ZAGREB, May 3 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said on Monday that the Government had received assurances from the Hague tribunal prosecution that it would not oppose a request for the pre-trial release of two Croatian generals
after they were interviewed.
ZAGREB, May 3 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said on Monday that
the Government had received assurances from the Hague tribunal
prosecution that it would not oppose a request for the pre-trial
release of two Croatian generals after they were interviewed.#L#
"Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt has talked to Chief Prosecutor
Carla del Ponte, and we have been given assurances that she will
withdraw her objection to generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak being
released after she interviews them," Sanader said in a Croatian Radio
programme.
The prime minister said that according to his information interviews
could be conducted this month, adding that it would be decided by the
indicted generals and their lawyers.
"I think that the situation can still be changed substantially and
that Cermak and Markac will prepare for the trial while at liberty in
Croatia," he said.
Sanader recalled that after the two generals voluntarily surrendered
to the tribunal, the chief prosecutor requested that interviews be
conducted first and that after that she would agree that the accused
be provisionally released pending trial.
The prime minister went on to say that his government had ordered an
investigation following last week's publication of confidential
documents in a weekly.
"Such and some other press articles have certainly not helped generals
Markac and Cermak," he said.
A Croatian weekly said that Carla del Ponte had exerted pressure on
Croatia and used the case of fugitive general Ante Gotovina as "proof"
that the Hague Tribunal did not have to complete all the cases by 2010
as foreseen.
Sanader reiterated his earlier expectation that Croatia would be ready
for EU entry by 2007 and that it would receive membership candidate
status and a date for the start of entry talks at a meeting of the
Council of Europe this June.
He said that candidate status would give Croatia nearly the same
status as that of an associate member of the EU because of the
possibility of using pre-accession funds for vital projects. "And
that's no small amount of money," he added.
The prime minister reiterated that Croatia's Stabilisation and
Association Agreement with the European Union was expected to be
ratified by the parliaments of Britain and Italy soon. He expressed
confidence the two countries would support Croatia's application for
EU membership.
Speaking of Britain's insistence that Croatia resolve the Gotovina
case, Sanader said that Croatia had clearly stated several times that
there was no alternative to cooperation with the Hague tribunal and
that it wanted to defend the full truth about the Homeland War in
court.
"Great Britain will not expect from us more than other EU members,"
the prime minister said, calling on General Gotovina to defend his
innocence and the truth about what had happened in the war before the
tribunal.
(Hina) vm