STRASBOURG, Sept 27 (Hina) - Sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should be lifted as soon as it fulfils the conditions which Croatia had had to fulfil, as soon as it adopts a constitutional law on cooperation with the
international war crimes tribunal and extradites its indictees, Croatian President Stipe Mesic said in Strasbourg Wednesday.
STRASBOURG, Sept 27 (Hina) - Sanctions against the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia should be lifted as soon as it fulfils the conditions
which Croatia had had to fulfil, as soon as it adopts a
constitutional law on cooperation with the international war
crimes tribunal and extradites its indictees, Croatian President
Stipe Mesic said in Strasbourg Wednesday. #L#
Yugoslavia cannot step into Europe while "a criminal from Ovcara is
still holding lectures at a military academy. This is surely not a
European standard," Mesic said.
Members of the former Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary
troops killed more than 200 hospitalised civilians and wounded
soldiers at the Ovcara farm, near Vukovar, in November 1991.
"I believe the time for this will come when FRY fulfils what we have
fulfilled, when it adopts a constitutional law on cooperation with
the Hague-based war crimes tribunal and extradites its criminals to
the tribunal," Mesic said commenting on initiatives to lift
sanctions imposed on FRY.
He refused to comment on a statement given by Council of Europe's
Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer that sanctions against
Yugoslavia should be annulled even if its incumbent president
Slobodan Milosevic wins in the second round of elections.
"The sanctions themselves were crucial for the electorate to turn
away from Milosevic," Mesic stressed, adding that without
sanctions, "those bewitched by his politics" would have voted for
Milosevic again in the poll held last Sunday.
(hina) lml jn