GRANIC SAYS DEL PONTE'S REPORT WITHIN EXPECTATIONS

ZAGREB, Oct 10 (Hina) - The report by the chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal to the UN Security Council on Thursday is "within our expectations" and we hope it will show that Croatia "takes its commitments seriously," Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said in a Croatian television current affairs programme on Thursday night. #L# The views Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte presented in the report "are derived from the statements she made during her latest visit to Zagreb," Granic said. He said that the report highlighted the need of the prosecutor's office to obtain new time limits and extend its work by shifting the responsibility on to the countries that were not cooperative or were cooperating slowly. Speaking of fugitive Croatian army general Ante Gotovina, the deputy prime minister reiterated that the prosecutor's office had insisted for a long time that the general was hiding in Croatia. "That's the easiest thing to do, because in that case responsibility to arrest (Gotovina) lies with the Croatian authorities," Granic said. "Until his whereabouts are established, we allow for the possibility that he is in Croatia. But our investigations have shown that he is not in Croatia," Granic said, adding that the authorities did not rule out the possibility that the general was changing his location. He said that the same assumption was contained in Del Ponte's report, but not so explicitly as before. Asked to comment on the report by Tribunal President Theodor Meron, Granic said that his report was more objective, because he is president of the tribunal, whereas investigators and prosecutors cannot be so objective in view of their positions. Asked about new requests that were mentioned by Del Ponte, Granic said the requests referred only to documents and that they were in the process of being fulfilled. "We do not have any information about new indictments, but we do know that some investigations are in progress. When will the prosecution issue indictments is a matter of their own decision," Granic said, adding that he expected some trials to be referred to the Croatian state prosecutor. (hina) vm