HKDU: CROATIA MUST NOT GIVE IN TO ICTY BLACKMAIL

ZAGREB, April 17 (Hina) - The Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HKDU) party believes that Croatia must not give in to "blackmail" that it must extradite General Ante Gotovina in order to access the EU, as the chief prosecutor for the U.N. war crimes tribunal (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, said yesterday after a visit to the Croatian government. #L# "The prosecutor is asking for Ante Gotovina's head, blackmailing Croatia with its membership in the EU, to which the Croatian government and state must not consent," the president of the HKDU, Anto Kovacevic, told Thursday's news conference. He said it was scandalous for Del Ponte to equate General Gotovina, who, he said, had defended Croatia, with war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who had killed across Croatia. "The Hague prosecutor wants Gotovina because there is no other person of this profile in Croatia on her list, so that after Gotovina is convicted she may accuse Croatia of genocide and ethnic cleansing," he said. Kovacevic said the HKDU would advocate the reopening of the issue of cooperation with the ICTY in parliament, as well as amendments to the constitutional law on cooperation with the ICTY. He, thus, opposes Gotovina's extradition and condemns the government "which opened the hunting season on Gotovina and the Homeland War". Kovacevic believes the recent resignation of Zagreb County state prosecutor Krunoslav Canjuga, who has been suspected of violating the law, is yet another electoral trick by the government aimed at creating a better image for itself before voters. "Without a radical revision of the privatisation process and the punishment of illegal acts, Croatia will continue to be a dominion of corruption and crime and will never be a law-based state," said the president of the HKDU. (hina) lml