If Croatians, so frequently wrongly accused, were as guilty as it has been alleged, over the past century, then why has it been necessary:

With an international public arena saturated with anti-Croatian propaganda, where can an impartial court be situated? Why is the entire western legal tradition being held hostage in order to legitimize an ideologically-based, anti-Croatian agenda?

How many realize that Yugoslavia was created with the signature of people never elected, outside its borders, whilst those who were elected were imprisoned or assassinated? I

Why did the world turn its back when five Croatian 'front bench' Members of Parliament were gunned down inside a parliament in session in Belgrade by an MP of Serbian nationality, in 1928? II

Why did the Allies disarm Croatian 'surrendered' civilians and soldiers in a refugee camp in Austria, and then repatriate over half a million of them, either into an ambush of so-called Communist Yugoslav 'allies' to be massacred on Austrian soil; or onto death trains back through Slovenia (whilst assuring the tens of thousands of people inside the box cars, trainload after trainload, that they were going to Italy) - knowing it would be "fatal to their health"? III

Why does Maribor City Council call for the cremation of thousands of Bleiburg victims' skeletal remains as discovered in June 1999, instead of photographing, displaying, analysing DNA or documenting them? IV

Why is " Katyn ," a metaphor for wrongful accusation and genocide, but " Bleiburg" , " Koceve " or " Jazovka ," etc. are virtually unheard of?

Why did the world powers reward the prosecutors of Cardinal Stepinac in 1946, with full diplomatic recognition, aid and international loans?

Why were the West's Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience of Croatian background double-crossed decades later and accused falsely, when as democratically "elected" leaders they worked for the defence and human rights of their people? (note: 32,000 Croatian intellectuals were purged in 1971, known as the 'Croatian Spring'.) V

Why does the world embrace Nelson Mandela's struggle but not the struggle of former Croatian political prisoners?

Why is there little news of the assassination of 100 Croatian dissident intellectuals and former political prisoners in W. Europe and abroad in recent decades? VI

Why were six innocent Croats framed and imprisoned in Sydney , Australia in 1980 on the evidence of "unsigned police verbals" (now illegal) whilst evidence of their innocence was withheld by state institutions from their trial? VII

When a teenager (J. Tokic) is wounded by machine gun bullets, outside of a Yugoslav Consulate in Australia , during a peaceful protest in 1988, before television cameras, why does he not have bipartisan support? How is it that his peers are accused of "brainwashing" or of being worse than pornographers or drug pushers in a school ground, whilst the perpetrators have "diplomatic immunity"? VIII

Why doesn't the West refer to its favourite Yugoslav author, Djilas (or statements of former President Truman) who acknowledged that Croats had to die so that Yugoslavia could live -- and in reference to Stepinac's show trial, that sometimes good men must be condemned for political necessity?

If Croatian people are such a "threat" to western society, why are they still encouraged to migrate to western industrialized nations?

Why were special agreements signed between the Australian and Yugoslav governments, unions and corporations, to enable Yugoslavia to get "rid" of its rural Croats following W.W. II? IX

Why, during the 1990s, were refugee quotas extended in Australia in order to accommodate as many tens of thousands of Croats from Bosnia and Croatia as possible, for permanent settlement abroad, whilst other refugees from Serbian aggression in contrast are either "contained" or (safely) repatriated? X

If the former Yugoslavia has so many Croatian refugees in proportion to others, how is it that Croats have been indicted in greater numbers before the International War Crimes Tribunal?

Why are the human rights of Croats abroad disregarded with impunity? They receive shelter, food, and welfare but have been continually wrongfully accused of crimes in the media, without trial. And, in addition, why is it that the inconsistent application of laws ensures the censoring of public information about law-abiding, Croatian/Australian communities, in direct violation of international treaties and multicultural legislation? XI

United Nations Charter 51 on International Law expressly distinguishes between the "aggression" in war, and "self-defence" ("duress" in common law). XII

That's why the media has gone to great lengths to portray the long-term, full-scale military assault against unarmed Croatian civilians as a "civil war" or "ethnic cleansing."

Therefore, why at the Hague is it a "war crime" to defend your family and home, bare-handed, and your village, town or city which for years had been literally under siege daily - a nation robbed of its defence because of a UN arms embargo (which in effect, represented the consensus of UN nations of up to five billion people) a community under siege by air, land and sea by the heavy artillery of the third largest modern army in Europe ?

The comparison is always made between the ad hoc court and the Nuremberg trials, yet no actual precedent exists for this ad hoc court's application of the rules of law, which are "developed" as they go along by its own judges and which has been strongly criticized at Rome in 1998 in its current format as a precursor to any permanent criminal court. XIII

Why was the first interim prosecutor for this ad hoc court and current deputy prosecutor also the former head of the Australian War Crimes Trials, which owe their establishment in Australia to the ground work (anti-Croatian propaganda) prepared by a member of the Australian Communist Party ( Mark Aarons), who launched its campaign on ABC radio series on "10th of April" 1986? Why was this prosecutor's report (Graham Blewitt) who criticized the work of the Australian War Crimes Prosecution Support Unit never made public? XIV

How can any career prosecutor who worked in New South Wales , Australia be deemed to be free from anti-Croatian bias where the wrongfully imprisoned "Croatian Six" have yet to be exonerated or compensated since release from wrongful imprisonment?

The International Criminal Tribunal is not a military court and not a common law court and it is not a good model in its present form for a permanent court (Rome Conference 1998) because it needs "improvement" -- the only point which the international community agrees on. It is not a court which engenders international consensus because it infringes on national legal sovereignty, and its only enforcement ability is derived from the "consensus of the powerful." XV

I have posed several serious questions and to answer them I have briefly outlined the role of legal and democratic institutions in the genocide perpetrated against Croatian people. Croatian democracy is under siege and its leaders are being coerced (by threat of sanctions) to cooperate with a court which other nations criticize as unworkable. The western legal tradition, political democracy, international treaties and UN charters are constantly transcended and abused in the case of Croatia . Clearly, a greater issue is at stake therefore, for so-called western civilization, than just the fate of the Croatian nation. Power usually erodes from within when integrity is bargained with and no doubt American and western submission to the use of totalitarian tactics against some might ultimately result in the decline of their own culture.

Croatian leaders therefore should not unquestioningly submit to a court which itself has been the target of so much criticism.

I Corfu Declaration, July 22, 1917 .

II "Trial by Slander", L. Shaw, Summit Press, Canberra , 1973; or "Deputies Shot in Belgrade , Wild Scene in Chamber," London Times, 22/6/1928 .

III "The Minister and the Massacres", Nikolai Tolstoy, Century Hutcheson Ltd., London , 1986.

IV "Preserve Maribor Genocide Evidence", J. Lunt-Marinovic, Croatian Herald (Hrvatski Vjesnik), (New Generation, English language supplement) Melbourne , July 1999.

V Conditions of Imprisonment of Prisoners of Conscience, in "That's Yugoslavia ", Hans Peter Rullman, Hamburg , 10/88 to 1/89 -- prepared from 'Amnesty International' report, London .

VI "Assassinations Commissioned by Belgrade ", H.P. Rullman, Ost.-Diest, Hamburg , 1981.

VII "Cloak and Dagger", on Four Corners , ABC-TV Channel 2, (Australian government's station) Expose of wrongfully imprisoned Croatian Six.

VIII See Prime Minister Hawke's response in The Australian newspaper, 29/11/88 ; or The Age newspaper, 29/11/88 . (Re: why Yugoslav Consulate refused access to its grounds before the demonstration to the Australian Protection Service) See also, the "Australian Time" magazine, same week.

IX "Divided Working Class", Lever-Tracy & Quinlan, London , 1988.

X "Ethnic Balance in the Croatian Region is a Priority for Peace", J. Lunt- Marinovic. Croatian Herald (Hrvatski Vjesnik) (New Generation, English language supplement), Melbourne 24 July 1998 .

XI "Centre for Population Research", Monash University booklet (Government-funded) 1988 (re: Croats not major group in Brimbank (includes Sunshine, Keilor-western suburbs of Melbourne ) Victoria , Australia -- in contrast to actual Brimbank City Council information which suggests inconsistency within government departments); or Melbourne 's Immigration Museum fails to acknowledge Croats in mainstream permanent exhibits and alleges that no information available (re: 1996 census) yet full information is available!)

XII "Peace Through Emerging International Law," Jost Delbruck in book, The Quest for Peace International Social Science Council, SAGE Publications, London , 1987.

XIII "Pressing Charges," on ABC's Channel 2 (Australian government channel), "Lateline" 1998, (re: establishment of UN permanent criminal court). Also Press Release: http://www.UN.org/icty/pressreal/p425-e.htm (re: remarks made by Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, president of International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to Preparatory Commission for Permanent International Criminal Court, 3-/7/99.

XIV "A Case to Answer: The Story of Australia 's First European War Crimes Prosecution", David Bevan, Wakefield Press, Adelaide , 1994, also: http://witness.org/features/interviews/blewitt.htm (re: Interview: Graham Blewitt in the Hague

XV "Red" lawyer fought on all fronts, The Australian (obituaries) 28/5/98 . (Re: Telford Taylor, Nuremberg prosecutor and legal partner with Benjamin Ferencz, (of "Tribunal Newswatch Group" and advocate for the ad hoc court establishment - refer also http://domovina.xs4all.nl/ See also "Documents 17 and 18" on ICTY's official web site, 1998, chapter on "the Path to the Hague," under titles Letter of Mr. Lawrence Eagleburger to Mr. Antonio Cassese, May 8, 1996 and letter of Mr. Elie Wiesel to Mr. Antonio Cassese, June 28, 1996 . (Re: their active role in creation of Hague ad hoc court is described).