SARAJEVO, April 5 (Hina) - The government of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina is willing to consider a request to give guarantees for the provisional release of former political and military officials of Herceg Bosna indicted by
the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Federation Vice Premier Gavrilo Grahovac has said.
SARAJEVO, April 5 (Hina) - The government of the Federation of
Bosnia-Herzegovina is willing to consider a request to give guarantees
for the provisional release of former political and military officials
of Herceg Bosna indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague,
Federation Vice Premier Gavrilo Grahovac has said.#L#
In a statement to Sarajevo's Dnevni Avaz daily, Grahovac, who
currently represents the absent Premier Ahmet Hadzipasic, also said
that he could not prejudge the final position of the government on the
request because the government needed to gather the necessary
documents and discuss the matter before making a decision on it.
"As in previous cases, when guarantees were given for Sefer Halilovic
or Naser Oric, the government will apply strict criteria which must be
met before guarantees are given," Grahovac said.
The basic criterion is a voluntary surrender of the indictee, as well
as security evaluations by the interior ministry of the canton where
the indictee resides and by the federal interior ministry, he said.
Ahead of the departure of six Bosnian Croat war crimes indictees to
The Hague, all Sarajevo media carried Jadranko Prlic's statement in
which he disclaimed responsibility for war crimes committed in Herceg
Bosna.
"Oslobodjenje" daily brings on its front page an interview with Prlic,
in which he claims that Mate Boban, as the first man of Herceg Bosna,
did not allow anyone to interfere in military and police affairs and
that he (Prlic) was only in charge of economic and financial issues.
He also expressed surprise with the fact that he was indicted along
with Franjo Tudjman for trying to establish a Greater Croatia on the
model of the state which existed in 1939, adding that he did not even
know where the boundaries of that state lay.
(Hina) rml