ZAGREB, April 5 (Hina) - Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said on Monday the procedure for the six war crimes indictees who went to The Hague today was identical to the one used with the previously departed generals Mladen
Markac and Ivan Cermak.
ZAGREB, April 5 (Hina) - Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt
said on Monday the procedure for the six war crimes indictees who went
to The Hague today was identical to the one used with the previously
departed generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak.#L#
Asked why no one from the government had been at the Zagreb airport to
see them off, the minister reiterated the procedure was identical and
that it had been agreed that both Markac and Cermak and today's six
would leave with the same status, accompanied by the assistant justice
minister, and that the government had provided guarantees for them as
it had for Markac and Cermak.
Skare-Ozbolt added she would go to The Hague if necessary to give
verbal guarantees for the six who left today as she had with Markac
and Cermak.
Asked by reporters if the Croatian government had contacted the
Bosnian Federation government about the protection of those six, who
also have Croatian citizenship, the minister said that under the
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Croatia is obliged to care
for its citizens. "We are acting in accordance with the Vienna
Convention. We care for our citizens, regardless of their having dual
citizenship."
Asked if she knew why the Hague tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del
Ponte, objected to Markac and Cermak being released pending trial,
Skare-Ozbolt said del Ponte wanted to interview them in The Hague.
The decision on the provisional release is up to the tribunal, she
said, adding it would be made soon.
(Hina) ha sb