NOBILO: THIS ELECTION WILL DECIDE CROATIA'S PACE TOWARDS E.U.

ZADAR, Oct 31 (Hina) - Speaking at a news conference organised by the Croatian People's Party (HNS) in the Adriatic city of Zadar on Friday, lawyer Anto Nobilo said that the coming parliamentary election would be either for or against the European Union. #L# Nobilo added that Croatia would need a team which would take it into the Union. Speaking in his capacity as defence counsel for Bosnian Croat General Tihomil Blaskic, sentenced by the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal to 45 years in jail, Nobilo told reporters that he had just received information from The Hague that the tribunal accepted some documents from the defence appeal against the first ruling as legally relevant. The lawyer expects that in December the UN court will consider those documents, which he said had been stored in a secret place by the Croatian Intelligence Service (HIS) during HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) rule. Speaking about plans of the HNS regarding Croatia's EU membership bid, Nobilo said that if in the coming month the country lost the rhythm, it would miss a chance to join the Union in 2007. According to him, there are two important conditions which Croatia should meet in order to become eligible for EU membership: cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY) and the reform of the judiciary. As regards cooperation with the ICTY, progress has been made over the past four years. Charges have been dropped against some suspects such as generals Petar Stipetic and Luka Dzanko because pertinent documentation was made available. The case of fugitive general Ante Gotovina, however, burdens Croatia's relations with the entire international community, Nobilo said. The lawyer added that the politicisation of the entire case aggravated the position of Gotovina himself. From the legal point of view, once Gotovina appears in The Hague, there is no chance for him to return to Croatia as General Rahim Ademi did, Nobilo said. (hina) ms