HVAR, Jan 11 (Hina) - Croatian President Stipe Mesic told reporters Thursday he will not attend a meeting with the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in Zagreb on January 15. Commenting on
motioned future protection of confidential documents, President Mesic suggested "all transcripts should be checked and where they point to a criminal act or clues about a criminal act, they should be forwarded to the Interior Ministry and have competent services deal with the issue." If, he added, there is "founded suspicion, the case should be further processed". There certainly are such cases, he told reporters, adding transcripts "per se are no evidence, but are leads towards evidence". Asked about the upcoming meeting with Carla Del Ponte, Mesic said "Del Ponte is not bringing with her to Zagreb any indictments. Carla Del Ponte is simply coming to solve the issue
HVAR, Jan 11 (Hina) - Croatian President Stipe Mesic told reporters
Thursday he will not attend a meeting with the Hague-based
international war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla Del
Ponte in Zagreb on January 15.
Commenting on motioned future protection of confidential
documents, President Mesic suggested "all transcripts should be
checked and where they point to a criminal act or clues about a
criminal act, they should be forwarded to the Interior Ministry and
have competent services deal with the issue."
If, he added, there is "founded suspicion, the case should be
further processed".
There certainly are such cases, he told reporters, adding
transcripts "per se are no evidence, but are leads towards
evidence".
Asked about the upcoming meeting with Carla Del Ponte, Mesic said
"Del Ponte is not bringing with her to Zagreb any indictments. Carla
Del Ponte is simply coming to solve the issue of communication with
the (Croatian) government, that is, the competent office. There
relations were disrupted because the cooperation was carried out
through the media, which makes no sense. Cooperation with The Hague
is legal cooperation of working character and should be out of the
shot of the media," Mesic said.
Asked to comment on continuous criticism by the Headquarters for
the Protection of the Dignity of the Homeland Defence War, which
qualifies the publishing of presidential office transcripts as
high treason, Mesic said "many do not understand this, so you have
such nonsense from certain associations".
Some associations announced Wednesday they would complain to the
Constitutional Court against President Mesic for "high treason and
espionage" because, as they put it, Mesic "gave foreign and
domestic reporters a great number of transcripts (of late president
Franjo Tudjman's meetings) marked as state secret".
On Thursday, the government passed a decision on the take-over and
use of documentation which belonged to 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.
(hina) lml