THE HAGUE, Sept 25 (Hina) - Croatia and the Office of the Prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague have completely different information about the whereabouts of fugitive Croatian Army general Ante Gotovina, so the two
sides failed to solve this problem at a meeting of Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic and Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte in The Hague on Thursday.
THE HAGUE, Sept 25 (Hina) - Croatia and the Office of the Prosecutor
of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague have completely different
information about the whereabouts of fugitive Croatian Army
general Ante Gotovina, so the two sides failed to solve this problem
at a meeting of Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic and
Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte in The Hague on Thursday. #L#
"The position of the Croatian government, that General Gotovina is
not under our jurisdiction at the moment, was presented at the
meeting. The problem, however, did not go away, and we shall
continue in our efforts to resolve it in cooperation with services
of other countries," Granic said after the meeting.
He said that the meeting also focused on other aspects of
cooperation, adding that talks with the chief prosecutor would
resume in Zagreb on October 6.
Describing the meeting as a good preparation for talks in Zagreb,
Granic expressed satisfaction with its outcome and said that
Croatia expected that the chief prosecutor's report to the UN
Security Council would be positive.
Del Ponte did not speak to the press after the meeting, but her
spokeswoman Florance Hartmann said that the Office of the
Prosecutor and Croatia had completely opposite information about
where Gotovina was hiding.
Our information confirms that Gotovina is in Croatia. The problem
has not been solved and we will continue working on his arrest,
Hartmann said.
Asked if this meant that the Prosecutor's Office did not trust the
Croatian side, she repeated that the Prosecutor's Office had other
information.
As regards the report to the Security Council, Hartmann said it
would depend on the resolution of the Gotovina case.
The report will be based on facts. Whether the arrest warrant is
carried out by relevant bodies or not, that will be contained in the
report, Hartmann said when asked to comment on the optimism of the
Croatian side regarding the report which Del Ponte is due to submit
to the Security Council on October 16.
Under discussion were also other issues relating to cooperation,
such as access to documents, and the spokeswoman said that
cooperation on this matter was very good.
Apart from Granic, the Croatian delegation included Justice
Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic, Chief State Prosecutor Mladen
Bajic, Jaksa Muljacic of the office for cooperation with the
tribunal, and the government's legal representative in the
Gotovina case, Goran Mikulicic.
(hina) vm