GOVT TO APPOINT LAWYER MIKULICIC COUNCILLOR IN GOTOVINA CASE

ZAGREB, June 30 (Hina) - The government said Monday it would appoint attorney Goran Mikulicic at its next session a legal representative in the case of retired Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina, whom the UN war crimes tribunal at the Hague indicted for war crimes during and after the Storm liberation operation in August 1995. #L# A government source, who wished to remain anonymous, told reporters he expected positive developments in the Gotovina case "within the next several weeks". "Stalling is not good to anyone...stalling would discredited (President Stjepan) Mesic's initiative," said the source alluding to the president's recent initiative aimed at Gotovina's cooperation with the Hague tribunal (ICTY). Answering to a reporter's question about the government's attitude about Mesic's initiative, the source said "the government's attitude from the beginning is that the only solution is Gotovina's surrender to the ICTY". "We support Mesic's initiative should it help Gotovina make a decision to appear in court. In this sense Mesic's initiative is to the benefit of both General Gotovina and Croatia," the source from the government said. A lawyer from Zagreb, Goran Mikulicic, was also the government's legal representative in the case of another ICTY indictee, the late general Janko Bobetko, and before that he represented Bosnian Croats Mario Cerkez and Zlatko Aleksovski, also indicted by the ICTY. (hina) it sb