The Persecution of Ante Gotovina (part 4)

So far I hope that I have established the concept the extradition threshold. That a competent Authority has to issue a lawful order to a sovereign state specifying that a offense under its jurisdictional authority had taken place, that there is eveidence that the offense was committed by a citizen of the state, and that the state was under the request for extradition bound by a treaty obligation to extradite the individual.

The sovereign state is governed by a different set of standards. It's role is to safeguard the life, liberty and ability to pursue happiness of it's citizens. It's role is to protect the individuals inalienable rights. There is a presumption of innocence always implicit in the rights of the accused. The threshold from they eyes of the state when faced with an extradition request is, has the competent authority with jurisdictional authority issued a request that backed up by a sufficient body of evidence would allow it's own courts under its own laws charge the individual with the alleged crimes that took place. If this threshold cannot be crossed, the state has no obligation to turn over the individual, and the citizens of the state have a collective responsibility to protect the individual.

In the previous post I explored what standard would be required for a murder charge under the concept of command authority as expressed in the Medina Standard. The Office of The Prosecutor failed to cross the threshold of what was required of a lawful request within it's scope and jurisdictional authority. Croatia was obligated to protect the right to freedom and liberty of Ante Gotovina, and this had precedence over it's requirement to operate with the OTP.

Now to examine the other charges and see if there was sufficient eveidence of any crime taking place of a scope that would permit the charging of the operational commander of 25 Brigades with either the other alleged war crime?

"acting individually and/or through [his] participation in the joint criminal enterprise, planned, instigated, ordered, committed, and/or aided and abetted the planning, preparation, and/or execution of"

Plunder of public or private property and wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages - two counts of violations of the laws or customs of war.

Now we have to see at what level of operational command would the order to destroy propert come from?

To better illustrate we have to get an idea of the context. So in the region where Croatia exercised its sovereignty over its territory during Operation storm:

Hamlet/Village House - Either made with solid stone walls or steel reinforced concrete. Usually occupied by an extended family. Walls are at least 30cm thick. Impervious to small arms fire (machine gun and weaker).

Hamlet - Smallest component beyond an individual house. Usually under 200 inhabitants up to 30 houses.

Village - either stand alone, or comprised of two or more hamlets. Distinguished from a hamlet by the presence of a church. Population 200 to 1,000 inhabitants.

Small Town - Either stand alone or comprised of two or more villages with a town centre, there will be a church, and elementary school, a post office and a police station. Population 1,000 to 5,000 inhabitants.

Medium Town - Population 5,000 to 15,000. Has the amenities of a small town with the addition of a high school and a small hospital.

Large Town - Population 15,000 to 25,000. Has the amenities of a small town with the addition of several outlying villages acting as suburbs.

Now to look at the smaller operational units of Croatia's military during Operation Storm.

Individual Soldier/Ministry of Interior Trooper - Responsible for carrying out the orders of his/her superior and is all0wed to take whatever steps are reasonable and necessary to protect his/her own life and safety.

Fire Team - Comprised of 4 to 5 soldiers usually led by a Corporal. Will have some suppressive fire ability beyond the Kalashnikov assault rifle as one soldiers weapon may have a folding bi-pod, or they may be a light machine gun fire team.

Squad - Comprised of 8 to 12 soldiers. Made up of 2 to 3 Fire Teams. Usually led by a Master Corporal or a Sargent. Will have some capability at this level beyond the hand grenade to deal with the fortifications provided by a village/hamlet house. They will have some form of Rocket launcher, usually of the capability of a RPG-7, or if an elite unit, a LAWS rocket. A Platoon contains 2 to 4 Squads.

Taking A Village 101

I now have to revert to my own first hand knowledge of a Village in the region recaptured during Operation Storm. Had I had the courage to go back to fight, I would most likely have been a Lieutenant in command of a platoon. I will present a hypothetical situation, which would lead me to arrive at a command decision. For hypothetical purposes I will use my clans Village Tinj as the hypothetical Serb Village. (For the record, at the moment of ceasefire during January of 1992, the front lines ran through the village, with the hamlets of Barkonja & Dojnji Varoush being held by Croatian forces, and the hamlet of Gornji Varoush being held by the rebel Serbs).


The tactical formation charged with taking a village would be a Company. It would comprise 4 platoons of infantry each made up of 3 squads of 12 men divided into 3 fire teams Led by a Lieutenant. As additional backup there would be subordinated to the company one platoon of Ministry of the Interior troops made up of four squads of 8 men each, the platoon would be led by a lieutenant (from the Ministry of Interior Command Structure), and the 4 Squads would be led by a Sargent. Overall operational command authority would rest with the Captain of the Company.

Croatian Army Orders:
1> Restore the territorial integrity of the Republic of Croatia
2> Recapture Tinj
3> Safeguard lives and property of civilians
4> Identify property of civilians who are complying with the Republic of Croatia's orders that all Serbs citizens not guilty of any crimes against the citizens of the Republic of Croatia are allowed to stay and live in peace within the borders of the Republic
5> When area has been satisfactorily secured, turn over command to the Ministry of Interior platoon and redeploy.

Ministry of Interior Troop Orders (MUP)
1> Safeguard Civilian life and property
2> Identify unlawful combatants (Belgrade Soccer Hooligans) and arrest
3> Secure Civilians and move them safely away from the war zone

The Operational Orders Issued by The Captain:
1st Platoon - Led by Lieutenant Shreddy, capture ans secure Barkonja
2nd Platoon - Led by Lieutenant Sakic, capture and secure Doljnji Varoush
3rd Platoon - Led by Lieutenant Cirjak, capture and secure Gornji Varoush
4th Platoon - Led by Lieutenancy Zagorec, act as a reserve platoon
MUP Platoon - Execute their orders after the army troops have accomplished their orders.

After Croatian artillery suppresses the main Serb defensive position by the church, all three platoons move into their assigned hamlets un-opposed. The only casualties achieved by the Croatian forces is a landmine on the edge of the forest east of Barkonja injuring a soldier under my command.

I find the hamlet of Barkonja completely empty. Everyone is gone, all the property is still standing and intact. I radio the commanders of 2nd Platoon and find that they have Serbian Civilians present, and they are identifying the homes of the Serbs that wish to remain as citizens of Croatia. I radio the commander of the 3rd platoon, and he informs me that they have Serb civilians present, and that the civilians reported that the Serb military forces retreated eastward through the forest to the east of Barkonja. The size of the military formation that retreated into the woods was at Company strength.

I have a very important decision to make. Do I:

1> Lead my platoon into the woods where I know that there is a minefield, and I am reasonably certain that the Serbs knew where they laid their own landmines. Basically lead my men into a kill zone.
2> Leave the hamlet of 20 houses in the capable hands of a lightly armed squad of MUP troops, re deploy and leave them vulnerable to a counter attack by Serb forces at Company strength attacking from the woods.
3> Take further steps to secure the area so as to ensure the safety of everybody within the command structure I am assigned to.

I am very well aware that if a 5 man Serb fire-team can infiltrate one of the houses, they can effectively suppress the movement of my the Company I am assigned to. To take out a firteam in a house would require a tank.

I as a commander now have to make a decision.

I ask one of my men to inspect the first home in the hamlet. He makes me aware that all the contents are in place, and that the basement contains approximately 200 litres of brandy.

I order my men to remove the brandy from the house, and we place a demolition charge in the house and wait for it to explode. I ordered the removal of the brandy as the terrain was extremely dry in August and I did not want to start an out of control forest fire. The demo pack explodes, and the Serb house is still standing. Still providing a hardened defensive position in a war zone for enemy infiltrators to prevent my unit from following its orders.

One of my soldiers who worked as a hard rock miner makes me aware that the Serbs had left sacks of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer in their storage's, and that mixed with diesel fuel would allow us to destroy the potential defensive positions. I order my soldier to build one of fertilizer bombs, and we find that it does work and that the structure is rubble. I give the order to empty all of the brandy cellars and to level every house in the hamlet. The MUP squad commander tries to impede my troops from carrying my order and I have him held by two of my soldiers.

Had I committed a war crime? No, my mind frame at the moment I gave the orders to flatten the hamlet was that it was a military necessity as allowed under the rules of war. I could be court martial-led for my order, and I would have been acquitted. My commanding officer would not have been charged with a war crime as he was not aware that I had flattened the hamlet until after the hamlet was flat.

Benkovac was left standing during Operation Storm as was Knin. I stood there wondering why on earth was Ante Gotovina standing accused at a courtroom at the ICTY?