LIBERAL PARTY OPPOSED TO PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE ON INDICTMENTS

ZAGREB, March 9 (Hina) - Liberal Party president Ivo Banac on Tuesday condemned demands by some parliamentary parties for a parliamentary debate on the content of fresh indictments issued by the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal against Croatian generals, saying they were "moves by petty politicians who want to score political points through such a debate".#L# Speaking at a press conference in Zagreb, Banac said it was inappropriate for Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt to have commented on the indictments against generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, stressing that indictments should not be discussed by any government institution as that was in violation of the Constitutional Law on Cooperation with the Hague tribunal. "It is ironic that the behaviour of the accused generals is politically more mature than that of some parliamentary parties," Banac said, adding that the nature of military operations "can be discussed elsewhere, but not in the context of the Hague tribunal indictments". He said that only two parliamentary parties, the Croatian Party of Rights and the Croatian Peasant Party, stuck to the idea of a parliamentary debate on the indictments. Banac said his party "in no way wished to obstruct the government in taking further steps towards the Hague tribunal." (Hina) vm sb