MINISTER HOPEFUL OF SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION OF CRIMES COMMITTED BY CROATS

ZAGREB, Sept 18 (Hina) - Croatia's prisons are currently detaining 62 persons arrested for war crimes, Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic said in Zagreb on Monday, adding 379 were sentenced for war crimes in absentia.#L# Apart from two, all the sentenced are Serbs prosecuted for war crimes against Croats. Among the 62 arrested, 34 were given final sentences and are serving prison time, 18 may appeal, while ten are still under investigation. Of the 379 sentenced in absentia, 291 were given final and 88 non- final sentences. The justice minister said there were, unfortunately, sentences which were poorly explained, i.e. which were "passed lightly." The presented data does not include persons arrested during last week's police actions in connection with crimes committed against Serb civilians in the central town of Gospic in 1991. Ivanisevic asserted that Croatia's courts and state attorney's office had some experience in processing war crimes, and that he expected the judiciary would successfully process crimes committed during last decade's war by citizens of Croat nationality. "That the crimes were committed is a fact, but the question is who is behind them and who committed them," said Ivanisevic. Commenting on the recent release of three detainees owing to the Supreme Court's failure to pass a final verdict within the legal deadline, he said part of the responsibility lay with the court's penal department and court president Marijan Ramuscak. "The question, however, is to what extent is he (Ramuscak) responsible and if he could have prevented the ommission from happening," said Ivanisevic. He added the Supreme Court should re-organise its work for the better, and asserted that "there are judges (with the court) who don't fill their monthly quota over the entire year." According to Interior Ministry data, Croatia's prisons currently detain about 2,500 persons. Among them are 165 who have been in detention for over a year, including 35 between two and three years, 13 between three and five, 15 between five and seven, and the "absolute record" of over seven years held by Dario Debeljak, arrested in the northern Adriatic city of Pula in 1993. A final sentence in his case has still not been passed. The justice minister explained that under the old penal code, the detention period was not limited. Stressing that at the moment there were detainees entitled to request release pending a final sentence, Ivanisevic said he expected another dozen would be released by year's end because a final sentence was not going to be passed within the legal deadline. Among them are some of 13 given non-final sentences for war crimes, currently detained in the central Adriatic city of Split. The justice minister also commented on the prosecution of two men who had been hiding in Croatia under false names and were recently arrested on suspicion that they had taken part in the 1993 massacre of civilians in the central Bosnia-Herzegovina village of Ahmici. They can be prosecuted by a Croatian court only if it is established that prior to obtaining false identities they were Croatian citizens, Ivanisevic said. "The case has been investigated by Hague investigators from the beginning, the crime was committed in another state and is closely linked to the Blaskic and Kordic-Cerkez cases. Problems would also arise in summoning witnesses from BH, since the Croatian judiciary doesn't recognise the institute of protected witness," he said explaining why the so called Ahmici Group should be prosecuted before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and not in Croatia. Ivanisevic added the ICTY had not yet expressed interest in five Gospic residents, arrested last week. Asked about any other probes into war crimes committed by Croats, the justice minister answered in the negative, adding he did not know whether police were possibly conducting any pre-investigation activities. Ivanisevic said that owing to procedural and formal breaches, he would request that a newly established Croatian Helsinki Committee repeat its registration procedure. This means that the decision on its registration will be annulled. (hina) ha jn