OPPOSITION PARTIES REACT TO DEL PONTE'S STATEMENT

ZADAR, Oct 31 (Hina) - A vice-president of the Democratic Centre (DC) party, Vesna Skare Ozbolt, has said the UN war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's statement before the UN Security Council that she had provided the Croatian government with advance notice of an imminent indictment against general Bobetko back in May has put the government into an awkward position and surprised all. #L# Speaking at a news conference in Zadar on Thursday, Skare Ozbolt reminded about the government's statement that it had not known anything about the indictment until the day it received it. "The government will certainly have to clarify Del Ponte's statement, not only to the public but the parliament as well," the DC official said. Skare Ozbolt believes that the most important issue is changing the tribunal's view of the Homeland War. If this is not done, all future indictments will treat the Homeland War as genocidal, as it is treated in the indictments against generals Gotovina, Ademi and Bobetko, she claims. The Croatian Bloc, too, believes that the "Croatian government must explain why it concealed the indictment and its content". The party said in a statement that Prime Minister Ivica Racan also had to answer why the government had missed the deadline for lodging an appeal in the case of General Ante Gotovina. The party believes that the government headed by Racan can no longer make assessments about whether an indictment is legally founded because it has seriously compromised itself with decisions made to date. Such assessments should be made by Croatian courts in line with legal and not political reasons, the party believes, advocating a referendum on relations with the UN tribunal. (hina) rml sb