Mesic said on Croatian Radio it was clear that Croatia would not hesitate about extraditing Ante Gotovina, a runaway general wanted by the Hague war crimes tribunal, if he was in Croatia.
"To be credible, we must assure the Hague tribunal's Prosecution and our friends in Europe that we have undertaken everything also against those who broke the law in the past, who were hiding fugitives, financed their escapes and provided them with false identities," Mesic said.
"We will see if we will get a date for EU entry negotiations or if we will only be more credible in the eyes of our European friends," he said commenting on the outcome of tomorrow's sessions in Luxembourg.
Asked about report that businessman Hrvoje Petrac was in Israel, the president said there had been strong suspicion of that but that it was not certain. He added there was no evidence that Petrac was implicated in financing Gotovina's escape or sojourn abroad. "I haven's seen any evidence. There's only suspicions."
Mesic once against underlined that he was absolutely certain that Gotovina was not in Croatia. He called on Gotovina to surrender to the Hague tribunal, saying that "if Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who certainly deserves more credit for the liberation of Kosovo than Gotovina does in Croatia, could surrender to the Hague tribunal, Gotovina should do the same".
Mesic accused Gotovina of being responsible, alongside the late General Janko Bobetko, for the death of 185 Croatian soldiers in the January 1993 Operation Maslenica, which he described as "unprepared. It didn't move us forward one inch and was carried out for election purposes".
Asked if it was true that Interior Minister Marijan Mlinaric would have to step down due to leaking of information from National Security Council sessions, Mesic said he did not have that information.