ZAGREB, May 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) will ask the Parliament's presidency to put relations with the UN war crimes tribunal as the first item on the agenda of the next parliament session to include a debate on the
tribunal's indictments against generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak and six war-time Bosnian Croat leaders.
ZAGREB, May 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) will ask the
Parliament's presidency to put relations with the UN war crimes
tribunal as the first item on the agenda of the next parliament
session to include a debate on the tribunal's indictments against
generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak and six war-time
Bosnian Croat leaders.#L#
HSP leader Anto Djapic told a news conference on Tuesday that his
party would not accept another delay of a parliamentary discussion on
the matter as he believes that after a trial chamber of the ICTY
denied Markac and Cermak provisional release there is no more reason
for delaying the debate.
The parliament was to discuss unacceptable allegations from the latest
ICTY indictments at its session last Friday but Parliament President
Vladimir Seks and the heads of the clubs of deputies and parties
agreed a day before to postpone the debate until the next
parliamentary sitting.
Asked to comment on Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's statement that he was
convinced that generals Cermak and Markac would be temporarily
released after interviews with the tribunal's prosecutors, Djapic said
he did not believe in such an outcome.
"They (the authorities) used to say that they were sure that the
generals would be in Croatia until Easter (11 April), but nothing
happened," the chief of the right opposition party told reporters. He
added that the prosecution interviewing the generals while they were
in custody would violate the rights of the two indictees.
Last Friday the Croatian Justice Ministry reported that the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had
refused to grant retired Croatian generals Mladen Markac and Ivan
Cermak provisional release before they were interviewed by the
prosecution.
Djapic said the HSP would insist that the government take concrete
action before the UN Security Council pertaining to this issue.
He announced his party's amendments to the law on property which would
prevent the sale of Croatian islands, and warned that four islands had
to date been sold.
The HSP will also insist on declaring Sunday the day of rest and will
move amendments to the law on commerce which would regulate the issue
in accordance with the German and Austrian model, Djapic said.
(Hina) ms