ZAGREB, April 5 (Hina) - Vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Ljerka Mintas Hodak on Wednesday dismissed claims by Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic that she had played the main role in engaging the American "Hunton
and Williams" company and its attorney David Rivkin. "Minister Ivanisevic is underestimating Zlatko Matesa's Government if he thinks that the Office for Cooperation with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal and the Government would consent to cooperate with Rivkin had the entire job been based on my personal contacts with him, as the minister claims," Hodak said. On April 2 Ivanisevic issued a statement saying "the engagement of United States law firm Hunton and Williams and attorney David Rivkin as the head of the attorneys' team which represented Croatia before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was not
ZAGREB, April 5 (Hina) - Vice-president of the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) Ljerka Mintas Hodak on Wednesday dismissed claims by
Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic that she had played the main
role in engaging the American "Hunton and Williams" company and its
attorney David Rivkin.
"Minister Ivanisevic is underestimating Zlatko Matesa's
Government if he thinks that the Office for Cooperation with the
Hague-based war crimes tribunal and the Government would consent to
cooperate with Rivkin had the entire job been based on my personal
contacts with him, as the minister claims," Hodak said.
On April 2 Ivanisevic issued a statement saying "the engagement of
United States law firm Hunton and Williams and attorney David
Rivkin as the head of the attorneys' team which represented Croatia
before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was
not based on a signed agreement nor on any decision by the Croatian
Government, but on personal contacts and agreements, in which the
main role was played by the then Deputy Premier Ljerka Mintas-
Hodak".
Commenting on the fact that some Rivkin memoranda had been
addressed to herself, Hodak said that "it is not necessary to
explain that in the civilised world one addresses persons
performing some duty in bodies of authority, not the bodies of
authority themselves".
She called on Ivanisevic to publicly show her instructions or
consents for payment sent to the Office for Cooperation with the
ICTY, he talked about.
Hodak said the affair regarding David Rivkin serves for the purpose
of turning the attention of the public "from the fact that the
Croatian authorities have committed themselves to realise
unconditional cooperation with the Hague tribunal, even if it meant
extraditing Croatian soldiers and generals participating in the
'Flash' and 'Storm' operations".
The intention is to completely satanise Tudjman's politics as the
ethnic cleansing of Serbs in these actions, she said.
Hodak added that the intention was also to satanise the HDZ and
everybody politically active in the party, thus opening up gates
for the functioning of the Croatian Democratic Centre with Mate
Granic at the helm.
(hina) lml