DAYTON, Nov 19 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Saturday urged the procedure to be launched by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague against former generals of the Yugoslav People's
Army (JNA)- Veljko Kadijevic and Blagoje Adzic - as they put the then JNA at the disposal to Slobodan Milosevic, a former Yugoslav President and the mastermind behind plans about a Great Serbia, to help him carry out his aggressive and genocide policy. Addressing Croatian reporters in Dayton where a conference was held celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Dayton peace accords, Mesic said he had in particular discussed this issue with the ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte. He reiterated his country's expectations that Mile Martic as well as other notorious Croatian Serb rebels and then JNA officers, liable for Vukovar atrocities, would be brought bef
DAYTON, Nov 19 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on
Saturday urged the procedure to be launched by the International
Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague against
former generals of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)- Veljko
Kadijevic and Blagoje Adzic - as they put the then JNA at the
disposal to Slobodan Milosevic, a former Yugoslav President and the
mastermind behind plans about a Great Serbia, to help him carry out
his aggressive and genocide policy.
Addressing Croatian reporters in Dayton where a conference was held
celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Dayton peace accords,
Mesic said he had in particular discussed this issue with the ICTY
Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte. He reiterated his country's
expectations that Mile Martic as well as other notorious Croatian
Serb rebels and then JNA officers, liable for Vukovar atrocities,
would be brought before justice.
During his stay in Dayton, Mesic held talks with US Ambassador David
Scheffer, the State Department special advisor on the war crimes
matter.
Commending Croatia for the current level of cooperation with the
ICTY, Ambassador Scheffer criticised the fact that the official
correspondence between Zagreb and the Tribunal often appeared on
pages of some Croatian newspapers and thus a negative image of the
ICTY-Croatian relations and of the Tribunal itself was created in
the public. A similar remark was given by Carla del Ponte during a
working part of the conference on the implementation of the Dayton
peace agreement, which stopped the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina five
years ago.
Asked by reporters, Mesic confirmed that del Ponte and Scheffer had
again called on Zagreb to produce certain documents to the
Tribunal's Prosecution. Del Ponte is going to reiterate such
official call in a letter which will be forwarded to the Croatian
Government's office in charge for cooperation with the ICTY.
In Dayton, Croatian head of state met separately Kresimir Zubak,
the leader of a Bosnian party called the New Croatian Initiative
(NHI), the incumbent Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's
special envoy, Pavle Jevremovic, and an American businessmen of the
Serb descent, Milan Panic.
Mesic and Zubak discussed the recent general elections in Bosnia-
Herzegovina. Commenting on a referendum which the strongest
Bosnian Croat party - HDZ - initiated among the Croat population,
Zubak assessed that the referendum had negative repercussions for
the election's outcome and this move of the HDZ breached the ban on
electioneering.
Pavle Jevremovic notified President Mesic in detail of the current
situation in Yugoslavia after the recent elections when the public
forced Slobodan Milosevic to step down.
Milan Panic informed President Mesic of some of his business ideas
which might attract the Croatian economy.
(hina) ms