NETHERLANDS ON CROATIA'S STABILISATION AND ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT

ZAGREB, Dec 20 (Hina) - The Netherlands has explained to Croatia its decision to discontinue the process of notifying Brussels of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement by stating that Croatian general Janko Bobetko, indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has not been handed an ICTY indictment, a diplomatic source told Hina on Friday. #L# "The explanation was that Croatia has not handed the indictment yet," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, ascribing the decision of the Dutch authorities to the lobbying of British officials. Quoting unnamed official sources, AFP on Friday reported from The Hague that the Dutch government had decided not to ratify the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) which Croatia signed with the European Union until Bobetko was handed over. Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer today informed the lower house of the Dutch parliament of the decision in writing, AFP reported, reminding that the British government had suspended the ratification of the SAA for the same reason in October. Britain's Ambassador to Croatia, Nicholas Jarrold, said in his column in last week's issue of the Globus daily that his country resumed the ratification procedure. The diplomatic source told Hina that what the Netherlands had actually done was "freezing the notification procedure". The Netherlands ratified the SAA in September, and was to report to the European Commission i.e. the European Parliament within sixty days that the agreement had been ratified. Activating Article 59 of the ICTY's Rules of Procedure in late November, Croatia informed the ICTY's secretariat that it could not carry out its arrest warrant due to the deteriorated health of the former Croatian Army chief-of-staff. Bobetko was transferred to hospital in mid-November. General Bobetko was indicted by the ICTY for crimes committed in the 1993 Medak Pocket operation. (hina) rml sb