ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Croatian Deputy Premier Goran Granic on Tuesday reiterated The Hague tribunal's jurisdiction over war crimes committed during and after "Flash" and "Storm" did not bring the actions' legitimacy into question.
"Nobody is initiating that issue, and I believe nobody can initiate it at all," Granic said while speaking to parliament's House of Counties on the government's Declaration on Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from The Hague. Granic said he himself would be ready to be a candidate for The Hague tribunal were anybody to initiate the issue of the legitimacy of the above mentioned military-police operations, through which Croatia in 1995 liberated the majority of its Serb-occupied territory. The deputy premier said however that The Hague tribunal's jurisdiction over war crimes committed during and immediately afte
ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Croatian Deputy Premier Goran Granic on
Tuesday reiterated The Hague tribunal's jurisdiction over war
crimes committed during and after "Flash" and "Storm" did not bring
the actions' legitimacy into question.
"Nobody is initiating that issue, and I believe nobody can initiate
it at all," Granic said while speaking to parliament's House of
Counties on the government's Declaration on Cooperation with the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from The
Hague.
Granic said he himself would be ready to be a candidate for The Hague
tribunal were anybody to initiate the issue of the legitimacy of the
above mentioned military-police operations, through which Croatia
in 1995 liberated the majority of its Serb-occupied territory.
The deputy premier said however that The Hague tribunal's
jurisdiction over war crimes committed during and immediately
after the Croatian Homeland War could not be brought into question
because of decisions by the United Nations Security Council.
"Simply put, at this moment we have no possibility whatsoever,
declarations notwithstanding, to dispute The Hague tribunal's
jurisdiction over war crimes," he asserted.
"We cannot close our eyes before the fact that (war crimes) were
committed, because unfortunately, we had enough time to process,
establish responsibility and pass sentences," Granic said.
The government's Declaration on cooperation with The Hague-based
tribunal was adopted by parliament's House of Representatives last
Friday, although without consent by the Croatian Democratic
Union.
MPs of the largest Opposition party in parliament left the session
before voting on the Declaration, protesting the fact that
parliament had not accepted their position that crimes committed
during "Flash" and "Storm" were exclusively under the jurisdiction
of the Croatian judiciary.
Parliament's House of Counties may pass only an unbinding opinion
on the Declaration, namely it cannot return it by veto to the Lower
House for reconsideration.
(hina) ha mm