CRO. GOVT. IN THE DARK AS TO HOW MESIC'S HAGUE TESTIMONY LEAKED OUT

ZAGREB, Dec 7 (Hina) - The Croatian government released a statement on Thursday saying it had no knowledge as to how Slobodna Dalmacija daily and Globus weekly got hold of the contents of President Stipe Mesic's 1998 protected witness testimony before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. "This Croatian government did not participate either in the procedure before the International Criminal Tribunal or in the testimony itself, nor was it consulted about or included in the provision of protective measures. It neither was nor is in possession of the said records, and has no knowledge as to the sources and authors of the unauthorised disclosing of the testimony." The statement was released following last week's order from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia prohibiting the said media from publishing the Mesic testimony. Besides prohibiting further publication, the Hague order requested the government to submit to the tribunal data on the sources and authors of the unauthorised disclosing of the testimony, said the statement. Slobodna Dalmacija this week turned a deaf ear to the order and continued to publish the incumbent president's testimony in the trial of Tihomir Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat general sentenced to 45 years in prison. The government statement says the tribunal's order was delivered to the Croatian Embassy in The Hague late Friday afternoon, without a previous notification. It was forwarded to the government's office for cooperation with the tribunal via the Foreign Ministry on Monday. The office then forwarded it to the said media and the State Prosecutor's Office to decide if there is legal ground to initiate proceedings before a competent Croatian court, which is the only body with jurisdiction to carry out the Hague order. (hina) ha