Addressing the UN Security Council, Del Ponte recalled that in April the Croatian government presented an Action Plan aimed at locating General Gotovina. She said that "further serious progress in the implementation of the plan should lead to Gotovina".
"Prime Minister (Ivo) Sanader assured me of his strong personal commitment in this regard. A few more months will however be needed to determine whether the Croatian authorities are, this time, indeed doing their utmost to arrest and transfer Gotovina. Until Gotovina is in The Hague, or until Croatia is providing the precise whereabouts of this fugitive, it is impossible to say, however, that Croatia is fully cooperating with the ICTY," the prosecutor said.
She said the efforts made by the authorities in the first half of this year were "neither proactive, nor focused," and that in several cases sensitive information was manipulated so as to obstruct the investigation against Gotovina and his protective network.
Del Ponte also said there had been media campaigns, "sometimes based on confidential documents leaked to the media", which tried to discredit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) or its partners in Zagreb.
"This indicates that Gotovina can still count on active supportive networks, including within the State institutions," she said.
In his address to the Security Council, ICTY president Thedor Meron too said Croatia's cooperation with the UN court was incomplete.
"With regard to Croatia, while cooperation remains good in some areas, it is of major concern that the last remaining 'stumbling block' to achieving full cooperation with the Tribunal is the continuing failure on the part of the authorities in Croatia to apprehend and render to The Hague Ante Gotovina," said Meron.
Del Ponte said she recently withdrew a proposal to refer to national courts the trial of the Vukovar Three -- Mile Mrksic, Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic -- who are accused of the Ovcara massacre.
She said that given the sensitivity of the case, the decision to refer the trial would have met with resistance in both Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro, which led her to conclude that it was the best if they were tried at The Hague.
Meron reiterated that the Hague tribunal "will not have fulfilled its historic mission, and will not close its doors, until (Radovan) Karadzic, (Ratko) Mladic and Gotovina have been arrested, brought to The Hague and tried before the Tribunal".