NEW YORK, Nov 8 (Hina) - The report by the president of The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) gives a distorted picture of Croatia's cooperation with the Tribunal, Croatian Ambassador to the
United Nations Ivan Simonovic told the 54th UN General Assembly session on Monday.
NEW YORK, Nov 8 (Hina) - The report by the president of The Hague-
based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) gives a distorted picture of Croatia's cooperation with the
Tribunal, Croatian Ambassador to the United Nations Ivan Simonovic
told the 54th UN General Assembly session on Monday.#L#
The report is unbalanced and somewhat dated, the ambassador
asserted.
Reminding after ICTY president Gabrielle Kirk McDonald briefly
updated her annual report that the report covered the period
through 31 July, Simonovic pointed out much had happened in the
ensuing three months which would give a more balanced picture,
especially with regard to cooperation with the ICTY.
McDonald remarked that Croatia had not complied with the request to
extradite war crimes suspects Mladen Naletilic Tuta and Vinko
Martinovic Stela. The latter has in the meantime been deferred to
The Hague Tribunal, while a decision on Tuta's extradition has been
okayed by Croatia's Supreme Court.
Tuta's extradition has been postponed due to his deteriorating
health, and Justice Minister Zvonimir Separovic's decision to
delay transfer has been corroborated by an ICTY medical team which
examined the defendant in Zagreb.
Simonovic reiterated Croatia's willingness to surrender Tuta
unconditionally and immediately upon his recovery, in keeping with
Croatian court decisions.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, McDonald accepted two Croatian
proposals, namely to consider the possibility of paroling
defendants who voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY, and to
establish a panel of judges which would settle in pre-trial
proceedings disputes regarding ICTY jurisdiction .
Simonovic objected to the fact that the report takes out alleged
difficulties from the overall context of Croatia's cooperation
with the ICTY and Croatia's efforts to solve the difficulties to
mutual satisfaction.
The ambassador condemned the parts of the report which name some
members of the Croatian government and which crudely characterise a
Croatian parliamentary debate. Simonovic said this was outside
ICTY's mandate and contrary to the usual way of reporting to the
UN.
Simonovic asserted real cooperation can be based only on mutual
respect and understanding between the state and the ICTY.
Given that McDonald's mandate as ICTY president expires on 16
November, when her duties will be taken by American Judge Patricia
Wald, Simonovic spoke generally about ICTY's work to date.
Even after seven years of the Tribunal's activity, war crimes have
been neither stopped nor prevented, he said, adding it was probably
too soon to make a definitive assessment of the Tribunal's success
in individualising the guilt for committed crimes, which was aimed
at avoiding the feeling of collective guilt and enabling
reconciliation.
Simonovic said the behaviour of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
and the Bosnian Serb entity was however discouraging in view of
their utter unwillingness to claim responsibility for the war in
Southeast Europe and prosecute those who committed the most serious
war crimes.
Croatia is especially sensitive with regard to the policy of
selecting cases which will appear before ICTY judges, the
ambassador said.
He reiterated Croatia's position that the trials ought to reflect
the real complexity of and participation in committed war crimes,
instead of creating the wrong public impression on account of one
country's cooperation and another's refusal.
(hina) ha jn