ZAGREB, Sept 18 (Hina) - Retired Croatian general Janko Bobetko said in an interview for a Croatian weekly, "Globus", that he would not surrender to the Hague tribunal if an indictment against him had been filed, as "Nacional" weekly
wrote.
ZAGREB, Sept 18 (Hina) - Retired Croatian general Janko Bobetko
said in an interview for a Croatian weekly, "Globus", that he would
not surrender to the Hague tribunal if an indictment against him had
been filed, as "Nacional" weekly wrote. #L#
"I have decided that if they come for me, they will not get me alive.
They can only get me out of my house dead. Not wounded. Dead. I will
resist. I would also like to tell them not to send boys to whom I was
commanding officer after me. Let them send (ex-Yugoslavia's
intelligence people)," Bobetko said.
According to him, an indictment from the Hague-based international
war crimes tribunal against him would have only one dimension -- it
would equate the victim with the aggressor.
Asked whether his decision about not going to The Hague if it came to
that was final, the general said that as Europe's eldest anti-
fascist he had asked himself whether he would allow himself to be
taken to The Hague on a leash, to be tried by the impotent Europe
which lost World War Two in eight days.
Asked if he could recall talks at the former Council for Defence and
National Security, based on whose transcripts the Hague tribunal
allegedly began an investigation into him in connection with the
"Pocket of Medak" military operation, Bobetko said that at the
meeting he had reported to the late president Franjo Tudjman what
the operation's commanding officer, general Rahim Ademi, had told
him.
Bobetko said that he believed some home-guards and local residents
were behind crimes committed during the Pocket of Medak operation.
"First of all, I believe that the actions of one home-guard
battalion, under the command of a certain Kosovic, were very
suspicious. Such retaliation should have been foreseen and
prevented... However, those who controlled the withdrawal and
commanded the operation probably didn't do it," Bobetko said.
Prime Minister Ivica Racan and Vice-Premier Goran Granic said on
Tuesday that the government did not have any information about the
Hague tribunal's issuing an indictment against general Bobetko,
nor that a request for his extradition would be arriving.
The spokeswoman for the international tribunal described
Nacional's writing as "media speculation".
(hina) lml sb