ICTY CHIEF PROSECUTOR WELCOMES CRO GOVERNMENT'S DECISION

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has applauded the Croatian government's decision to act in line with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) request about the hand-over of war crimes indictees, a spokeswoman for the ICTY Prosecutor's office, said on Sunday. The prosecutor has greeted the government's decision and is expecting the apprehension of the indictees and the immediate start of the process of their extradition to The Hague, the spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, told Hina on the phone. Asked when the transfer should happen according to the ICTY's expectations, she did not give any direct answer but responded by citing Article 56 of the Tribunal's Statute which specifies that the Tribunal's decisions should be carried out in the shortest possible time term. On late Saturday night the Croatian government decided to meet demands of the ICTY on the hand-over of its two citizens to the Tribunal, whose names were quoted in two sealed indictments. First Deputy Prime Minister and another three ministers, who are members of the HSLS party, tendered their resignation over such decision. In accordance of the rules of this UN war crimes court, Hartmann declined to say who were the two indictees, adding that their names could be disclosed only after their transfer to The Hague. She stressed that Zagreb was aware of its international obligations and that it had to date fully cooperated with the Tribunal and decided to do the same in the future. The failure to respect the requests would mean the discontinuation of the cooperation with the Tribunal and in such a case UN Security Council's sanctions against Croatia would be imminent, the spokeswoman warned. (hina) ms