"Insisting on Gotovina's hand-over to The Hague has been a constant for several years and the latest deterioration of this issue which is insisted on by (UN tribunal) chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte and the European Union cannot be a surprise to anyone," Racan said at a news conference in his party's offices.
This could have surprised only those "in the authorities who were overly optimistic and self-pleasing in assessing their successes on the foreign policy front, claiming that there were no more obstacles on Croatia's path," the leader of the strongest opposition party said.
"There is only one way -- to do everything possible to discover the whereabouts of General Gotovina, if he is in Croatia, or to discover his whereabouts abroad through those who cooperate and communicate with him and are obviously in Croatia. I know no other way," Racan said.
Racan said that his government had done everything possible in that regard, although it encountered major resistance from a part of the public, especially the opposition.
"Now it is probably clearer that the government which I led had no easy time defending the principle of cooperation with the Hague tribunal and solving outstanding issues through cooperation. We were successful - we did not jeopardise Croatia's integration with the European Union," Racan said.
He wished the equal amount of success to Ivo Sanader's government, adding that it was "in the general interest not to threaten Croatia's path to the EU and remain isolated".
Answering a reporter's question, Racan said he knew nothing about the government giving guarantees regarding the arrest of General Gotovina in spring this year, before Croatia received the European Commission's opinion about its membership application, but added that "there are other examples of the government easily giving promises which turned out difficult to fulfil".
Racan said that the former government had difficult time being credible before the Hague tribunal, as the then opposition and part of the state apparatus were against cooperation with the tribunal and Gotovina's appearance before it.
The incumbent government has a credibility problem considering the views its members had a year or two years ago, he added.
The former prime minister recalled that his government, too, had encountered very difficult situations including the so-called Gospic group, the arrest and trial of General Mirko Norac, and the indictments against generals Janko Bobetko and Gotovina, but that it had solved them successfully without jeopardising the country's integration with the EU.
"This is not a matter of a few months, this is a matter of an entire phase and the loss of the possibility to join the EU before 2010, which is a serious problem."