Never heard of him? Well, he was a key henchman of our dear friend and ally, the Holocaust-denier Franjo Tudjman, who re-created in 1990s Croatia the full panoply of 1930s Fascism and 1940s collaboration. Tudjman's regime is summed up by his own insistence that he "would never allow a Serb, Jew or Gypsy to marry into [his] family".
Anyway, yesterday saw Gotovina finally begin, with two others, his trial at The Hague. Here's hoping that the man who, in the words of his indictment,
"acting individually or in concert with others, planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted:
— The unlawful killing of at least 150 Krajina Serbs and the disappearance of many hundreds of others by Croatian forces. Those who remained in, or returned to, their homes were ultimately forced to flee as a result of continued killing, arson, looting, harassment and terror
— Threats of physical harm to person and property by Croatian forces
— Large-scale deportation or displacement of an estimated 150,000-200,000 Krajina Serbs"
will be convicted. After all, if no evidence could ever be found against Slobodan Milosevic, and if Serbia could be acquitted outright of waging war, then that would seem to suggest that - whisper it not - the guilty people were on the other side.
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Which politician said, "Expulsion is the method which, insofar as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble... A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by these transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions…" ?
ReplyDeleteWinston Churchill, December 1944. Churchill then proceeded to negotiate at Potsdam the Potsdam Agreement (although it was signed by Clement Attlee) in which it was agreed that, "The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner." As a result, 16 million ethnic Germans were ethnically cleansed with the approval of the British and Americans.
So please don't call Tudjman a 1940's style collaborationist. He was, in fact, the spitting image of Churchill.
Tudjman modelled himself explictly on the Croatian collaborationist regime of the Forties. Not that Churchill was without faults, I should add.
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