ZAGREB, Oct 23 (Hina) - The Croatian government will decide next Wednesday that it cannot implement the parliamentary conclusion binding it to ensure legal assistance and access to documents to all people suspected or indicted by the
Hague war crimes tribunal and their attorneys, Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said on Thursday.
ZAGREB, Oct 23 (Hina) - The Croatian government will decide next
Wednesday that it cannot implement the parliamentary conclusion
binding it to ensure legal assistance and access to documents to all
people suspected or indicted by the Hague war crimes tribunal and
their attorneys, Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said on
Thursday. #L#
The government should stick by its position that it will fulfil
obligations from the Constitutional Law on cooperation with the
U.N. tribunal as well as international commitments, he told
reporters.
Granic said that at today's closed-door session, PM Ivica Racan
defined his stance on the parliamentary conclusion and announced
the government would define its position on Wednesday.
The conclusion was the reason for Granic's resignation from the
post of chairman of the government's Council for Cooperation with
the Hague Tribunal.
The government today revised the Decree on the Council, deciding
that Council sessions will be convened and chaired by the PM, and
that the PM, or a Council member appointed by him, will chair the
body.
The Council will meet according to necessity, but at least once in
three months. The inner Council comprises the PM, the deputy PM in
charge of internal affairs, and the ministers of justice and war
veterans' affairs.
Reviewing the past three and a half years he was at the helm of the
Council, Granic said cooperation with the tribunal had been
professional if one disregarded the case of fugitive General Ante
Gotovina. This case is not the Council's issue, but the result of
other institutions' performance as well as the international
community's cooperation, he added.
Granic said the parliamentary conclusion was strictly in the
service of next month's parliamentary elections.
He dismissed speculation that over the past 18 months he and Racan
had not agreed about every move concerning the Hague tribunal.
"The PM and I disagree on some tactical matters but those are
irrelevant differences. We cooperated well."
Asked for a comment on General Luka Dzanko's recent claim that the
government's cooperation with the Hague tribunal's suspects was
poor, Granic said one should keep in mind objective circumstances
and that archives are in disarray.
(hina) ha