ZAGREB, Aug 19 (Hina) - Croatian Parliament Deputy Speaker Zdravko Tomac told the Jutarnji List daily he expected new problems in Croatia's relations with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague to occur soon and new indictments to be
issued against Croatian citizens. In an interview with Sunday's issue of the daily, Tomac said that if Croatia failed use diplomatic and political means to dispute the context of Operation "Storm" as described in the indictment against General Gotovina, new indictments would be issued against Croatian citizens. Tomac fears that "people could be called to account based on the context of Operation 'Storm', which is not correct." Tomac believes war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic as well as former Yugoslav People's Army officers Mrksic, Sljivancanin and Radic, accused of war crimes in Vukovar, will be handed over to the Tribunal soon. Croatian authori
ZAGREB, Aug 19 (Hina) - Croatian Parliament Deputy Speaker Zdravko
Tomac told the Jutarnji List daily he expected new problems in
Croatia's relations with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague to
occur soon and new indictments to be issued against Croatian
citizens.
In an interview with Sunday's issue of the daily, Tomac said that if
Croatia failed use diplomatic and political means to dispute the
context of Operation "Storm" as described in the indictment against
General Gotovina, new indictments would be issued against Croatian
citizens.
Tomac fears that "people could be called to account based on the
context of Operation 'Storm', which is not correct."
Tomac believes war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic as well as former Yugoslav People's Army officers Mrksic,
Sljivancanin and Radic, accused of war crimes in Vukovar, will be
handed over to the Tribunal soon.
Croatian authorities have sent the Tribunal's Chief Prosecutor
Carla del Ponte, through diplomatic channels, documents with
conclusions of the Croatian parliament regarding the cooperation
with the ICTY, Tomac says, adding del Ponte has said that she will
answer in writing.
"As those conclusions cannot explain Croatia's stand in great
detail, I wanted to explain (in a letter) to Prosecutor del Ponte
that the parliamentary majority supports cooperation with the
Hague tribunal, but that we cannot accept the historical,
political, state and legal context of Operation 'Storm' as defined
in the indictment against General Gotovina, according to which the
operation was initiated with the aim of expelling 200,000 Serbs,
which is not correct," Tomac says.
(hina) rml