ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - Croatian Vice-Premier Goran Granic said on Tuesday that the government "does not have any information" that the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal has issued an indictment against Croatian General
Janko Bobetko and that a request for his extradition should be arriving, as stated by the Nacional weekly.
ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - Croatian Vice-Premier Goran Granic said on
Tuesday that the government "does not have any information" that
the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal has issued an
indictment against Croatian General Janko Bobetko and that a
request for his extradition should be arriving, as stated by the
Nacional weekly. #L#
"Hague investigations have been undergoing since the spring and new
indictments are to be expected, but at the moment the government
does not have any information" about them, Granic told reporters
after a news conference at which he announced a founding assembly of
his new liberal party -- Libra.
Nacional wrote that the Hague indictment against Bobetko had been
signed and the government informed about it. Citing a source close
to the government, the weekly wrote that the indictment against
Bobetko and the warrant for his extradition to The Hague should be
arriving at Granic's desk. Granic is in charge of relations with the
tribunal.
Prime Minister Ivica Racan said he could neither confirm nor
dismiss speculation that the tribunal had issued an indictment
against the Croatian general and that a request for his extradition
would be arriving this week.
"I can neither confirm nor refute this. I do not know anything about
this information," Racan told reporters during the Croatian
Economic Forum at the Autumn International Zagreb Fair.
The Hague-based international war crimes tribunal having issued an
indictment against general Bobetko and that a request for his
extradition would arrive next week are media speculation, the
spokeswoman for the tribunal, Florance Hartmann, said on Tuesday.
This is media speculation which the tribunal does not comment. At
this time there are no new indictments with regards to Croatia,
Hartmann told Hina over the telephone.
The government's Office for cooperation with the tribunal said it
had no information about an indictment against Bobetko.
"The Office has no knowledge about this," the head of the government
office, Orsat Miljanic, told Hina.
A source in the Croatian government said at the end of March that new
indictments for crimes committed in Croatia were not to be expected
before autumn.
During contacts with the media so far, officials of the tribunal's
prosecution have stated clearly that they were carrying out a
number of investigations into crimes committed in the region of the
former Yugoslavia, including those in Croatia allegedly committed
during Croatian liberation operations "Storm" and "Pocket of
Medak".
The prosecution said two years ago that it intended to complete all
probes by 2004, which means that it should issue all planned
indictments by then.
(hina) lml sb