"I do not care what the Serb community in Australia will be doing. What is important for me is that rule of law is respected both in Croatia and Australia," Sanader said on Monday in response to reports that the Serb community in Australia was trying to prevent the extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovic to Croatia where he has been indicted for war crimes.
"We expect the procedure initiated by the Croatian request (for the extradition) to be soon completed. Our public is acquainted with the fact that there is practically one more key step, and it is (Australian) Justice Minister. I expect him soon to make a decision and that Vaisljkovic will be brought to justice in Croatia," Sanader told reporters during the Zagreb conference of the SEECP Speakers of Parliaments.
Reuters reported earlier on Monday that Australia's Serb community vowed to fund a battle in the country's highest court to stop the extradition of Vasiljkovic, also known as Captain Dragan.
The 52-year-old Vasiljkovic was arrested in Australia in January last year, and is now in prison pending the outcome of Croatia's extradition request.
"But a group calling itself Serbs for Justice and Democracy said it had raised A$500,000 ($416,000) towards a $1 million fund to take Vasiljkovic's defence to Australia's High Court," Reuters reported.
Last week a lower court ruled Vasiljkovic was eligible for the transfer to Croatian authorities, giving his legal team 15 days to lodge documents with a federal appeal court.
If Vasiljkovic loses his appeals against the extradition, Australia's Justice Minister David Johnston will make the final decision on whether to send him to Croatia to face trial.
Jokingly commenting on reports about funds being raised in Australia for Vasiljkiovic's defence, Mesic said that all that Vasiljkovic would bring with him to Croatia "as we are waiting for him".
A 1994 UN report mentions Vasiljkovic as the second most important person in the so-called Republic of Serb Krajina after the infamous military leader Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan.
Vasiljkovic is charged, in his capacity as commander of a special Serb paramilitary unit, with torturing and killing captive Croatian soldiers and police in a prison in Knin in June and July 1991 as well as in Bruska near Benkovac in February 1993.
He is also charged with devising, in agreement with a commander of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), a plan of attacks in the Glina area resulting in the destruction of civilian facilities, the expulsion of the local population, the plundering of their property, and the killing and wounding of civilians, including a foreign journalist.
The request for Vasiljkovic's extradition, who holds both Australian and Serbian citizenship, was filed by former Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt.