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Vatican Helping War Criminal!
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| St_Andrew |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4263426.stm
I think we should impose sanctions on the vatican, freeze their assets and so on.
:D
Edit: Article included so that Josh4 can read the article without opening a new window.
| quote: | Last Updated: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 16:10 GMT 17:10 UK
The Vatican is helping Croatia's most wanted war crimes suspect evade capture, a top UN prosecutor alleges.
Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has said she believes Gen Ante Gotovina is hiding in a monastery in Croatia.
Ms del Ponte's spokeswoman told the BBC News website that the Vatican had refused to help in the search for him, despite being in a position to do so.
A spokesman for the Croatian Catholic Church rejected the charges.
In a statement later the Vatican said that Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, responsible for the city-state's foreign relations, had asked Ms del Ponte for further details of her assertions.
Chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Ms del Ponte had not yet responded to requests for further information.
Divided opinions
Gen Gotovina has been charged with the deaths of 150 Serb civilians in 1995.
Earlier this year, the European Union cited Zagreb's failure to arrest him as the reason behind delaying talks on Croatia's entry into the bloc.
Forces under Gen Gotovina's command are accused of killing scores of Serbs and expelling up to 200,000 from the Krajina region, now part of Croatia.
Croatian authorities have insisted they are doing everything in their power to deliver Gen Gotovina to the UN's war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
The Croatian Bishops' Conference, which heads the Croatian Roman Catholic Church, dismissed Ms del Ponte's allegations.
Its spokesman Antun Suljic said the conference "has no knowledge or indications of the whereabouts" of Gen Gotovina.
Vatican 'refusal'
Ms del Ponte wrote to Pope Benedict XVI in July this year in an effort to secure the Vatican's co-operation, her spokeswoman told the BBC News website.
The Pope has yet to reply to the prosecutor's request for a meeting, the spokeswoman said.
Ms del Ponte earlier told British newspaper The Daily Telegraph she believed Gen Gotovina was "hiding in a Franciscan monastery and so the Catholic Church is protecting him".
"I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican totally refuses to co-operate with us," she said.
Archbishop Lajolo told Ms del Ponte the Vatican did not know of Gen Gotovina's whereabouts and was not obliged to help her, she was quoted as saying.
Her spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, told the BBC News website that "the law applies to everyone, including the Vatican".
She said UN prosecutors faced similar difficulties in tracking down the Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, who is thought to have sought refuge among Orthodox Christian monks in Montenegro.
"We're fully ecumenical," she said. |
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| DrUg_Tit0 |
Yeah. And not let them join the EU! But seriously, I think Carla del Ponte is really stupid about this issue. I mean every single person here knows exactly how Gotovina looks like and the government is constantly sending police regiments to every location in which he is supposedly hiding. And she still refuses the possibility that he might be hiding in some other country (something really difficult for a former member of the foreign legion with french citizenship to do). So based on that she claims that Croatia is not cooperating with the tribunal. I suppose she secretly thinks none of the NATO members are cooperating either, since they still haven't caught Mladic and Karadzic, who have basically been hiding for years in the territorry that is more or less under their jurisdiction. I guess they should be kicked out of the EU then. |
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| trancaholic |
I don't get this:
| quote: | Her spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, told the BBC News website that "the law applies to everyone, including the Vatican".
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The Vatican isn't a member of the UN - how can the UN expect it to adhere to the laws of the UN?
I say that we do a preemptive strike against the Vatican. I don't even think we need the US to have a "shock and awe"-campaign against them; a few conventional missiles should be enough to take out their central powers.:thepirate |
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| Sunsnail |
| Let's not turn this into another Vietnam :( |
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