ZAGREB, July 28 (Hina) - The head of the HONOS association for the protection of Homeland Defence War values on Sunday said that Croatia's authorities misinformed the public when they claimed that General Ante Gotovina must first
appear before the UN war crimes tribunal in order to create conditions for the possible cancellation of an indictment this tribunal issued against him.
ZAGREB, July 28 (Hina) - The head of the HONOS association for the
protection of Homeland Defence War values on Sunday said that
Croatia's authorities misinformed the public when they claimed
that General Ante Gotovina must first appear before the UN war
crimes tribunal in order to create conditions for the possible
cancellation of an indictment this tribunal issued against him.
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HONOS chief Nenad Ivankovic wrote in a statement that the decision
of the Tribunal's prosecution to cancel an indictment against Milan
Zec "clearly shows that Mrs. Carla del Ponte can do such a move even
if the indictee does not appear in The Hague."
Last Friday, the Tribunal (ICTY) decided to cancel, due to a lack of
evidence, the indictment against Milan Zec, accused of command
responsibility for attacks on Dubrovnik in 1991 when he was the
commander of a warship.
Ivankovic urges Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and the
government to take some action so that unfounded suspicions against
Croatian General Gotovina, accused of command responsibility for
crimes perpetrated during the 1995 liberation operation "Storm",
may stop.
The indictment against the Serbian commander Milan Zec has been
withdrawn while he was in absentia, and, as Ivankovic writes, this
decision of the Prosecution shows that claims by President Mesic
and the Ivica Racan cabinet that Gotovina must appear first in The
Hague before his indictment may be cancelled "are false and
primarily politically-motivated assertions."
Ivankovic reiterates that the indictment against Gen. Gotovina is
"on totally shaky legs" and that it "contains no serious evidence on
the General's guilt." He cited statements by a former US Ambassador
to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, and a former head of the Croatian
Helsinki Committee on Human Rights, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, who
regarded Gen. Gotivina as not guilty.
HONOS calls on Croatian authorities to discontinue "the media and
political war against General Gotovina" and to stop supporting the
Tribunal's anti-Croatian bias.
It also appeals to Zagreb to do everything it can to help cancel the
false and groundless indictment against the General Gotivina.
(hina) ms