WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Hina) - Lawyers of Croatian General Ante Gotovina believe that the Croatian government should proclaim the UN tribunal's indictment against Gotovina also as being contrary to the country's constitution, and they
support the suggestion which a Vice Premier Goran Granic, who is the head of the council for the cooperation with the ICTY, expressed on Friday night in relation to the ICTY's indictment against General Janko Bobetko.
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Hina) - Lawyers of Croatian General Ante
Gotovina believe that the Croatian government should proclaim the
UN tribunal's indictment against Gotovina also as being contrary to
the country's constitution, and they support the suggestion which a
Vice Premier Goran Granic, who is the head of the council for the
cooperation with the ICTY, expressed on Friday night in relation to
the ICTY's indictment against General Janko Bobetko. #L#
We welcome Mr. Granic's stand but we would like to point out that the
same unconstitutional accusations are in the indictment against
General Gotovina, read a statement signed by a Chicago lawyer, Luka
Misetic.
Misetic recalls that points 13 and 16 of the tribunal's indictment
against his client are almost identical to two counts from the
Bobetko indictment.
The Hague-based Tribunal has indicted Gotovina for crimes
committed in the 1995 liberating operation called "Storm", while
the tribunal holds Gen. Bobetko responsible for some acts committed
during the 1993 liberating operation in the Medak Pocket.
Granic said on Friday night that he would propose to the government
to proclaim the indictment against General Bobetko as
unconstitutional, and that Zagreb should enter a legal dispute with
the tribunal on whether the indictment was in line with the Croatian
Constitution. Granic explained that the indictment denied the
tasks which the Constitution gave to the Armed Forces.
The obligation of the Armed Forces, as well as of General Bobetko,
was to liberate the Medak Pocket from terrorists who continuously
shelled Gospic from that area and destroyed property, and killed
people," Granic said explaining that therefore it was General
Bobetko's duty to ensure that the Medak Pocket operation be carried
out.
Lawyer Luka Misetic has said that Granic's statement shows that the
Croatian government has always had possibilities for the legal
battle against the injustice inflicted to Ante Gotovina.
In this context Luka Misetic appealed on the Croatian authorities
to protect the constitutional rights of his client.
(hina) ms