During his visit to the northern town of Ludbreg on Tuesday, Mesic was asked to comment on a report on Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal which Meron submitted to the UN General Assembly yesterday. Recalling his meeting with Meron in Zagreb two weeks ago, he said that he had told Meron that all Croatian citizens requested to appear before the tribunal under the Constitutional Law on Cooperation with the ICTY - indictees, witnesses and suspects alike - had responded to the tribunal's request, except for General Ante Gotovina, who was out of the reach of police.
"Efforts are being made to trace him, we have checked everything and the conclusion has always been the same - General Gotovina is not in Croatia. We cannot go beyond our abilities. Gotovina was in the French Foreign Legion, he has French citizenship and Croatia is the only country where he definitely would not be hiding because he would be threatened here the most," Mesic said.
Asked to comment on a memorandum of understanding between Croatia and the US army envisaging the use of Croatia's air space, training ranges, air and naval ports by the US army, which Jutarnji List daily of Tuesday reports was signed in July, Mesic said that he had not been informed of negotiations about the memorandum. "When my advisors obtain it, we will analyse it and if command hierarchy was violated, I will take the necessary steps," Mesic said adding that he had learned of the memorandum from the press and that he would request a report on the matter from the defence minister.
Jutarnji List quotes Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic as saying that the memorandum was a good document that was drawn up by representatives of all interested ministries and that there was no room for claims that the negotiations were secret. The daily also claims that apart from President Mesic, the Croatian Mission to NATO was not consulted with regard to the memorandum either.