ZAGREB, April 27 (Hina) - At the request of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia, Croatian Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic met OSCE Mission Chief Peter Semneby on Tuesday for talks on
Croatia's progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
ZAGREB, April 27 (Hina) - At the request of the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia, Croatian
Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic met OSCE Mission Chief Peter
Semneby on Tuesday for talks on Croatia's progress towards
Euro-Atlantic integration. #L#
Roncevic said Semneby was interested in how the Defence Ministry had
dealt with criminal cases within the jurisdiction of military courts
and military prosecutors at the time when military courts operated
separately.
"I told Ambassador Semneby that all the cases initiated at that time
had been transferred to regular courts and that the Defence Ministry
had no jurisdiction over those criminal cases," Roncevic told
reporters after the talks that lasted three times longer than
scheduled.
Roncevic said that his ministry was not involved in the arrests of a
certain number of returning Serb refugees, as claimed by the OSCE
Mission Chief, and that the Military Police were responsible only for
active servicemen.
The Defence Ministry pledged to submit a report to the OSCE within the
shortest time possible on "respect for owners' rights to residential
property".
Semneby said that the talks particularly focused on NATO's Membership
Action Plan and the political part of the Annual National Programme
(ANP).
We discussed the efforts Croatia was making in advancing towards
Euro-Atlantic integration and ways in which parts of the international
community can help Croatia in its further progress, Semneby said.
He said that the activities set out in the two programmes matched
those of the OSCE.
Congratulating Croatia on the positive opinion from the European
Commission on its application for EU membership, Semneby said that the
positive avis represented a good basis for addressing some of the
difficult issues Croatia was facing.
In a brief statement, he reiterated that he saw Croatia as a
stabilising factor and an important player in Southeast Europe.
Croatia has an extraordinary opportunity to contribute to one of the
strategic goals of the EU and NATO -- to assist in stabilising
Southeast Europe, he said.
(Hina) vm