THE HAGUE, Dec 12 (Hina) - The Hague war crimes tribunal's deputy chief prosecutor said on Tuesday an indictment for crimes committed during Croatia's 1995 military operation Storm was almost complete, and that the prosecutor's office
would not issue any new indictments this year.
THE HAGUE, Dec 12 (Hina) - The Hague war crimes tribunal's deputy
chief prosecutor said on Tuesday an indictment for crimes committed
during Croatia's 1995 military operation Storm was almost
complete, and that the prosecutor's office would not issue any new
indictments this year.#L#
Asked by reporters about the stage in investigations into crimes
committed during and after Storm, which liberated Croatia's then
Serb-occupied territories, Graham Blewitt was unable to say how
close to completion the indictment was, only that it was almost
complete.
He declined to say who was indicted, but added there would be no more
indictments this year.
Blewitt reiterated the prosecutor's office of UN's International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was not
investigating the legality of the military operation, but the
crimes which were committed.
For the coming months, he announced indictments for other Croat
perpetrators of crimes committed on Croatian territory, as well as
those based on results of investigations into crimes committed by
Serb units in Croatia in 1991.
In deciding if indictments for crimes committed during Storm will
be public or sealed, ICTY will take cue from Croatia, Blewitt said.
He said the tribunal would not take the Croatian government by
surprise, but brief it about its activities. If the government
wants the indictment sealed to arrest the accused, we are willing to
keep it secret, he said, adding he assumed it was going to be sealed
as it was what the government would expect.
Commenting on Prime Minister Ivica Racan's statement of Monday that
"the Croatian government doesn't accept any indictments for the
Homeland War and actions such as Flash and Storm," Blewitt said it
contradicted the previously expressed willingness to cooperate.
ICTY's deputy chief prosecutor was disappointed that communication
between the prosecutor's office and the Croatian government had
started relying on the media especially in view of the fact that
outstanding progress in cooperation had been made this year.
The government yesterday issued official stances requesting that
the Hague tribunal investigate concrete crimes and not legitimate
Croatian military operations, that it do more in prosecuting crimes
committed in Croatia by ex-Yugoslavia's federal army, and that it
conduct possible contacts with state officials exclusively via the
Croatian government.
Disappointed, Blewitt said the government was wrong in saying the
ICTY prosecutor's office was not investigating crimes committed in
Croatia by Serb units in 1991.
The prosecutor's office will not investigate each single crime but
has set priorities covering every side, every accountable person,
every grave crime committed both chronologically and
geographically on the territory of the former Yugoslav
federation.
Asked about the request that all communication be conducted through
the government's office for cooperation with the tribunal, the
deputy chief prosecutor said the office was the main but not the
only communication route.
(hina) ha