ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - Croatia's Prime Minister Ivica Racan on late Saturday night said his cabinet was going to act in line with the requests of the Hague Tribunal and that four members of the government, who are members of the HSLS
party, had resigned over such a decision of the government.
ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - Croatia's Prime Minister Ivica Racan on late
Saturday night said his cabinet was going to act in line with the
requests of the Hague Tribunal and that four members of the
government, who are members of the HSLS party, had resigned over
such a decision of the government. #L#
In view of the fact that the First Deputy Prime Minister, Goran
Granic, and ministers of defence, Jozo Rados, economy, Goranko
Fizulic, and of science, Hrvoje Kraljevic, tendered their
resignation, Racan announced he would ask the parliament for a
confidence vote as soon as possible.
According to the officially formulated conclusion after its
emergency session on Saturday, the Government of Croatia will
forward two expounded requests to Justice Ministry to act in
compliance with the Article 16 of the constitutional law on the
cooperation with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia) and thus issue warrants for arrest of two
indictees who are named in two sealed indictments, served by the
tribunal earlier in June.
This decision takes effect with the day when it is made, and the
government's office in charge of cooperation with the Tribunal is
entrusted with the task to implement it, Premier Racan said late
last night at a news conference after the closed-door session.
PM did not comment on the two indictments nor did he disclose who the
indictees were. He neither said anything about a letter with
objections to the indictments, which he had recently sent to the
Tribunal.
"I still cannot speak about it," Racan explained.
Of all the 22 ministers, 19 voted for the decision that the
government should act in accordance with the Tribunal's request,
two HSLS (Croatian Social Liberal Party) ministers - Jozo Rados and
Goranko Fizulic - abstained from the voting, while the only one to
vote against was another HSLS minister - Hrvoje Kraljevic.
Premier said ministers Rados, Fizulic and Kraljevic as well as the
First Deputy PM, Goran Granic, offered resignation "owing to the
moral conflict between the stands of the Government and (their)
party."
The fifth HSLS member of the Racan Cabinet - Transport Minister
Alojz Tusek - did not tendered his resignation.
Racan said a final decision on the resignation of the said member of
the government could be made after he decided on it and got
signatures of Sabor Speaker on the document. In this context, Racan
particularly expressed regret over the resignation tendered by his
first deputy, Goran Granic, and announced he would check legal
possibilities not to accept it.
"In view of this situation and the fact that we should be careful not
to affect the national interests by taking over the difficult
historic responsibility, I will ask (the parliament) for a vote of
confidence in the government," Racan said.
The motion for the confidence vote must be carried out in the
shortest possible time term, and in case that parliament voted for
no confidence, this government could not function any longer and we
should act in line with what the laws, primarily the Constitution,
envisage in such situations, he added.
Premier declined to prejudge whether the ruling coalition would in
future remain to be the five-party coalition or it would become a
four-party coalition. "It remains to be seen. The coalition does
not force anybody to leave its ranks, everybody leaves it on its
own. It depends on the HSLS," Racan responded to reporters.
He reiterated his cabinet's commitment to carry out reforms and
make efforts to bring Croatia closer to Europe as well as to resist
attempts to push the country back in the hot-spot area of the
Balkans.
Croatia has an opportunity for gaining the respect for its war of
independence through cooperating rather than clashing with Europe,
he said.
He described this issue as a conflicting one in the coming days in
Croatia. "It is a watershed in the political polarisation and
decision-making in Croatia," Racan stressed.
Asked by reporters, he confirmed that he was afraid of unrest which
might be caused by such a decision of the government.
"I am afraid of unrest. Every normal person should be, now that the
tourist season has started," he said adding that he did not regard
the blockade of roads and threats as interest of the Croatian
people. He voiced hope that most people would not support such
actions.
Asked why the government had waited for making public the fact that
it had received the two sealed indictments, he answered that his
cabinet took some time to see whether it would succeed in its
attempts.
At the present, some damage is being done to Croatia as the
information has been spread that Croatian nationalists refute to
cooperate with the Tribunal. It is not true, such information
perhaps reflects intentions of some smaller groups, PM said.
He said he had not gone to a meeting with President Stjepan Mesic (on
Saturday night) as he "had more important jobs to do".
Asked whether it would have been suitable for President Mesic to
come to the Government's building (during the session), Racan
replied that Mesic had been to Austria and obviously there had been
'faulty communication' between them.
"There was an agreement that he should come here, but he changed his
mind, perhaps because of so many reporters," Racan said.
He briefly described his meeting with HSLS President Drazen Budisa,
which took place earlier in the evening, saying only that it was a
short conversation during which Budisa notified him of the HSLS
leadership's negative opinion on the ICTY. "When somebody informs
you of such a stand, you have nothing to talk about, especially when
the government's session is under way," Racan said.
PM explained with which dilemma his cabinet was faced.
One solution is to act in line with the constitutional law on the
cooperation with the ICTY. "We are aware that this will provoke
opposition of some forces in Croatia, resistance, let my say also
the understandable disapproval of certain elements in the work of
the Hague Tribunal over its interpretation of the recent history,
our struggle for independence and the Homeland Defence War," Racan
said.
The other option, however, would be to turn down the request (i.e.
refute warrants for arrest) which would "push Croatia into an abyss
of the volatile Balkans from where everybody, including Serbia and
the Republic of Srpska (Bosnian Serb entity) are running away," he
added.
(hina) sb ms