MESIC: I HAVE NO REASON TO DISTRUST ICTY CHIEF PROSECUTOR

ZAGREB, May 19 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said on Monday that he accepted as credible the rebuttal which the U.N. war crimes tribunal (ICTY) prosecution offered to last week's alleged statement by Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that the Croatian government knew where runaway General Ante Gotovina was. #L# "The tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, denied what our press reported and there is no reason for me to distrust her," said the president when asked to comment on a claim by the ICTY prosecution that Del Ponte had not said in Washington that the Croatian government knew Gotovina's whereabouts. Del Ponte's office issued a press release this weekend, saying that Voice of America had incorrectly relayed Del Ponte's words about the Croatian government knowing about Gotovina's whereabouts, but not wishing to arrest him. Voice of America, however, said it had relayed Del Ponte's words accurately, from a transcript of her speech before the U.S. Congress' Helsinki committee in Washington. "What is certain is that I have no information about General Gotovina's whereabouts and neither has the government," said Mesic in reply to reporters' questions after presenting the Croatia Exclusive publication at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. (hina) lml sb