DEL PONTE PRAISES CROATIA'S WILLINGNESS TO COOPERATE WITH ICTY

NEW YORK, June 3 (Hina) - The new Croatian Government has showed a changed attitude and willingness to fully cooperate with the Hague- based international tribunal, Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the International War Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) told a session of the UN Security Council. We are very near the achievement of the full cooperation between Zagreb and the Tribunal, she said on Friday. Speaking of concrete examples of the improved cooperation, del Ponte cited the extradition of Mladen Naletilic Tuta, the recognition of the Tribunal's jurisdiction over the 1995 "Flesh" and "Storm" operations, free access for ICTY forensic experts to sites in Croatia and a contract on the status of the ICTY in Croatia. The Tribunal's chief prosecutor added that there were still some practical problems, particularly in view of the access of the ICTY investigators to documents and witnesses in Croatia. She attributed the difficulty to the fact new Croatian authorities were suddenly faced with the existence of evidence, files and records and documents of which they had no knowledge before. But the Croatian party did not cause obstruction, she explained. During a discussion on the matter, del Ponte's positive opinion on Croatian authorities' conduct and views was confirmed by representatives of a score of Security Council member-states. Ambassadors of the Netherlands and Great Britain commended Croatia especially. Carla del Ponte announced that the ICTY President Claude Jorda would soon notify the UN Security Council of the work of the Tribunal and problems it faced. (hina) ms