MINISTER IVANISEVIC SATISFIED WITH HIS VISIT TO HAGUE-BASED TRIBUNAL

ZAGREB, June 9 (Hina) - The International War Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) President Claude Jorda will ask the UN security Council to withdraw a request for imposing sanctions against Croatia, previously proposed owing to Zagreb's failure to cooperate with the Tribunal, as soon as the United Nations receives a new report of the ICTY Chief Prosecutor, said Croatia's Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic on Friday after he returned from the visit to the Hague-based Tribunal. "The demands for the cooperation with the Tribunal have been met and it is normal that the request (about sanctions) be annulled ...and that we are eventually taken off from the agenda of the Security Council," the Minister told a news conference in Zagreb. During his 7-8 June stay in The Hague, Ivanisevic held talks with the Tribunal President Jorda, Secretary Dorothea de Sampayo and Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte. He toured the prison in Scheveningen where he met Tihomir Blaskic and Vinko Martinovic Stela. Croatian Minister proposed to the ICTY President changes in the Tribunal's statute "so that damages can be paid to indictees who are eventually acquitted but who have spent some time in custody." Jorda agreed with the proposal and will include it in draft amendments to the statute, Ivanisevic told reporters. Ivanisevic also suggested that the longest pre-trial detention can last six months. Jorda and the ICTY secretary also considered a possibility to employ Croatian legal experts to work for the Tribunal and in the Prosecutor's Office on cases that are not related to Croatia. The Ivanisevic-del Ponte talks revolved around the delivery of requested documents. "To date, we have produced a considerable number of documents, about 3,5000 copies. Most of them are from files of the HVO (Bosnian Croat Defence Council)," the Minister added. Two regimes of the production of documents were proposed to Chief Prosecutor. One refers to files outside Croatia - archives of the HVO - and the other for documents made by Croatia's bodies. The former will be more liberal, whereas the latter will be stricter owing to the process of de-classification, Ivanisevic explained. The process of producing files has come to a halt due to the situation in the Croatian Intelligence Service (HIS) and its restructuring, Ivanisevic said adding that it has been decided to move HIS files into the State Archives. Justice Minister and del Ponte discussed investigations in which Croatia is particularly interested such as attacks against Dubrovnik for which the ICTY has set up a special team of inquiry, Vukovar and crimes committed while Croatian Serb separatists held some Croatian parts and crimes for which a Croatian Serb rebel leader, Milan Martic, is held accountable. Ivanisevic and del Ponte also tackled the case of Ahmici and they decided that a four-member Croatian expert team be sent to The Hague in order to plan together further probes in this case, Ivanisevic said. Asked why he did not meet indictee Mladen Naletilic alias Tuta, Minister Ivanisevic said "Tuta did not refuse talks but he said he was too busy (for talks with Ivanisevic), because of his volleyball games." Ivanisevic described his talks with the ICTY senior officials as cordial, open and useful. He announced del Ponte's arrival for 21 June in Dubrovnik. Ivanisevic told reporters that he supported Croatian President Stjepan Mesic's proposal to separate processes for crimes committed in Croatia from those committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Commenting on announcements that State Prosecutor Berislav Zivkovic would tender his resignation, Ivanisevic said "it has taken much time for him to make such decision." (hina) ms