ZAGREB, Sept 12 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Friday that Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, would be arrested "if Croatian services knew that he is in Croatia
and where he is".
ZAGREB, Sept 12 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Friday
that Croatian Army General Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the UN
war crimes tribunal in The Hague, would be arrested "if Croatian
services knew that he is in Croatia and where he is". #L#
Racan was commenting on today's statement by the tribunal's chief
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that she hoped Bosnian Serb wartime
leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, and General Gotovina
would be arrested and handed over to the tribunal before the end of
the year.
The Croatian prime minister added that he hoped "if Gotovina was
somewhere else, the authorities of that country would arrest him
and meet the tribunal's demand".
"The Croatian government has had no contact with General Gotovina,"
Racan told reporters in the Croatian parliament.
He recalled that when Gotovina had expressed readiness to cooperate
with the Hague tribunal in an interview this summer, Racan had said
that "the general has taken a good step, but must also take another
step, start cooperating with the Hague tribunal and defend himself
there".
"I said it then and I am saying it now," Racan stressed, reiterating
that Gotovina's surrender to the tribunal would be good both for him
and for Croatia.
If Gotovina does not turn himself in voluntarily, and if he is in
Croatia, we have no choice left but to arrest him, the prime
minister said.
Responding to a journalist's comment that the time was running out
in the Gotovina case as certain countries made the ratification of
the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU
conditional on his arrest, Racan said that "the Croatian government
is making every effort to fulfil all its commitments and rejects any
implications at its expense".
"We are ready to inform our friends of the steps we are taking. I do
not think that Croatia should be punished for being unable to arrest
Gotovina, because he is not in Croatia," Racan said. He added that
the critics should be more considerate when exerting pressure on
Croatia.
"We are aware of our international commitments, especially when it
comes to cooperation with the Hague tribunal, and we are not
opportunistic about it. What we cannot accept is to be punished for
something we cannot do," he said.
Earlier on Friday, Carla Del Ponte presented priorities of her new
term of office approved by UN Security Council Resolution 1503.
She told a press conference in The Hague her priorities were to
complete all investigations in 2004 and secure the surrender of the
remaining 17 fugitives.
"The Croatian government should immediately transfer Ante Gotovina
to The Hague, and Serbia and Montenegro should do the same with
Ratko Mladic. The Bosnian Serbs should extend all cooperation to
apprehend Karadzic," the chief prosecutor said.
Warning that a delay in the apprehension of all the fugitives would
threaten the tribunal's "exit strategy", Del Ponte named for the
first time the so-called "Srebrenica five", who are indicted for
genocide.
Of the 17 fugitives, 15 are from the Serb entity of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, eight of whom are charged with genocide. Gotovina is
the only Croat on the list.
Del Ponte concluded the press conference by saying that "this
tribunal will not close its doors without Karadzic, Mladic and
Gotovina on trial".
(hina) vm