ZAGREB, June 11 (Hina) - The Croatian government should much more seriously deal with the general circumstances of indictments issued by the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal, according to which Croatia had carried out an
aggression against Bosnia, because a verdict at the tribunal supporting such indictments could have catastrophic historic and material consequences for Croatia, Ivica Pasalic said on Tuesday after returning from The Hague.
ZAGREB, June 11 (Hina) - The Croatian government should much more
seriously deal with the general circumstances of indictments
issued by the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal,
according to which Croatia had carried out an aggression against
Bosnia, because a verdict at the tribunal supporting such
indictments could have catastrophic historic and material
consequences for Croatia, Ivica Pasalic said on Tuesday after
returning from The Hague. #L#
"Individual indictments involve individuals, but the general part,
pertaining to Croatia, is very much the state's business," MP
Pasalic told reporters speaking about his testimony before the
tribunal.
Pasalic had been called to The Hague as a witness for the defence in
the trial against Bosnian Croat Mladen Naletilic Tuta.
In the open part of the court session Pasalic spoke exclusively
about the general section of the indictment, pertaining to the
authority of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
Pasalic said he had stressed that Tudjman's presidential authority
had been in line with the Croatian Constitution and the law, and had
made very little decisions.
He said that as far as Bosnia was concerned, Tudjman had only given
his opinions which were highly respected by Croats in Bosnia, so
even the president of the then Croat community of Herzeg-Bosna,
Mate Boban, had resigned.
Pasalic said that of the documents marked state secret, he had only
been shown a transcript of talks between Tudjman and
representatives of Bosnian Croats held at the president's office in
1993.
He, however, expressed doubt that the transcript was authentic, and
added that he had been shown texts from "Feral" and "Nacional"
weeklies, in which his statements had been placed out of context.
He told reporters that during the closed part of the session he had
given representatives of the prosecution his opinion about some
international representatives.
Asked why he had not checked in with the government's Office for
Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal before leaving for The Hague,
Pasalic said he did not maliciously avoid doing this, but many
people who went to The Hague before him had not done so either.
The entire testimony process, which lasted about two hours, was
very correct and professionally organised, he said.
(hina) lml