storm - Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog ...

continue to attack Bihać, freely crossing the internationally recognized border between
the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina, the Croatian Army would mount attacks
along all the lines of disengagement in order to protect its internationally recognized
borders. Th e Croatian position caused the concern of the US administration, but
also of the international community. Nobody wanted a new, unwanted and even greater
escalation of the confl ict.
Two days later, on 29 November 1994, I again came to Washington, D.C., this time
with the Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Šušak. We stayed at a hotel a hundred yards
away from the Pentagon. While talking on the phone with President Tuđman, Minister
Šušak said: President, more and more people over here claim that the fall of Bihać cannot
be prevented and that, thereby, the war in Bosnia&Herzegovina has practically ended
with the victory of Karadžić amd Mladić. We were surprised to see that Karadžić’s infl uence
on the Contact Group had spread to Washington as well. According to confi dential
intelligence, the fall of Bihać appeared to be a matter of hours and not any longer of
days. President Tuđman’s voice was excited, high-pitched but determined: Our position
is clear. Th e Croatian Army will not calmly look on as the rebel Serbs from Croatia and the
Croatian areas participate in the aggression against Bosnia&Herzegovina while UNPRO-
FOR is safeguarding their back. Th e international community must prevent the escalation
of the confl ict, new tragedies, new refugees... there are already more than 600,000 refugees
in Croatia...
Th e key meeting started at 11 o’ clock in the Pentagon, in the main meeting room of
the US Department of Defense. I sat by Minister Šušak; our Ambassador Petar Šarčević
and Robert Hranj, the Croatian military attaché, were also present. On the US side, next
to Dr. W. Perry (who was awarded a honorary doctoral degree by the University of Zagreb),
US Secretary of Defense, sat General Wesley Clark, former NATO Commander
and Democratic Party candidate at the 2004 presidential elections, Ambassador Holbrooke,
and CIA, DIA and NSC representatives. Th e topics on the agenda included ways
to avoid a new escalation of the confl ict, a new humanitarian crisis, the fall of Bihać,
and the promotion of military cooperation between the US and Croatia which was also
signed formally on the same morning.
Minister Šušak presented the Croatian position and emphasized that Croatia did not
require any military assistance, but sought understanding if it was forced to attack in
order to protect its internationally recognized borders. Aft er the Director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency General Hughes presented the situation on the ground, I personally
explained on the map the way in which the UN safe area in Bihać could be helped, and
a new humanitarian crisis of incalculable scale prevented. In military term, the position
of the ARBiH 5 th Corps was extremely serious but, as I emphasized, the Croatian Army
had a complete grasp of the conditions on the ground and it would, if required, force
by its action the Serbian forces attacking Bihać from the temporarily occupied parts of
the Republic of Croatia to withdraw and, thus, protect Bihać from further destruction.
Ambassador Holbrooke did not participate in the discussion, and Secretary Perry, as the
talks continued in the Pentagon, expressed “the full understanding of the US administration
for all the problems encountered by Croatia, from the hundreds of thousands of
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