WORLD INCREASINGLY RECOGNISES MISERABLE SITUATION OF TRIBUNAL SEPAROVIC

ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - President of the Croatian Victimology Society, Zvonimir Separovic, said on Saturday that the world increasingly recognised the "miserable situation" of the Hague tribunal, and called on the Croatian government to review its relations with the war crimes tribunal. Separovic said even Patricia Wald, a former judge of the tribunal, had warned about the slowness and lack of professionalism of the court, adding that those who surrendered should be freed until the start of the trial. He called on the Croatian parliament to open a discussion on cooperation with the Hague tribunal, to protect the human rights and dignity of, as he put it, Croatia's Homeland Defence War hero, General Ante Gotovina. "In the light of new world analyses, the government should review Gotovina's indictment before Croatian courts, so he could return to his family and life in freedom," Separovic stressed. He asked of the government to also cease any further irrational cooperation with The Hague, and to worry about its own national interests. He also called on the Constitutional Court to cease the silence about requests filed before it to review the constitutionality of the law on cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal and to reach a verdict on the issue. (hina) lml