ICTY: AFTER PASSAGE OF DECLARATION, WE NO LONGER SEEK ACTION BY SECURITY COUNCIL

ZAGREB, April 17 (Hina) - The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday welcomed the adoption of a declaration on cooperation with the ICTY by the Croatian National Sabor, assessing that reasons for the current report against Croatia with the U.N. Security Council no longer existed. "With the passage of this declaration the Tribunal is satisfied that genuine cooperation now exists and the Tribunal will no longer urge the action of the Security Council," Paul Risley, spokesman for the ICTY Prosecution, told Hina over the phone. #L# In August last year, a former ICTY President Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, acting upon request by the then Prosecutor Louise Arbour, reported Croatia to the Security Council for non-cooperation, requesting that measures be taken with the aim of securing cooperation. McDonald's main objections referred to Croatia's failure to recognise ICTY's jurisdiction over investigations into operations 'Flash' and 'Storm', the failure to extradite Mladen Naletilic Tuta, and its non-cooperation in handing over documents on the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Risley clarified that during this week ICTY Prosecutor Carla del Ponte will also formally ask ICTY President, French judge Claude Jorda, to stop the proceedings against Croatia. The Croatian National Sabor's House of Representatives on Friday evening adopted a declaration which obliges Croatia and its judicial bodies to prosecute all war criminals and confirms ICTY's jurisdiction over crimes committed during the Homeland War and immediately after it. Risley said cooperation with Croatian authorities in the investigation of crimes continued. Last week, ICTY investigators, along with Gospic, visited Dubrovnik and Slavonija, where crimes against Croatia were committed. (hina) jn rml