ZAGREB, Sept 19 (Hina) - The latest arrests of war crimes suspects in Croatia are not part of an agreement between the Government and the Hague tribunal, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in parliament on Wednesday. On condition they
were carried out in line with the law, those arrests "are an agreement with Croatia, as a democratic and law-based state, and not with The Hague," Racan said in answer to a question by Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) MP Vlado Jukic if the latest "campaign" against Croatian war veterans in Virovitica and Bibinje was part of a deal with the Hague tribunal. If there is reasonable doubt that someone committed a crime, that person is then a suspect, and not a war veteran, or a Croat, and one has to be careful as to how that problem is addressed for the sake of Croatia as a law-based state, Racan said. He agreed with Jukic that some media were giving such cases undue attention, but, h
ZAGREB, Sept 19 (Hina) - The latest arrests of war crimes suspects
in Croatia are not part of an agreement between the Government and
the Hague tribunal, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in parliament
on Wednesday.
On condition they were carried out in line with the law, those
arrests "are an agreement with Croatia, as a democratic and law-
based state, and not with The Hague," Racan said in answer to a
question by Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) MP Vlado Jukic if the
latest "campaign" against Croatian war veterans in Virovitica and
Bibinje was part of a deal with the Hague tribunal.
If there is reasonable doubt that someone committed a crime, that
person is then a suspect, and not a war veteran, or a Croat, and one
has to be careful as to how that problem is addressed for the sake of
Croatia as a law-based state, Racan said.
He agreed with Jukic that some media were giving such cases undue
attention, but, he said, this was the problem of those media.
Asked by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputy Marija Bajt if it
was legal to rename a street named after late president Franjo
Tudjman in Donji Lapac into Vuk Karadzic Street (19th century
Serbian language and writing system reformer), Racan said the
government would check again if this was in line with the law.
More important is that such moves and counter-moves are not
contributing to ethnic tolerance and coexistence, he said.
Asked by Anto Djapic (HSP) why "the street language" Public Works
Minister Radimir Cacic used when recently addressing Petrinja
deputy mayor Gordana Dumbovic was being tolerated, Racan said he
did not support insulting language regardless of who used it.
Commenting on the charges the police pressed against Dumbovic for
spreading racial and other discrimination, Racan said we all had to
be more responsible towards legal regulations and to our own
words.
During a recent visit to the Petrinja City Council, Minister Cacic
ordered Dumbovic out of the room for spreading ethnic and national
hatred on local radio during a recent municipal election campaign.
(hina) rml