OPINION:
As Ronald Reagan used to say, “Well, there you go again.” Jeffrey Kuhner’s recent piece about Croatia attempts to once again distort the truth (“Croatia’s triumph,” Commentary, Nov. 30).
The piece reads, in part, “Croatia’s national independence finally has been secured.” However, it should also be remembered that in 1941, Hitler granted Croatia independence for being his loyal ally, and according to the Simon Wiesenthal Institute, 40,000 Jews, 29,000 Gypsies and 600,000 Serbs were murdered.
The piece claims that hundreds of thousands of Bosnians and Croatians were slaughtered by Slobodan Milosevic’s forces. Not so, according to a BBC report of 2002, which said, “Some 40,000 civilians were murdered as Serbs, Muslims and Croats fought for control of Bosnia from 1992 to 1995.” During Operation Storm in 1995, ethnic Serbs were driven out of the Krajina region of Croatia. More than 250,000 Krajina Serbs were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homes and thousands were slaughtered. Approximately 650,000 Serbs have been driven out of Croatia since 1992 with little prospect of ever returning.
Croatian Gen. Mladen Markac participated in a joint criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was the permanent removal of the Serb population from the Krajina region. In 2012, Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina was convicted of having sought the permanent removal of the ethnic Serb population from the Krajina region during the war for Croatia’s independence in 1995.
The reversal of war crimes committed by both generals further proves that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was created only to prosecute and convict Serbs.
STELLA L. JATRAS
Camp Hill, Pa.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.