ZAGREB, Oct 6 (Hina) - General Janko Bobetko must arrive in The Hague and appear before judges of the international war crimes tribunal, and after that the judges will ask doctors for their opinion on Bobetko's health condition on the
basis of which he might not be taken into custody, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said in an interview published in Monday's issue of the "Jutarnji List" daily.
ZAGREB, Oct 6 (Hina) - General Janko Bobetko must arrive in The
Hague and appear before judges of the international war crimes
tribunal, and after that the judges will ask doctors for their
opinion on Bobetko's health condition on the basis of which he might
not be taken into custody, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla
del Ponte, said in an interview published in Monday's issue of the
"Jutarnji List" daily. #L#
She said she allowed a possibility that health might be the reason
for not taking Bobetko into the detention centre, but Bobetko must
arrive in The Hague, appear before judges and enter a plea of guilty
or not guilty.
The ICTY's chief prosecutor stressed that it was judges who would
ask experts to establish whether the Croatian general was ill or
not.
Asked whether the indictee might enter the plea via the video link,
del Ponte answered that this had never been done, and reiterated
that indictee must come before ICTY judges in the Hague for his
first appearance and the entering of the plea.
Asked about the possibility that due to the general's health
condition, the ICTY judges might come in Zagreb, she responded that
she saw that Bobetko was giving interviews, appeared to be well and
lively and, she said, even aggressive, and therefore the chief
prosecutor could not see any reason for him not being fit to travel
to The Hague.
If Bobetko arrives in The Hague voluntarily, enters the plea of
guilty or not guilty and answers our questions, we could agree that
he defend himself in freedom, she said adding that she did not
insist on his detention in custody.
Commenting on the cooperation of countries in the area of the former
Yugoslavia with the ICTY, del Ponte said Croatia had exceptionally
well co-operated as regards the production of documentation, and
added that problems in the field of apprehension occurred with the
cases of Ante Gotovina and Bobetko.
For del Ponte it is unacceptable that a government decides on
arrests and extradition of ICTY indictees, as the Article 29 of the
tribunal's statute binds countries to cooperate with the UN
tribunal.
She said that she was facing most problems in the cooperation with
Belgrade, which partly co-operated but did not allow access to the
military documentation or witnesses. According to del Ponte, the
Bosnian Serb entity causes even more problems than Serbia
pertaining to cooperation.
(hina) ms