HSLS VICE-PRESIDENT APPLAUDS GOVERNMENT'S ACTS

SLAVONSKI BROD, Sept 21 (Hina) - The vice-president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Josko Kontic, said in Osijek on Saturday he hailed the decision by Vice-Premier Goran Granic to suggest that the government proclaim the indictment against General Janko Bobetko as unconstitutional. #L# The government should do the same with indictments against generals Rahim Ademi and Ante Gotovina, he added. "If the government made a mistake last year, it must not make another this year. In this context we applaud the decision to enter a legal dispute with the Hague tribunal, and I am certain that all relevant political forces will support the government in that," Kontic said. He recalled that this was exactly what the HSLS had suggested last year when indictments against Ademi and Gotovina had arrived. "This is why we will open another issue in parliament next week. Last year indictments against Ademi and Gotovina were discussed without most ministers even having seen the indictments. We should find a legal framework and initiate another debate so the issue could once again be found before the government, and so that the government and the entire Croatia take on the same stance towards Ademi and Gotovina as towards General Bobetko. It should return all three indictments to the tribunal because they insulted the dignity of the Croatian people," Kontic said. The content of the indictment against Bobetko confirms that the Hague tribunal's chief interest is not in prosecuting war criminals, but compromising the Croatian army and its commanders, the Homeland War and the Croatian state, he said. "Carla del Ponte cannot set sanctions against Croatia, but can only report it to the UN Security Council. If she does report this, Croatia has nothing to fear because justice and the truth are on its side. A country which has an army capable of winning the war must also have a diplomacy capable of winning in peace," Kontic stressed. (hina) lml