AMSTERDAM AIRPORT AMSTERDAM, March 11 (Hina) - Croatian generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Thursday afternoon where they were met by Dutch police, who will transfer them to the custody of
the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
AMSTERDAM, March 11 (Hina) - Croatian generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen
Markac arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Thursday afternoon
where they were met by Dutch police, who will transfer them to the
custody of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.#L#
The generals were accompanied by their lawyers Cedo Prodanovic,
Miroslav Separovic and Goran Mikulicic, and the Assistant Justice
Minister for Cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Jaksa Muljacic.
"This is our contribution to restoring the honour of dignity of
everyone who participated in the Homeland War and to all citizens of
Croatia," Markac told reporters aboard the Croatia Airlines flight.
Markac added that after their departure for The Hague he would like
the tribunal to stop issuing indictments, and that the final history
of the Homeland War should be written in Croatia rather than abroad.
The lawyers announced that at a court session scheduled for 1600 hours
on Friday, when the accused would enter their pleas, they would file
the already prepared requests for their provisional release pending
trial, with the guarantees of the Croatian government that the accused
would return to The Hague when the tribunal ordered them to do so.
Prodanovic said that the requests could be considered by the tribunal
within the next month or month and a half, after which it would be up
to the tribunal to decide when the provisional release requests would
actually be granted.
Separovic said he was confident that the defence would be successful,
adding that the allegation of a joint criminal enterprise was a
fabrication by the prosecution because, for example, General Ante
Gotovina did not issue orders to Markac.
Muljacic said that the government was still considering ways of
joining in the proceedings and that he believed that this would be in
the form of amicus curiae, or a friend of the court.
Asked if he was carrying a letter from Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to
Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, as had been announced earlier this
week, Muljacic replied in the negative.
(Hina) vm sb