went so far as to join Judge Güney (and oppose Judge Pocar) in forming a 3-2 Majority on certain issues in the Lukic Judgement.

Accordingly, the silence of Judges Agius and Pocar in the Gotovina and Lukic cases strongly suggests that Judge Güney was not incompetent at the time of delivery of both Judgements in November and December 2012.  If it were true that Judge Güney was incompetent at the time of delivery of both judgements, and Judges Agius and Pocar kept silent, then Judges Pocar and Agius would have to be disqualified from both cases along with Judge Güney, because both Pocar and Agius would have breached their ethical duties to disclose information critical to determining whether the fundamental rights to a fair trial and to an independent and impartial tribunal were violated by Judge Güney’s membership on both panels.

Those “anonymous sources” attacking Judge Güney on the basis of his vote in the Gotovina Appeal are thus also inadvertently calling into question the ICTY’s conviction of Milan and Sredoje Lukic, once again demonstrating the “boomerang effect” of going to war on false pretenses. 

Just ask “Boomerang Fred” Harhoff.

Eric Gordy's Straw Men

By Luka Misetic

My June 19th blog post titled, “The Joint ‘Criminal’ Enterprise Against Judge Theodor Meron” received many responses, but none more bizarre than a blog post written by sociologist Eric Gordy, titled “For the Annals of Conspiracy Theory: Nia, Snajko.” Gordy does not, to my knowledge, have any training or education in law. Nevertheless, Gordy has become one of the more prominent critics of the ICTY’s recent jurisprudence, including the acquittals of Generals Gotovina and Markac.

On the day of the acquittals of the Croatian generals, Gordy wrote a blog post with the subtle title, “Today is a good day to be a criminal.” In the post, Gordy mounts an attack on the Appeals Chamber’s finding that indiscriminate shelling did not cause the departure of the Krajina Serbs. Of course, Gordy could not then (and cannot now) name a single one of the mythical “tens of thousands of Krajina Serbs” who were deported by the alleged “indiscriminate shelling.” But more on that later. More recently, Gordy has turned to the pages of the New York Times to argue inter alia that in the Gotovina case, “In essence the appeals chamber (also chaired by Judge Meron) found that there exists no legal standard that allows courts to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate military targets.” This statement is, of course, nonsense. The ICTY has clearly identified the legal standards of targeting in its decisions in cases like Blaskic, Kordic, Galic, Strugar, Martic, Dragomir Milosevic, etc. What the Appeals Chamber in Gotovina found was that there was no evidence introduced by the Prosecution at trial concerning the proper margin of error for targets in Operation Storm. It did not rule, “There exists no legal standard that allows courts to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate military targets.” Oh, and the Prosecution was never able to identify a single shelling victim in Operation Storm, unlike in Blaskic, Kordic, Galic, Strugar, Martic, Dragomir Milosevic, etc. (More on that later.) 

Gordy’s recent transformation into a critic of the substance of ICTY judgements stands in stark contrast to his views back when Ante Gotovina was a convicted war criminal sentenced to 24 years in prison. In an interview with the Croatian weekly Nacional published less than one month after Gotovina’s April 2011 conviction at the trial level, Gordy remarked:

• NACIONAL: What are your thoughts about the judgements against Gotovina and Markac?
• 
  
• GORDY: The court arrived at a lawful judgement, but only a few people have been encouraged to come out and say that we have to examine the facts and open a dialogue with those who were forced to move out. The majority simply concluded that the Court was wrong. That does not help in building peaceful relations. I think the other day Mesic commented that the decision has moved people back into the ‘90’s. And I think after the decision many discussions look exactly like that.
• 
  
• NACIONAL: Does that mean that you do not agree with the judgement?
• 
  
• GORDY: There was a trial, the Prosecution gathered evidence, and the Defence presented its case. This lasted five years. The judges looked at the evidence that both sides presented and made their decision. Whether you or I would have arrived at a different conclusion is not important, because it’s not our job. But the judgement certainly did not contribute to the establishment of peace. At the gathering on the Ban Jelacic Square after the Judgement, the master of ceremonies, actor Bozidar Alic, after reciting poetry exclaimed, “The war is not over.” Who does that help and how does that contribute to the establishment of peaceful relations? It needs no mentioning that there probably exist people in all of the countries of the region who welcome these types of messages, who want another war. But I think that the majority of normal people would not. Lawyers like to say that if justice is served before a court, it contributes to understanding and growth of social contacts and dialogue. That obviously did not happen when people celebrate those decisions which appeal to them, and protest those decisions which don’t appeal to them.

Gotovina’s conviction obviously “appealed” to Gordy, and as a result he was of the view that is was “not our job” to criticize decisions reached by judges who had “looked at the evidence both sides presented and made their decision.” When Gotovina’s conviction was overturned, however, also by judges who had “looked at the evidence both sides presented and made their decision,” it suddenly did become “our job” to criticize the Tribunal. It became “our job” to argue on the pages of the New York Times that the judges who voted to overturn the conviction could not possibly have done so in good faith on the basis of their review of the evidence and the law, but instead did so because “no conspiracy is needed to explain that judges represent the states that nominated them to the tribunal, and that law is a conservative profession.” Suddenly, it did become “important whether you or I would have arrived at a different conclusion.”

Gordy has obviously become one of those very people he criticized in Nacional, who “celebrate those decisions which appeal to them, and protest those decisions which don’t appeal to them.” Or perhaps he was one of those people all along.

Now on to Gordy’s comments about my “Meron JCE” blog post.  Gordy correctly notes that the post was written tongue in cheek. However,  I found the rest of Gordy’s post bizarre because Gordy starts his comments by explaining the definition of a “straw man argument,” and then proceeds to attack my blog post by advancing nothing but a series of straw man arguments. 

At the outset, I note that Gordy takes no issue with the substance of my post.  Thus Gordy does not dispute:

1. There is an effort underway to discredit Judge Meron and force his removal as President of the ICTY;

2. The Prosecution has never been able to identify a single Serb civilian who was killed or injured by shelling, or who claimed to have left Croatia due to fear of shelling;

3. Florence Hartmann wrote a book in 1999 in which she recorded her experience that the Krajina Serbs “fled at the request of their own leadership”;

4. The Prosecution’s lead investigator for the Operation Storm case was simultaneously a Swedish military intelligence agent, Joakim Robertsson;

5. Robertsson fabricated evidence against General Gotovina;

6. Robertsson and Thomas Elfgren leaked a confidential Prosecution report to the New York Times in 1999; and

7. Robertsson and Elfgren were behind an attack on Judge Meron in the Finnish press in April 2013.

These were the essential facts in my blog post, and Gordy disputes none of them. Indeed, I particularly note that Gordy is unable to rise to my challenge and name a single victim of the alleged “indiscriminate attack” which Gordy superficially claims took place. 

Gordy had claimed that Gotovina’s defence team had offered a “Rodney King defence to the charge that civilians were encouraged to flee because of indiscriminate shelling of the towns where they lived. Shell by shell, they argued it could not be demonstrated which particular attack by explosives caused which civilian to flee.” The problem with Gordy’s analogy, of course, is that neither Gordy nor the ICTY Prosecution could ever identify a single “Rodney King” among the entire Krajina Serb population. If Gordy wants to stay with the Rodney King analogy, then he should modify the analogy to reflect the facts in the Gotovina case. What would have happened if a video had surfaced of LAPD officers swinging their police batons energetically and---striking no one?  

Instead of addressing my arguments, Gordy attributes a series of invented arguments to me and then proceeds to mock them in a classic case of a “Straw Man” attack.

1. Gordy claims that I wrote, “Florence Hartmann, Mirko Klarin, the ICTY prosecutors, Serbia, Carl Bildt, and something called ‘Nordic intelligence’” are in “collusion” to “protect Carl Bildt from embarrassment.” I wrote nothing of the kind. Gordy misunderstands the law of Joint Criminal Enterprise, which requires no “collusion” at all among all actors in order for a JCE to exist. Indeed, in my blog post I made clear that various members of a JCE not only need not be in “collusion,” but they also “need not know of each other’s existence.” Second, Gordy confuses intent to contribute to a common “criminal” purpose, with motive. Florence Hartmann, Mirko Klarin, the ICTY prosecutors, Serbia, Carl Bildt, and Nordic intelligence services all may share the common “criminal” purpose (remove Judge Meron from office), while each may have a distinct motive for doing so. Thus, while Robertsson and Elfgren had a motive to protect Carl Bildt, Hartmann’s motive for defaming Meron is entirely different, as I made clear in my blog post: to discredit her own conviction for contempt of the Tribunal.

2. Gordy claims that because I posted a picture of Klarin, Hartmann and others having drinks, which one of the participants labeled a gathering of the “MORON / NERON fan club,” I necessarily claim that the entire Jahorina conference (where the photographed participants were having drinks) was “a sinister or secret or conspiratorial” conference aimed at discrediting Judge Meron. Nowhere did I ever make such a statement, so Gordy is “refuting” something which I never said---and never thought. I posted the picture solely to note that the participants in the picture  (including Hartmann and Klarin) do not hide their contempt for Judge Meron. Whether the picture was taken at the Jahorina conference or in Las Vegas is completely irrelevant.

3. Gordy claims I have “something against Florence Hartmann, Mirko Klarin, and all Scandinavians.” I have nothing against anyone. The only thing I am “against” is “when people celebrate those decisions which appeal to them, and protest those decisions which don’t appeal to them,” something Gordy himself criticized in his Nacional interview.

4. Finally, Gordy claims that I believe “damage to the reputation of Meron puts the credibility of the appeals verdict in the Gotovina case, his greatest courtroom success to date, in danger.” Actually, I don’t believe this. I believe that those attacking Judge Meron believe this. I myself believe that history will record the Gotovina Appeals Judgement as the only possible just result. For those of you who choked on your morning coffee when you read that sentence, I offer the following challenges:

i. Identify—by name—a single Serb shelling victim in Operation Storm, or a single Serb civilian who claimed to have fled Croatia out of fear of shelling;

ii. Explain why 99% of the Krajina Serb civilian population left Croatia within the first four days of Operation Storm?

iii. If you cannot identify a single Serb shelling victim, then what exactly was the “criminal plan” you believe was hatched at Brioni? HOW (through what criminal means) did Tudjman and the others intend to forcibly remove the Krajina Serb population?

History will look favorably upon the three Appeals Chamber judges who had the courage to overturn the unjust conviction and sentence of Ante Gotovina to 24 years in prison, where the Prosecution could not identify a single victim of the core crimes of the alleged JCE. 

I have no concern that the "credibility of the appeals verdict in the Gotovina case is in danger," because the Appeals Chamber "judges looked at the evidence that both sides presented and made their decision. Whether you or I would have arrived at a different conclusion is not important, because it’s not our job."

More Disinformation from Milorad Pupovac & Co.

As Croatia celebrated the 18th anniversary of its liberation in Operation Storm, the Serbian National Council in Croatia issued a press release through its leader, Milorad Pupovac, in which it declared that to date, "none of the direct perpetrators was held responsible" for murders of Serb civilians committed during and after Operation Storm. Vesna Terselic of the Documenta center and Mladen Stojanovic from the Center for Peace in Osijek made similar claims.

These claims are incorrect. Several people--members of the Croatian Army--have been convicted for murder of Serb civilians after Operation Storm. Here are just a few examples (there are more, but I will not list them all here):

1. Mario Dukic, member of the Croatian Army's 134th Homeguard Regiment, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 10 January 1997 for the murder of Petar Bota committed on 28 September 1995;

2. Ivica Petric, member of the Croatian Army's 15th Homeguard Regiment, was convicted on 27 May 1997 for the murder of Djurad Čanak in mid-August 1995, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment;

3. Zeljko Sunjerga, member of the 15th Homeguard Regiment, was convicted on 29 November 2002 for the murder of Manda Tisma sometime in the first half of August 1995. He was sentenced to four years and eleven months in prison;

4. Veselko Bilic, member of the 15th Homeguard Regiment, was convicted on 2 December 1996 for the murder of Dara Milosevic in September 1995 and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.


I have provided only a sample of the criminal prosecutions. There are many other examples. There is no question that many other murders committed after Operation Storm have still gone unpunished, but there are many reasons why this is the case. Milorad Pupovac continues to make gross misstatements of fact in an effort to perpetuate the myth that the Croatian State intentionally refused to prosecute crimes committed after Operation Storm. Even the Trial Chamber that initially convicted Generals Gotovina and Markac rejected this claim (See Gotovina Trial Chamber Judgement, paragraph 2203).

It is time that Mr. Pupovac and others stop distorting the historical record.