ZAGREB, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatia absolutely trusts its legal representatives from the US law firm Hunton & Williams, which has been representing it before the Hague Tribunal since 1997, and before the International Court of Justice
since this year, Croatian Justice Minister Zvonimir Separovic told reporters on Friday.
ZAGREB, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatia absolutely trusts its legal
representatives from the US law firm Hunton & Williams, which has
been representing it before the Hague Tribunal since 1997, and
before the International Court of Justice since this year, Croatian
Justice Minister Zvonimir Separovic told reporters on Friday. #L#
"With today's news conference the Croatian Government wishes to
express its complete confidence in the company it has hired",
Separovic said.
Introduced at the conference were US attorneys David Geneson and
David Rivkin of Hunton & Williams, who are to represent Croatia
before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a complaint it
filed in July against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for the
violation of the Genocide Convention.
The Government believes in David Rivkin's abilities and
assessments, said Separovic, responding to press claims on
Rivkin's incompetence.
Separovic said the Government would also hire other domestic and
foreign experts on international law and damage assessment in the
complaint against Belgrade.
The US attorneys believe they will win the case before the ICJ.
"Chances are excellent, facts and law are on Croatia's side",
Rivkin said.
He denied that there was contradiction between Croatia's complaint
against Yugoslavia for genocide committed between 1991 and 1995 in
the armed conflict that was conducted by Belgrade and Croatia's
claim before the Hague Tribunal that operation "Storm" was a
military-police action and not an armed conflict.
"Every use of force is not an armed conflict", Rivkin said,
mentioning as an example the conflict between Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.
Rivkin supported his claim saying that quite a period of time
elapsed between the completion of Serb aggression and operation
"Storm", which he said was a short operation with a small number of
victims, and in the meantime the situation on the ground had
considerably changed because U.N. administration had been
established.
Asked if there was a delaying tactics on Croatia's part regarding
its cooperation with The Hague in the extradition of Mladen
Naletilic Tuta and whether he felt responsible for exposing Croatia
to the threat of sanctions, Rivkin dismissed the premises of the
question saying, "Croatia is not engaged in any delaying tactics.
Croatia has an obligation to cooperate with the ICTY... at the same
time, Croatia, as a sovereign state, has the right and obligation to
enforce its own law".
He believed synchronising those two obligations "will be resolved
in a satisfactory manner.
According to Rivkin, Croatia's conduct was in accordance with the
international law in every aspect.
(hina) rml