Posted on 02/02/2005 8:24:14 AM PST by Ezekiel2517
War Crimes Prosecutor Under Investigation By UN
NEW YORK - Insiders at the United Nations in New York are buzzing over allegations that could rock the UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Evidence has been presented to the United Nations in New York that Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte may have knowingly submitted forged documents to the UN tribunal in order to obtain the indictment of Croat General Ante Gotovina, accused of war crimes against Serb civilians in the aftermath of a 1995 military campaign known as Operation Storm. Del Ponte then allegedly engaged in a subsequent cover-up to prevent any investigation of the authenticity of the documents. The UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services is examining whether, as part of the alleged cover-up, Del Ponte ignored the requests for witness protection of a Croatian witness who participated in the creation of the forged documents and who had come forward to provide the tribunal with evidence of the forgery. The Croatian witness was subsequently killed in Croatia after Del Ponte ignored the witness’s requests for protection.
The forged documents at issue concern transcripts of a meeting on 31 July 1995 between former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and senior members of his military leadership, including Gotovina. In the transcript, Tudjman is recorded to have urged his military commanders to “hit the Serbs so hard that they will disappear forever.” Four days later, Croatian forces under Gotovina’s command launched a massive military operation known as Operation Storm that resulted in the flight of over 200,000 Serbs from the Krajina region of Croatia. Del Ponte obtained a copy of this transcript from the office of current Croatian president Stipe Mesic and submitted it to the tribunal as evidence to obtain the indictment of Gotovina. Del Ponte argued to the tribunal that the transcript proves Gotovina’s primary objective in Operation Storm was to ethnically cleanse the Serb population from Croatia.
New evidence, however, suggests that the transcripts may have been forged in March 2001 by officials in Mesic’s office with the intent of discrediting Gotovina, a political opponent of Mesic. There is serious concern at the UN that Del Ponte may have known prior to submitting the transcripts to the tribunal that the transcripts were in fact forgeries, and that Del Ponte has complicated matters by failing to disclose the forgery to the tribunal. Reportedly, several witnesses who attended the 31 July 1995 meeting between Tudjman and Croatia’s top military leadership have told Del Ponte that the transcripts are inaccurate.
The most explosive charges, however, concern witnesses who work in Mesic’s office and who contacted Del Ponte in the summer of 2004 requesting to testify that they had participated in the creation of the forgeries. One of these insider witnesses allegedly sought witness protection measures from Del Ponte, claiming that his life would be in danger if officials in Croatia discovered that he had disclosed the forgery. Del Ponte allegedly expressed interest in the witness’s testimony, but took no action to meet with him or provide witness protection. The witness was later killed in Croatia, after rumours began circulating in the Croatian press that the documents used against Gotovina were forgeries. The UN is investigating whether the witness’s death was related to his disclosures to Del Ponte and whether the witness’s death could have been avoided if Del Ponte had granted the witness’s request for protective measures.
After Croatian officials loyal to Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader expressed a desire in November 2004 to open a criminal investigation in Croatia about possible forgery of transcripts, Del Ponte reportedly threatened Croatian officials that if they commenced such an investigation she would issue negative reports about Croatia’s cooperation with the U.N. tribunal, resulting in suspension of Croatia’s negotiations to enter the European Union. The Office of Internal Oversight Services is investigating whether Del Ponte abused her power by making such threats to Croatian officials.
The charges against Del Ponte come on the heels of several scandals that have plagued the UN recently, including charges of corruption in its Iraq Oil-for-Food Program and sex scandals involving senior UN officials. Del Ponte herself has been the focus of UN criticism in the past, having been removed from her post as chief prosecutor for the United Nations war crimes tribunal for Rwanda after allegations of mismanagement were raised by the Secretary General.
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Welcome to FR.
Interesting article. Whose the source--unless I missed it, I can't find it.
Welcome to FR.
Did Carla work for CBS before she got the UN gig?
On the surface, the UN just looks like it runs on petty partisan politics and incompetence. Scratch the surface, and it's evil and corrupt. Why DO we bother?
Please post your source for this.
The U.N. is a menace. Here's more proof.
As others have requested, please do post your source--this could be a very big story if the source is good.
Hit and run post from U.N. insider/leaker?
google search shows nothing similar
If possible, this is just getting worse and worse. I was shocked to see the trouble with Volker, were you?
By all means, let Bill Clinton become the face of the UN. :-)
I'm copying and pasting it in case it gets pulled......LOL.
Google and Yahoo searches turned up nothing so far--it would not surprise me if it were true, but I'd like to see some documentation.
Is this type of unsourced information from a new poster who refuses to respond to his own thread a reasonable posting?
Who better? :)
I'd like to see the whole bunch run out of town on a rail--Bill Clinton and his evil "wife" could lead the pack and that would be fine with me. I wonder if France might be a better home for the UN?
This was emailed to me by someone covering the UN in New York. The story can be verified by calling the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services at (212) 963-1111, they have jurisdiction.
Welcome Ezekial,
it is common practice to include a sour URL for the articles posted here.
Do you have a source??
It makes me uncomfortable not to have a source. The piece is, however, very professional sounding. Not the ususal troll garbage nor their ususal topics. I would still be very cautious and I regret I took something from it and posted it elsewhere.
Yep....but wouldn't it be cool if we had become the repository of insider U.N. scandals?
Thanks for your response. So the oversight office has issued a press release then?
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