Haltzel said that if Gotovina were a true patriot he would surrender to the UN court because by being on the run he was harming instead of helping the Croatian people.
The US official also said it was a pity that the Croatian public's support for European Union membership was declining.
Haltzel said he could understand that the peoples of many countries could have a reflex patriotic reaction, but hoped that the people in Croatia and elsewhere would stop and consider the global picture, namely if they really wanted their country to be admitted to the European Union by some special, inferior standards.
Haltzel said the condition for Croatia to join the EU was full cooperation with the Hague tribunal, which he added meant that General Gotovina must appear before the tribunal.
He called on Gotovina, as well as Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, to act patriotically and surrender to the UN court because by being at large they were harming their peoples instead of helping them.