At the start of Friday's session of his cabinet, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that the Government would send the three letters asking to be given the status of amicus curiae.
In this context the premier explained that Zagreb opted for this move as it could neither agree with nor accept the qualifications from the indictments about the criminal enterprise.
"In our capacity as a friend of the court we are going to challenge all what is unacceptable to us," Sanader said.
The contents of the letters could not be made public, and the government considered them during a session behind the closed doors later in Friday.
Now it is up to the ICTY to decide on Croatia's proposal.
According to the statute of the Hague-based UN war tribunal, the ICTY can summon individuals, organisations or countries to express their positions on some legal issues in their capacity as amici curiae.
The Hague tribunal has so far used this right several times. For instance, in the trial against Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic, the UN court resorted to this move nine years ago, when the Republic of Croatia appealed a decision of an ICTY trial chamber on serving a summons on the then Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Susak. Croatia's appeal was upheld.
Now the government is planning to act as a friend of the court sending one letter for the case of HV General Ante Gotovina, one letter in the case of HV Generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, and one letter in the case of the six Bosnian Croats - Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Valentin Coric, Milivoj Petkovic, Slobodan Praljak and Berislav Pusic.
The ICTY issued an indictment against Gotovina in June 2001, and an indictment against Cermak and Markac in March 2005, charging them with crimes against humanity committed against Croatian Serbs during and after the August 1995 Storm operation.
All the three Croatian generals pleaded not guilty at their initial appearances. They are now waiting for the start of trial.
Six former Bosnian Croat officials are charged with war crimes committed during a campaign against Bosniaks and other non-Croats in Croat-controlled areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1993 and 1994.