Washington, D.C. (January 3, 2005). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) today released the text of a letter written by its President, Edward A. Andrus, to United States Ambassador to Croatia, Ralph Frank. Copies of the letter were forwarded to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Ranking Members of Congressional committees dealing with foreign affairs.

Mr. Andrus' letter had been prompted by Croatian press stories which reported that at a December 16, 2004, press conference, Ambassador Frank had emphasized the overriding importance of the surrender of General Gotovina to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a pre-condition to Croatia's entry into Euro-Atlantic institutions. Ambassador Frank's comments came in the wake of other press reports which stated that the United States had forwarded a so-called "non-paper" to the governments of members of the European Union (EU) urging them not to set a date of accession talks for Croatia to join the EU prior to the surrender of General Gotovina.

In his letter to Ambassador Frank, Mr. Andrus noted that Ambassador Frank's comments as well as the apparent position taken by the United States vis-角-vis the EU ignored the strides Croatia had made not only with respect to cooperation with the ICTY "but the increasingly significant role Croatia has played in achieving regional stability and cooperation." Mr. Andrus emphasized that "Croatia has done more than any nation-state in the region to cooperate with the ICTY. Indeed, General Gotovina remains the only fugitive from Croatia."

Mr. Andrus wrote that even more importantly Croatia has become the leading democratic state in the region. Mr. Andrus pointed out that inter-ethnic relations in Croatia are today "better than in any of the successor states of former Yugoslavia, including Slovenia, an EU and NATO member whose de-recognition of its relatively significant ethnic minority population has remained widely ignored."

In his letter to Ambassador Frank, Mr. Andrus raised Croatia's leading role in the reconciliation process in the area. "As a signatory to the Adriatic Charter . . ., Croatia has shown that it is committed to regional cooperation as it . . . seek[s] entry into NATO. Moreover, Croatia has continued its efforts to establish friendly relations with Serbia and Montenegro, as evidenced by the recent trips to Belgrade by both Croatian President Mesic and Croatian Prime Minister Sanader . . . ." Mr. Andrus further noted that the Ambassador should keep in mind that such trips took place in an atmosphere marked by the rise in power of "the Serbian Radical Party of indicted war criminal Vojislav Seselj, a Party which has not renounced its claims to territory in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina."

Mr. Andrus criticized Ambassador Frank's claim that the surrender of General Gotovina formed a precondition to achieving stability in the region. He noted that such statements are inaccurate as Croatia has already achieved a stable democracy in the region. Further, he questioned the continued emphasis being given by the United States to the case of General Gotovina. Unlike Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, General Gotovina has not been charged with genocide.

Moreover, Mr. Andrus noted that even assuming that the charges against General Gotovina are provable, they "pale in comparison to those committed by Mladic and Karadzic. General Gotovina commanded an operation which took place over a matter of days, an operation carried out with the open support of the United States. Mladic and Karadzic, on the other hand, engaged in massive murder and genocide over a 4 years period."

Mr. Andrus further criticized statements made to the press by Ambassador Frank in which he implied that all of what Croatia has done to date is not as important as finding General Gotovina. Mr. Andrus questioned how such a surrender could ever be deemed as important as "the strengthening of democratic institutions, reconciliation with neighboring states, and the [on-going] cooperation between the Croatian government and [Croatia's] major ethnic Serbian political party."

Mr. Andrus also found fault with the United States' position requiring General Gotovina's surrender even though he may no longer be in Croatia. He noted that Croatia is a relatively small country, having a population only half that of New York City. "Croatia simply does not have the resources to conduct a world-wide hunt for one person. Furthermore, your statement that it is Croatia's sole responsibility to apprehend General Gotovina for delivery to the ICTY, may not be practiable, fair, or as easily fulfilled as initially assumed. American and other NATO forces, who have had significantly greater resources than Croatia and full reign over Bosnia and Herzegovina for 9 years, have a failed record when it comes to seizing Mladic and Karadzic. This underscores that your demands of Croatia are neither constructive nor realistic."

Mr. Andrus went on to note that the close cooperation Croatia has shown over the years in allowing American naval and air forces use of their ports and air fields, sending units to assist in security and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, and in assisting the United States in tracking the activities of Islamic extremists in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina seem to have been forgotten. He wrote that the role played by the United States in attempting to influence the judgment of the members of the EU against setting a start date for accession talks "reflects a lack of balance and proportionality."

Mr. Andrus called on the United States to "reconsider its position on General Gotovina and work to quickly change its treatment of Croatia with regard to this matter, from one which is punative to one in which it appreciates the outstanding successes Croatia has achieved and the important contributions she has made during the past few years."

The NFCA is a national umbrella organization of Croatian-American groups which collectively have approximately 130,000 members.

For more information, please call Joe Foley, Government Relations Director, at 301-294-0937 or Erik Milman, the NFCA's Director of Development, at the NFCA's headquarters in Washington at 202-331-2830 or by email at NFCAhdq@aol.com.