The newspaper publishes the copy of a letter Gotovina's attorney Luka Misetic forwarded to the Council of the European Union chair, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, earlier this year. In the letter, Misetic says his client is willing to appear in court if he is tried in Croatia.
Misetic asks Asselborn to share the letter with the other EU foreign ministers, and informs him that Gotovina is willing to accept a compromise solution to his case.
The attorney says Gotovina is strongly convinced of his innocence and that he refused to surrender to the Hague tribunal because he was convinced he would not be given a fair trial there.
Misetic goes on to say that his client understands the EU's position that individuals accused of international humanitarian law violations must be tried, and that this is why he is willing to agree to being tried before national courts if the tribunal refers the case to Croatia.
Citing precedents for such a possibility, Misetic mentions the cases of Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac, Croatian generals whose trials the UN court decided to transfer to Croatia last May. The attorney says that if he were given the same opportunity, Gotovina would accept at once to be tried by Croatian authorities. The letter adds that Gotovina would not object to having his trial transferred back to The Hague if court proceedings in Croatia proved to be biased in any way.
Misetic claims in the letter that Croatia is willing and capable of prosecuting its citizens accused of international law violations, saying that otherwise it would not have become an EU candidate and given a date for entry talks. Vecernji List says, however, that the letter has met with "puzzlement and disappointment" in the Croatian Government and that it is seen as a "provocation which will only hamper Croatia's position on the road to the EU".
The daily says that EU diplomats in Croatia declined to comment on the letter, although Luxembourg's Foreign Ministry confirmed receiving the letter on January 5 and immediately forwarding it to the Hague tribunal "because it is (the UN court) and not the EU that has to decide about the proposal in the letter".
Vecernji List says the Hague tribunal's Office of the Prosecutor also confirmed receipt of the letter.
The daily quotes office spokeswoman Florence Hartmann as saying that the office "cannot and will not negotiate with fugitives. The letter from people presenting themselves as Gotovina's attorneys is yet another attempt to politicise the case. General Gotovina must surrender".
The newspaper recalls that this is not the first such attempt by Gotovina's attorney given that Misetic made the same request in the summer of 2003, and reportedly the year before as well, but the Hague tribunal always rejected this initiative.