ZAGREB, July 31 (Hina) - The president of Croatia's strongest opposition party told reporters on Tuesday the government was hypocritical to admit that the latest indictments from UN's war crimes tribunal at The Hague were unacceptable
for Croatia and then do nothing but go on vacation. There is a series of instruments the authorities and diplomacy should have used to stress the indictments are unacceptable, according to Ivo Sanader, president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The HDZ urges the government to refuse acting in line with orders from The Hague, to resort to diplomacy to exclude politics from the indictments, and to change the Constitutional Law on cooperation with the International Criminal for the former Yugoslavia to avert possible accusations of the entire Croatia and its policy in the future. Sanader said the HDZ refused the latest indictments, against generals Rahim Ademi and Ante G
ZAGREB, July 31 (Hina) - The president of Croatia's strongest
opposition party told reporters on Tuesday the government was
hypocritical to admit that the latest indictments from UN's war
crimes tribunal at The Hague were unacceptable for Croatia and then
do nothing but go on vacation.
There is a series of instruments the authorities and diplomacy
should have used to stress the indictments are unacceptable,
according to Ivo Sanader, president of the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ).
The HDZ urges the government to refuse acting in line with orders
from The Hague, to resort to diplomacy to exclude politics from the
indictments, and to change the Constitutional Law on cooperation
with the International Criminal for the former Yugoslavia to avert
possible accusations of the entire Croatia and its policy in the
future.
Sanader said the HDZ refused the latest indictments, against
generals Rahim Ademi and Ante Gotovina, in particular the part
wishing to accuse Croatia's first president, the late Franjo
Tudjman, of ethnic cleansing by ascribing equal guilt.
Referring to 1995's Operation Storm, Sanader said Tudjman had tried
to peacefully settle the issue of areas occupied by Serb rebels for
five years, and only then did what was legitimate and what other
states would have done much sooner.
Sanader said he did not know if the government's office for
cooperation with the ICTY had received four lists from The Hague
with the names of some 30 Croats in whom the Tribunal was
interested, as stated in the latest issue of the weekly Nacional,
but added he would not be surprised if it were true.
Speaking about a contested, recently initialled border agreement
with neighbouring Slovenia, Sanader said nobody, the prime
minister included, was entitled to move solutions that would cost
Croatia its state territory.
The HDZ advocates friendly relations with Slovenia which have to be
based on joint solutions and compromise, or international
arbitration, said Sanader.
He said the HDZ would request parliament's foreign affairs
committee to tackle the position of Croats in neighbouring Bosnia
in the wake of announcements that the two entities' constitutions
were about to be changed to the detriment of the Bosnian Croat
community.
(hina) ha