HOMELAND WAR COMMITTEE SUPPORTS INDICTED GENERAL

ZAGREB, Oct 28 (Hina) - The Committee Promoting the Truth About the Homeland War supports General Janko Bobetko's decision against being hospitalised without a written government guarantee that during hospitalisation he will not be served with an indictment from the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, Committee chairman Igor Zidic said on Monday. #L# He talked to reporters after a Committee session which adopted conclusions stating that the government's support to the 83-year- old Bobetko had oscillated between a substantial and a formal defence. The conclusions also state that abandoning support for the "innocent" in favour of support for the "infirm" is no basis for the defence of accused generals. "They are innocent and cannot be charged on commanding responsibility until it is proved that they committed crimes," said Zidic. He stated Bobetko bore the brunt for "the settlement of many issues, including the fate of the Croatian state". The Committee Promoting the Truth About the Homeland War urges the government to refute the Bobetko indictment as clashing with the Croatian Constitution and the parliamentary Declaration on the Homeland War, as well as factually and legally unfounded. Moreover, the Committee supports a motion proposing changes to the constitutional law on Croatia's cooperation with the Homeland War, and seeks holding a referendum on the matter so as to help Croatia out of the current crisis. (hina) ha sb