KARLOVAC, March 7 (Hina) - Commenting on UN war crimes tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's claim that she would ask the European Union to exert more pressure on Croatia because of insufficient cooperation, President Stjepan
Mesic on Friday said that Zagreb was cooperating with the Hague-based tribunal and that the pressure had never ceased.
KARLOVAC, March 7 (Hina) - Commenting on UN war crimes tribunal
Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's claim that she would ask the
European Union to exert more pressure on Croatia because of
insufficient cooperation, President Stjepan Mesic on Friday said
that Zagreb was cooperating with the Hague-based tribunal and that
the pressure had never ceased. #L#
"One general (Rahim Ademi) is defending himself in freedom, the
other (Janko Bobetko) is at hospital, and it is no longer in the
jurisdiction of state authorities but of doctors whether he can
answer questions from the tribunal. In four months time they
(doctors) will again examine his condition, while one general (Ante
Gotovina) is on the run," Mesic said during his visit to Karlovac
(50 kilometres south of Zagreb).
The head of state added the problems would be solved "if the
authorities knew his whereabouts".
"I assert that Gotovina is a victim of his advisors who wish neither
him nor Croatia any good. Whoever is in power, the authorities in
Croatia must comply with the rules of the Hague-based tribunal.
Politicising 'the Gotovina case' is detrimental to everybody, and
to him and his family the most," Mesic said.
With regard to Slovene reactions to his idea of expanding a Croatian
economic belt in the Adriatic, Mesic said the Slovenes had probably
misinterpreted him, given that such an idea offered a unique
opportunity for them to remove this issue from the agenda, so that
it would no longer burden bilateral relations.
"If Croatia and Italy proclaim an economic belt, we will be able to
control tankers sailing the Adriatic, use our ports and fully
supervise them so as to protect the sea, but also to solve the issue
with Slovenia which will be given harmless passage as far as Otranto
(..) which certainly suits them in the economic and political
sense," he explained.
"I don't know of what rights they would be deprived. All that they
asked for, access to open seas, they will get, and I don't see any
reason for making a problem out of it," he added.
Mesic said the foreign minister of Serbia and Montenegro, Goran
Svilanovic, had invited him to visit Belgrade during a conference
of the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) which will
draw officials from Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Macedonia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Croatia.
"This is a multilateral event and we shall be present there
regardless of which country hosts it," Mesic said.
Commenting on the suicide of a conscript in the Koprivnica barracks
and allegations of the harassment of conscripts in the Croatian
army, the president responded that it was a great tragedy that a
young man had taken his own life, and added that there was no
evidence that there had been abuse in this case.
(hina) ms sb