Mesic was commenting on an initiative by some Croatian lawyers for the abolishment of the UN court at his office on Saturday, where he received a group of Zagreb's Radio 101 listeners.
Asked by a reporter if such initiatives were hasty and potentially damaging, Mesic said they were because nobody took into account how many people were awaiting trial in The Hague and that the majority had been on the aggressor's side during the 1990s war. "Think of who will try them. Are we sure we will get just and fair verdicts?"
Mesic said it was impossible to abolish the Hague tribunal now because the judiciaries in the region had not reached the level of civilised, European trials. He added the Croatian judiciary had reached that level and could do the big job lege artis.
He said Croatia could insist on the referral of cases and that it was up to the Hague tribunal to assess which cases Croatia could take over.
He added, however, that he was not sure that courts in other ex-Yugoslav states could hold just and fair trials.
"If someone appeals for the release of all criminals who committed crimes on the aggressor's side, they should say so publicly and not ask for the abolishment of the Hague tribunal," Mesic said, wondering who should be tried and where. Should Radovan Karadzic be tried in the Bosnian Serb entity or in Serbia, or should Ratko Mladic be tried in Serbia, he wondered, adding he was against this.
Mesic was commenting on attorney Vesna Alaburic's announcement yesterday that lawyers from Croatia would launch an initiative for the abolishment of the Hague tribunal.
According to Radio 101 editor-in-chief Zrinka Vrabec-Mojzes, Alaburic said the Hague tribunal no longer made sense now that the main culprits had died and that it was not conducive to peace and catharsis among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia.
Mesic said he would be glad to talk with those lawyers.
Reporters covering his meeting with Radio 101 listeners, which aired live, asked what would happen to Bosnian Croats indicted by the Hague tribunal who feared that they would be tried in Sarajevo and might serve their sentences in Zenica.
Mesic said there was no fear of that happening because the Hague tribunal could not be abolished now given the state of the judicial systems in other ex-Yugoslav states.