Minister Roncevic today confirmed media reports that Australia had refused to issue a visa to General Kruljac, who should have travelled to Melbourne in his capacity as president of the Croatian Boxing Federation to attend a friendly match between the Australian and Croatian boxing teams.
Commenting on the reasons for the decision of the Australian authorities, the media cited several articles published in a weekly that link Kruljac with war crimes, his participation in military operations in the northern Bosnian Posavina region and the fact that Slobodan Milosevic had mentioned Kruljac several times while presenting his defence before the Hague war crimes tribunal.
Asked why Kruljac was denied a visa, Mesic said that Slobodan Milosevic and his witness Branko Kostic had mentioned him too at Milosevic's trial, but that he hoped to get a visa.
"I don't know why Australia is taking into account incoherent statements by those who will be sentenced for war crimes and hopefully for genocide," Mesic told reporters during a visit to a Zagreb barracks.
Minister Roncevic said he believed that there was no reason not to issue Kruljac a visa, but that such were Australian regulations. "We won't accept what was stated in the explanation, because that is sentencing before the establishment of facts," Roncevic said without saying what was stated in the explanation.
He added that he would inform the prime minister of the case and respond through diplomatic channels.
Asked about Italy's proposal for dual citizenship for Croatian and Slovene citizens, Mesic repeated that the proposal was not good and that nobody had the right to justify it by citing the unresolved issue of dual citizenship between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Those two issues cannot be compared, he said.