ZAGREB, Oct 18 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said on Friday he was confident the government would manage to reach a fair and just solution in its legal dispute with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal regarding an
indictment against Gen. Janko Bobetko, in line with the UN tribunal's statute. He added he expected Bobetko to cooperate as well.
ZAGREB, Oct 18 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said on
Friday he was confident the government would manage to reach a fair
and just solution in its legal dispute with the Hague-based war
crimes tribunal regarding an indictment against Gen. Janko
Bobetko, in line with the UN tribunal's statute. He added he
expected Bobetko to cooperate as well. #L#
Talking to Family Radio, Mesic said he was surprised that Bobetko
wanted Croatia, for which he claimed he had fought, to be his
hostage.
Mesic said there was no court nor personal fear which would prevent
him from answering a court's questions. There can be no first or
second rank citizens, everybody has to be equal before the law and
do as the law says, he stated.
As for the 83-year-old general's alleged request for written
assurances that he would not be served the Hague tribunal's
indictment if he were hospitalised, Mesic said one should first see
if the tribunal found this acceptable.
"General Bobetko should agree to hospital treatment and has no
reason to fear that something will be done against his will," the
President said, adding that the entire matter was surrounded by too
much drama.
Mesic said that at this moment the imposition of sanctions against
Croatia for refusing to extradite Bobetko was not realistic. If
sanctions were introduced they would lead to an increase in prices
and interest rates, a reduction of economic growth, and halt the
reduction of unemployment and the accomplishment of set goals, he
said, adding that "Croatia has a chance to achieve those goals if it
complies with assumed international commitments".
Speaking about his recent testimony against former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague tribunal, Mesic said
he was satisfied with it, despite its mixed public reception.
He said he succeeded in convincing the tribunal of things he was
familiar with. "I didn't come there to prove anything to Milosevic,
since he knows very well that he planned and waged a brutal war, in
which genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity were
committed," he said.
"There was no reason for being nervous as Milosevic didn't nor could
impress me. I had told him in Belgrade that he would be hanged when
the war was over and that he wouldn't achieve his war goals. He won't
hang but he will be sentenced to life," Mesic said.
He also commented on an editorial in the Glas Koncila Catholic
weekly which reproached him for his inappropriate reaction to
Milosevic's claim that 700,000 Serbs had been killed in Jasenovac,
a concentration camp in WWII Croatia.
Mesic said the judge had banned Milosevic from asking a question to
that effect so he could not respond to it. He recalled that the total
number of Serbs in Croatia at the time had been below that figure.
(hina) ha