ZAGREB, 28 July (Hina) - Ahead of tomorrow's address of the Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic to the members of the Parliament Committee for Foreign Policy and presidents of parliamentary parties, in which he is to tackle the
issue of a recent subpoena of the Hague Tribunal to Croatia, Assistant Foreign Minister Ivo Sanader said that 'the situation is serious', considering the fact that the Tribunal had repeated the subpoena, 'but it is not dramatic'.
ZAGREB, 28 July (Hina) - Ahead of tomorrow's address of the Croatian Foreign
Minister Mate Granic to the members of the Parliament Committee for Foreign +
Policy
and presidents of parliamentary parties, in which he is to tackle the issue of +
a recent
subpoena of the Hague Tribunal to Croatia, Assistant Foreign Minister Ivo +
Sanader
said that 'the situation is serious', considering the fact that the Tribunal +
had repeated
the subpoena, 'but it is not dramatic'. #L#
Speaking in tonight's Croatian television late news broadcast 'Motrista',
Sanader said
that Croatia had defined its stand at the beginning of the year, when it +
refused a
similar request.
After the issuing of the Tribunal's subpoena of 18 July, we announced that we
would file a complaint by 18 August. In case our complaint is not solved +
positively, that
will be another precedent. However, one legal possibility still remains - +
through
authorised bodies of the United Nations, Croatia can request the so-called +
advisory
opinion of the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the issue of +
whether the
International Criminal Court for Former Yugoslavia can issue subpoenas under +
threat
of punishment, Sanader said.
Croatia cannot answer positively to the subpoena, as 'it is a precedent in
international law'.
Croatia will cooperate to the extent cooperation is in its interest, Sanader +
said,
adding that cooperation was in Croatia's interest since it was a victim of +
aggression
and was situated in a region where peace should be established at last.
(hina) rm
282354 MET jul 97