ZAGREB, May 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) rejects the assertions made in the Hague war crimes tribunal's indictment against Ante Gotovina and disapproves of the Croatian government's decision of Saturday to offer a
reward for information about the fugitive general.
ZAGREB, May 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) rejects
the assertions made in the Hague war crimes tribunal's indictment
against Ante Gotovina and disapproves of the Croatian government's
decision of Saturday to offer a reward for information about the
fugitive general. #L#
In a statement read out at a news conference today, HDZ president
Ivo Sanader said the reward offer "degrades and humiliates a
general of the victorious (Croatian) army, which defended and
liberated the state".
The government should provide Gotovina's attorneys with the entire
documentation necessary to defend him, thus helping to contest the
groundless and unacceptable counts of the indictment against him,
said Sanader.
He stressed the HDZ remained committed to cooperation with the
Hague tribunal and condemned all war crimes, but rejected "attempts
to discredit the liberation, legitimate and just... Homeland War
operations and their commanders".
Sanader said he wanted to warn the Croatian and world public about
important facts.
He said that Operation Storm, in which Gotovina was a commander, had
been a legitimate military operation aimed at liberating the
central parts of Croatia and not at the ethnic cleansing of Serbs
from the country, as the indictment against Gotovina states.
The HDZ recalled that Prime Minister Ivica Racan, aware of the
aforementioned, sent a protest note to the Hague tribunal's chief
prosecutor on 18 June 2001 objecting to unacceptable assertions in
the Gotovina indictment.
Sanader said the government and the PM should have entered a legal
dispute with the tribunal's prosecution after Carla Del Ponte
dismissed the note.
Sanader said cooperation with the Hague tribunal envisaged such a
dispute if it referred to "glaring historical and political
revisionism as is the case with the Gotovina indictment".
Sanader recalled a 1994 U.N. General Assembly resolution
recognised that Croatia had been occupied and had the right and duty
to repel the enemy from its territory and liberate the country.
"General Ante Gotovina led that 1995 operation, for which he
deserves all the credit," said Sanader.
He said Croatia and part of the international community had a spate
of complaints about the work of the Hague tribunal. The HDZ
statement read Croatia was entitled to point to inconsistencies and
omissions in the tribunal's work without bringing into question its
cooperation with it.
(hina) ha