ZAGREB, Jan 13 (Hina) - Hague tribunal investigators started questioning former and present interior and defence ministry employees in Zagreb on Monday amid media speculation that they were being questioned about Croatian wartime
military and police operations code-named Storm and Flash.
ZAGREB, Jan 13 (Hina) - Hague tribunal investigators started
questioning former and present interior and defence ministry employees
in Zagreb on Monday amid media speculation that they were being
questioned about Croatian wartime military and police operations
code-named Storm and Flash.#L#
"The first such interview has begun today," Assistant Justice Minister
Jaksa Muljacic told Hina, declining to reveal who was being questioned
and where.
The tribunal prosecutor's office in Zagreb has requested interviews
with several former and present employees of the Interior Ministry and
the Defence Ministry as witnesses.
The interviews were requested as part of ongoing investigations during
which a number of witnesses had been questioned through the government
office for cooperation with the tribunal, Muljacic said.
According to Muljacic, all the persons in question will respond to the
summons, and a government representative will be present at the
interviews with active-service officers.
Muljacic declined to confirm media speculation that among those
summoned were Marjan Benko and Josip Moric, former assistant interior
ministers; Josip Turkalj, former commander of the Lucko Anti-Terrorist
Unit who is now in charge of an intervention police unit; Ante Soljic,
former commander of the Special Police Department; and Zdravko Janic,
a former employee of the Special Police Department.
Benko and Turkalj have acknowledged receipt of the summons.
Earlier this month, a senior government official, who wished to remain
anonymous, dismissed media reports that former interior minister Ivan
Jarnjak had also been summoned for an interview. Jarnjak said he had
received no notification or summons.
Tribunal investigators are apparently interested in the activities of
the Croatian police, particularly special police forces, in the
1993-1995 period.
(Hina) vm sb