ZAGREB, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday passed a decision on the take-over and use of documentation which belonged to the former head of state, the late Franjo Tudjman. The notes and documents which were compiled
during Tudjman's presidential mandate will be taken over by the Croatian State Archive. In line with the Law on Archive Material and Archives, it will not be possible to use them for 30 years since their creation, with the exception of cases when access to specific documents may be granted with previous permission from the government. A recommendation to that effect will be given by a special commission, which will be established soon, said Goran Granic, first deputy prime minister. The government will not examine the authenticity of the documentation, but take it over and forward it to the Croatian State Archive, said Granic. According to Culture Minister Antun Vujic
ZAGREB, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday passed a
decision on the take-over and use of documentation which belonged
to the former head of state, the late Franjo Tudjman.
The notes and documents which were compiled during Tudjman's
presidential mandate will be taken over by the Croatian State
Archive.
In line with the Law on Archive Material and Archives, it will not be
possible to use them for 30 years since their creation, with the
exception of cases when access to specific documents may be granted
with previous permission from the government. A recommendation to
that effect will be given by a special commission, which will be
established soon, said Goran Granic, first deputy prime minister.
The government will not examine the authenticity of the
documentation, but take it over and forward it to the Croatian State
Archive, said Granic.
According to Culture Minister Antun Vujic, Croatia's legislation
dealing with archive material fully corresponds to European
conventions. He pointed to provisions stipulating that in general,
public archive material becomes available for use only 30 years
after its creation, the exceptions being if it was intended for the
public from the beginning or if the creator grants permission.
Vujic pointed to provisions referring to archive material
containing data on defence, international relations and national
security affairs, including those on the maintenance of peace and
order, and national economic interests. If the publication of such
material were to damage national security or interests, the law
stipulates that access may be granted only 50 years after their
creation, unless a special regulations stipulated otherwise.
The culture minister said the most sensitive issue concerned the
demands of UN's war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The State Archive
received a lot of archive material gathered by civil and military
bodies of Herceg-Bosna, a Bosnian Croat community active in the
1990s, which tribunal investigators and defence attorneys may use
only with permission from the Croatian government's office for
cooperation with the tribunal.
According to Vujic, the question is if the tribunal has
unrestricted right to access, or what sort of access it has to that
and other material collected by the Republic of Croatia.
"The Hague prosecutors may have access to archive material to the
extent that Croatia is committed by special international
agreements or obligations. Even then... Croatia's commitment
cannot go in the direction of providing access to the documentation
as a whole, but only to... concrete data sought in a specific
fashion," said Vujic.
He suggested specifying the government's decision on the
possibility of making certain notes and documents available in
exceptional cases, with previous permission from the government.
The decision says that only specific documents, notes and data may
be made available.
As regards the availability of current information, namely
material which has not been archived yet, Vujic said documents to
which access was denied did not have to bear the state secret seal.
He pointed to the rampant abuse of data use in Croatia, suggesting
that the ministries should come up with rule books regulating the
use of documentation.
(hina) ha sb