ZAGREB, June 17 (Hina) - It is very important who will be the new justice minister as this office enables the communication in and functioning of the judiciary where the situation is really grave, Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic
said during his regular chat with citizens and journalists called "A Cup of Coffee with the President" on Sundays. Asked to comment the resignation of Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic (who stepped down owing to his health problems) and his deputy Ranko Marijan, Mesic said the judiciary was faced with the difficult situation, as everything was still at the level of typewriters and consequently there was a huge number of pending cases. He said it was necessary that the cases be solved primarily because of cost-effectiveness as cases which were kept very long in drawers rendered the entire procedure very expensive. Therefore it is very important who will
ZAGREB, June 17 (Hina) - It is very important who will be the new
justice minister as this office enables the communication in and
functioning of the judiciary where the situation is really grave,
Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic said during his regular chat with
citizens and journalists called "A Cup of Coffee with the
President" on Sundays.
Asked to comment the resignation of Justice Minister Stjepan
Ivanisevic (who stepped down owing to his health problems) and his
deputy Ranko Marijan, Mesic said the judiciary was faced with the
difficult situation, as everything was still at the level of
typewriters and consequently there was a huge number of pending
cases.
He said it was necessary that the cases be solved primarily because
of cost-effectiveness as cases which were kept very long in drawers
rendered the entire procedure very expensive.
Therefore it is very important who will be our new justice minister
as he/she facilitates the communication and functioning in the
judiciary. Nobody, however, should have great influence pertaining
to court rulings, as judges must work exclusively in line with laws
and there must not be any influence from outside, the President
said.
Mesic believes that with his experience and objectivity, the new
Supreme Court president, Ivica Crnic, can make it possible for
courts to come out of this blockade.
Asked by reporters to comment messages which the presidents of the
United States and Russia, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, relayed
from their meeting on Saturday in Slovenia that there was no
extremism in southeastern Europe, Mesic said he agreed that there
was not too much extremism, but he maintained that there was some
extremism which might grow into 'extreme extremism'.
Mesic advocated that the struggle against extremism should start
with the encounter with the origins of extremism, and that
political issues should be solved through political agreements.
In view of his coming visit to Iran, Mesic was asked to comment on
the message of Bush and Putin that this country presented a threat
to security in the world because of the arms for mass destruction
which it possessed. Mesic responded that Croatia's aim was to enter
the European Union and cooperate with all European countries. This,
however, does not rule out the cooperation with countries outside
Europe such as Iran.
We are in favour of cooperation with everybody as it will not be very
good to create 'buffer zones' around countries which carry out
their specific policies, given that barriers are detrimental not
only for such countries but for the world in general, Mesic said.
(hina) ms