The network (of those who help him) is a very large, and there are certainly Gotovina's friends in the OA and the POA, del Ponte said in her exclusive interview with the Zagreb-based Vjesnik daily.
Commenting on alleged mediators between the Croatian government and Gotovina, del Ponte said that Zagreb had told her that it could come in touch with Gotovina an that he would voluntarily surrender.
After that alleged mediator (Jure) Kapetanovic reportedly contacted Gotovina in Mostar or somewhere in the surroundings of Mostar, (Croatian) Justice and Foreign Ministers came in The Hague for talks with me, del Ponte said in the interview Vjesnik runs on Friday.
They told me that Gotovina's answer for the surrender was negative, but according to them they continued to work on persuading him to turn himself in to, she said.
When it was established that there was no such meeting (with Gotovina), you can understand that I was upset and outraged. We realised that they were making efforts so as to persuade him but not to arrest him, she added.
I have assessed that attempts to track him down started only when the Croatian government realised that (membership) negotiations with the European Union would not be opened unless Gotovina arrived in The Hague, the tribunal's chief prosecutor said.
She said she did not know the exact whereabouts of Gotovina but that according to all information she had she could confirm that he was hiding either in Croatia or outside Croatia only in Croat-controlled parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Asked whether she trusted Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader she answered that she had trusted him from the very beginning and that she also now trusted him.
I can understand that he is in a difficult political situation, but I must continue with pressure, del Ponte said.
Asked whether the Hague-based UN tribunal was a politically motivated court, she answered that this was nonsense.