ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina)- The USA will offer expert assistance to Croatia to enable its judiciary to take over war crimes trials from the Hague war crimes tribunal, Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic and the US ambassador for war crimes
issues, Pierre-Richard Prosper, said after a meeting in Zagreb on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina)- The USA will offer expert assistance to
Croatia to enable its judiciary to take over war crimes trials from
the Hague war crimes tribunal, Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic
and the US ambassador for war crimes issues, Pierre-Richard
Prosper, said after a meeting in Zagreb on Wednesday. #L#
The talks focused on the co-operation between the Croatian and US
governments in enabling the institutions of the law-based state in
Croatia to take over the prosecution of war crimes from the Hague
tribunal, Granic said.
The two officials also exchanged ideas about co-operation between
Croatia and the Hague tribunal. The US official said his country was
very satisfied with the level of co-operation Croatia had shown
towards the Hague tribunal, adding that his country considered
Croatia a leading country in the region with regard to the solving
of war crime issues.
The two officials said the first group of US experts would visit
Croatia in September and hold meetings with Croatian experts.
The two sides are also expected to agree on the further cooperation
in different fields, from police to courts.
The co-operation would relate to the prosecution of war crimes in
Croatia, both to cases that are already being processed in the
country and those that would be taken over from the Hague tribunal,
as well as to the take-over of documentation, and prosecution based
on evidence collected by the Hague tribunal, Granic said.
Granic believes that Croatia's judiciary is now sitting the test of
credibility and ability to take on war crimes trials and make just
decisions. The dynamics of the entire process would in a way depend
on the quality and conclusions of the current trials, he said.
Today's meeting did not tackle concrete trials, he added.
Asked by journalists how Washington could expect countries in the
region to co-operate with the ICTY if it opposed the establishment
of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Prosper said the US
believed those were two different matters.
Prosper said that the idea of establishing such a court was a noble
one, however, the problem with the ICC was that it was a process that
had not been tested in practice and could not guarantee credible and
fair trials, while in case of the Hague tribunal supervision
measures did exist.
Prosper also met Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic,
Supreme Court president Ivica Crnic, and representatives of the
international community in Zagreb.
(hina) sp rml