LETTER: Baker guilty of war crime for speech

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by Evelyn Lantz

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As one of those arrested and jailed as a political dissident during the James Baker Institute's Inaugural Annual Conference, I can only interpret the actions and statements of Rice University officials, cited in your article ("Disruptions punctuate panels", Nov. 17), to mean that "we provided an open forum for those who agree with us. For those who dissent from our political line, we have ways of dealing with you."

I am writing to set the record straight and to appeal to those Rice students who are not afraid to seek the truth.

The coverage in the Nov. 17 issue of The Rice Thresher distorted a number of facts and left many out.

It is true that I called James Baker a war criminal. In fact, I personally indicted him as such as he sat in the front row of the auditorium.

He had not left, as the article implied.

I also told Mr. Baker and the rest of the audience that he was the person most directly responsible for the genocide in Croatia and Bosnia which the Serbs felt free to unleash after getting the green light from then-Secretary of State James Baker.

I was responding directly to the conference statements of "journalist" Georgie Anne Geyer, who had -- correctly -- described the genocide in Bosnia as the worst atrocities since the Nazis.

Geyer had said several times that people must have the political courage to tell the truth about the situation in Bosnia.

As she had earlier lied about the role of James Baker, I responded to her call for the truth by indicting Mr. Baker as a war criminal and by attempting to explain the charges.

The Serbian war of genocide against Bosnia was a continuation of the Serbian war of genocide against Croatia. That war began with full-scale assaults on Croatia and Slovenia, five days after James Baker spoke in Belgrade, Serbia (capital of former Yugoslavia).

There Baker gave the go-ahead in a public speech on June 21, 1991, stating, "The United States would like to help in whatever way we can in assisting Yugoslavia ... to preserve the unity of the country."

Baker also stated that the United States would not recognize the independence of either of the republics which would be declaring their independence from Yugoslavia.

The Nazi-like atrocities occurred in Bosnia and Croatia because the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal after World War II did not indict or convict the financial circles behind the scenes in England and the United States who brought the Nazis to power and who ensured that there was no effective opposition until it was almost too late.

We must not make the same mistake in the War Crimes Tribunal on the Balkans war.

Evelyn Lantz

Executive Intelligence Review

Correspondent

Editor's Note: According to our reporters at the conference, Baker had left Stude Hall approximately 20 minutes before Ms. Lantz's outburst. The Thresher stands by its story.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the December 8, 1995 issue.

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