“In the course of the three-year investigation into the assault, the United States has failed to provide critical evidence requested by the tribunal, according to tribunal documents and officials, adding to suspicion among some there that Washington is uneasy about the investigation. Two senior Canadian military officers, for example, who were in Croatia during the offensive, testified that the assault, in which some 3,000 shells rained down on the city of Knin over 48 hours, was indiscriminate and targeted civilians…

The Croatian Army drove more than 100,000 Serbs from their ancestral homelands, forcing them to flee on carts and in small cars jammed with their possessions. In terms of sheer numbers, it was the largest single ”ethnic cleansing” of the war…

A section of the tribunal’s 150-page report is headed: ”The Indictment. Operation Storm, A Prima Facie Case.”

”During the course of the military offensive, the Croatian armed forces and special police committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including but not limited to, shelling of Knin and other cities,” the report says. ”During, and in the 100 days following the military offensive, at least 150 Serb civilians were summarily executed, and many hundreds disappeared.” The crimes also included looting and burning, the report says.

”In a widespread and systematic manner, Croatian troops committed murder and other inhumane acts upon and against Croatian Serbs,” the investigators say at another point in the report.” Continue reading →