MESIC TELLS DAILY GOTOVINA MADE CRUCIAL MOVE BY GIVING INTERVIEW

ZAGREB, June 30 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said in an interview for Tuesday's Vecernji List daily that General Ante Gotovina made tactical progress by giving an interview to the Nacional weekly and that he had reacted after that. #L# "From the interview in Nacional it is obvious that Gotovina recognises the Hague tribunal and that he was not enabled to talk to ICTY investigators. Now, some protectors are coming forward and saying that he (Gotovina) knew they were looking for him. How come they are saying it now and they didn't say it before?", Mesic wonders. Commenting on a reporter's remark that even Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Gotovina knew because she was sending him messages through various mediators, Mesic said "she received the information for second hand". "There is nobody in the circle of her close associates and investigators for whom one could say that he/she spoke to Gotovina and that Gotovina declined to talk to ICTY investigators and the tribunal. She received the message that Gotovina did not wish to meet the investigators and that is quite another thing," said Mesic. "He said he "advocated that Gotovina be enabled an interview, but how will this be conducted, in line with the same or amended statute, with investigators or judges, in Zagreb or The Hague, that is the issue to be dealt with by the tribunal", said Mesic. Asked what would he do if Gotovina appeared in his office, Mesic said his "office must inform the government's office for cooperation with the Hague tribunal that Gotovina voluntary appeared and then they should deal with the tribunal whether the warrant for Gotovina should stay and how to conduct the case". Mesic said he insisted on political and legal solution to this issue on which the government also insisted. Croatia's head of state said Gotovina now had a great opportunity to "explain both where he was and what was he doing". (hina) it