ICTY DELEGATION VISITS CROATIAN STATE PROSECUTION

ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - A three-member delegation of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), that is on an official visit to Croatia, on Wednesday toured the State Prosecution's Office in Zagreb. Deputy State Prosecutor Slavko Zadnik informed the guests of the organisation of the prosecution's work and briefed them about war crimes which had been processed in Croatia in the past ten years. In this context he also pointed to some problems such as that some war crimes suspects remained unavailable to Croatian courts. Zadnik told Hina that Croatian officials were interested in possibilities for cooperation and particularly in whether the Hague-based Tribunal could forward documents to Croatian courts which may help in the prosecution of war crimes suspects. The tribunal's judges told us that there were such possibilities and that they could be used via competent institutions - the Government's Office for the cooperation with the ICTY, Zadnik added. He said the Croatian side was also interested in being given evidence in relation to crimes committed in the central Croatian town of Gospic and the central Bosnian village of Ahmici. The Croatian hosts and the ICTY delegation considered the commanding responsibility and differences in its interpretation between Croatia's Penal Code and the Tribunal's Statute. After their visit to the State Prosecution, the ICTY delegation consisting of Almiro Rodrigues, Fouad Riad and Patricia Wald, should tour the Croatian Supreme Court. (hina) ms