FALSIFIED DOCUMENTS DELIVERED TO HAGUE TRIBUNAL - CROATIAN BLOC

ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - The Croatian Bloc (HB) has grounds to suspect that the government delivered to the Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia documents which were very likely falsified, spokesman Krunoslav Gasparic said on Thursday. #L# He backed his claim with a recent statement by Luka Dzanko, a Croatian general against whom the U.N. tribunal dropped charges, who said that the tribunal's investigators had allegedly been given forged documents about him. Gasparic said Dzanko had refuted the prosecution's accusations by submitting his own, original documents. According to the HB spokesman, the doubts would be dispelled if the government acted on parliament's conclusion on granting the lawyers of Ante Gotovina, the fugitive general wanted by the Hague tribunal, access to documents it had forwarded to the tribunal. Gasparic and HB Presidency member Milan Kovac said there were no legal obstacles which would prevent Gotovina's defence team from being granted access to the documents. Commenting on the government's decision yesterday to deny such access, Gasparic said it was unconstitutional and undermined the principles of parliamentary democracy. The HB accuses the government of trying to obstruct Gotovina's right to defend himself. Gasparic recalled the HB had put to parliament amendments to the constitutional law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal, and said the party would insist they be adopted after elections. The changes are necessary to move the Gotovina case from the sphere of politics to that of the judiciary. In a meeting with citizens at an open market in the southern Adriatic port of Split today, HB president Ivic Pasalic reiterated his party was against Gotovina's extradition to the Hague tribunal. He also supported a strike Split Polytechnic students have staged due to a government decree on its integration into Split University. (hina) ha