CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ADDRESSES U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

( Editorial: --> 3882 ) WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Hina) - Croatia's main objective remains to be included into Europe, Foreign Minister Mate Granic said in New York on Monday. "Integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions remains our strategic goal. Therefore, Croatia will continue to march towards it, devoted to its high standards and committed to its principles", said Granic in his address to the United Nations 53rd General Assembly. As a Central European and Mediterranean country, Croatia will further endeavour to stay a key agent of stability and peace in this part of the world, Granic said. Recalling that even though the war is behind us, Croatia is still grappling with the legacies of aggression, such as the problem of devastated economic infrastructure, missing persons, assistance to the victims of the war and war invalids as well as the return of displaced persons and refugees. "Croatia is increasingly focusing on post-war reconstruction, economic growth and development, as well as overall normalisation of relations with neighbours to the east and south", the Foreign Minister said. "Croatia stands ready not only to open the border crossings with the Republic of Montenegro, but also to continue with demilitarisation on our side of the border and follow-on with the present security regime currently administered by UN Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP)..... The UNMOP mandate should terminate by 15 January 1999, since in the present circumstances another prolongation of the mandate can be misused to stall negotiations indefinitely". The unresolved issue of succession continues to undermine the prospects of lasting normalisation in the region, Granic noted. "The responsibility lies squarely with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), its adamant refusal to accept the generally recognised fact that no single state that has arisen from the dissolution of the former SFRY can be considered its sole successor. Obviously, decisive efforts and measures are needed, including by the UN, to bring the FRY to the consensus reached by the other successor states" he said. He continued to say that while Croatia has lent its full support and cooperation to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, it is not satisfied with its results thus far. "Indictments issued so far do not adequately reflect the scope of war crimes committed by different sides to the conflict nor the level of involvement". Granic recalled that Croatia helped to persuade eleven Bosnian Croats to voluntarily surrender to the Hague Tribunal and that since then three were acquitted while the rest have been awaiting trial for over 18 months - much longer than usual in any individual state. "Further, not a single Bosnian Muslim - despite promises made as far back as the Dayton negotiations - has been charged for crimes committed against Bosnian Croats. Furthermore, only one Serb was brought to The Hague for crimes committed during aggression against Croatia, but he (Dokmanovic) was never sentenced since he died in prison," he said. The most notorious perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity - Karadzic, Mladic and Martic - still remain at large, Granic said highlighting that the FRY continues to harbour and refuses to deliver to the Hague the perpetrators of the most heinous war crimes committed in Vukovar - Mrksic, Sljivancanin and Radic. "This stance of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia overtly defies the will of the Security Council, the international community and justice in general, as well as constituting an impediment to the reconciliation process going on in the region", said Granic. With regard to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Granic reminded that for Croatia, as a guarantor of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the following basic principles remain paramount: Bosnia-Herzegovina is a single, internationally recognised state; decentralisation of the state apparatus and; full equality of the three constituent peoples. "Croatia cannot support any solution for Bosnia-Herzegovina that does not fully incorporate these founding principles or in any way amounts to a revision of the Dayton principles. Deviations from or tacit abrogation of these principles can be both damaging and destabilising not only for Bosnia-Herzegovina itself, but also for the other states in the region," said Croatia's Foreign Minister. (Hina) sp/rml 291208 MET sep 98