ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - Croatian Defence Minister Zeljka Antunovic has said that the government's decision on the U.S. request is of both political and operative character.
ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - Croatian Defence Minister Zeljka Antunovic
has said that the government's decision on the U.S. request is of
both political and operative character. #L#
"The decision to grant the U.S. request refers to our permission, if
and when it may be asked, to allow overflights of civilian transport
aircraft in accordance with our obligations from co-operation in
combating international terrorism," Minister Antunovic said at the
opening of a centre for self-learning of foreign languages at the
command of the "Petar Zrinski" military academy in Zagreb on
Thursday.
Present at the opening of this modern centre were the ambassadors of
the United States and Great Britain, Lawrence Rossin and Nicholas
Jarrold, whose countries financed this school with some US$200,000
and some GBP50,000 respectively. The Croatian government earmarked
one million kuna for this purpose.
On behalf of the American authorities and himself, Ambassador
Rossin thanked the Croatian government for the decision and the
support Zagreb offered in the struggle against terrorism.
Speaking to reporters, the Croatian defence minister said that
Zagreb so far had not received any concrete request for overflights
of the above-mentioned planes.
"But we have announcements that, if necessary, this will be asked of
us. Military or combat aircraft are not in question, those are
civilian planes the cargo of which will be verified pursuant to
international rules. Those aircraft are not of military character
but they are state aircraft of the United States or its partners in
the coalition against Iraq," Antunovic said.
Asked whether such planes might transport arms, she said Zagreb did
not know whether they would transport weapons and that it had no
indications that the arms might be transported aboard such planes.
"This may happen, but there is a procedure for reporting and
approving in case of such cargo, she explained.
According to her, one of the tasks of the ministerial task force
which the Ivica Racan Cabinet set up yesterday is to assess the
duration of those overflights and which corridors would be used for
such airlifts as well as to assess compensation which Zagreb might
ask because of other potential users of the national air space.
The minister added that according to unofficial talks which had
been led so far, the United States and its partners were willing to
pay all regular costs, but no formal requests had been filed to
date.
She declined to say what exactly the Americans asked in their non-
paper, explaining that the contents of that letter were
confidential.
Antunovic described expectations as sensible, and added that she
did not want to speculate what might happen in the coming days. She
believes that Croatia will not be asked for a direct engagement in a
possible war against Iraq.
The minister added that her country "recognises the importance of
international cooperation and in cases when the joint fight against
international terrorism and undemocratic regimes is required".
"However, we prefer actions which stimulate peace," she said,
adding that learning foreign languages was one of such moves.
Ambassadors Rossin and Jarrold agreed on the importance of such a
school within the defence ministry.
Jarrold said that Croatia's readiness to cooperate was one of the
pre-conditions for its association with NATO.