ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The leaders of most parliamentary parties on Monday declined to comment on the latest political allegations against Croatia, which are reportedly contained in the Hague war crimes tribunal's indictments
against generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac and the amended indictment against General Ante Gotovina. They stressed the politicisation of the indictments is unacceptable.
ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The leaders of most parliamentary parties on
Monday declined to comment on the latest political allegations against
Croatia, which are reportedly contained in the Hague war crimes
tribunal's indictments against generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac
and the amended indictment against General Ante Gotovina. They
stressed the politicisation of the indictments is unacceptable.#L#
Djurdja Adlesic of the Social Liberals (HSLS) said the government had
to adequately brief parliament about the contents of the indictments
and help the accused defend themselves. She called on parliamentary
parties to reach consensus on cooperation with the Hague tribunal.
Speaking of today's meeting between Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and the
leaders of parliamentary parties, Adlesic said "it's a significant
attempt on the prime minister's part to build an effective
relationship between the ruling and opposition parties concerning such
delicate issues".
Vesna Pusic said her Croatian People's Party (HNS) had always insisted
on the consistent application of the constitutional law on cooperation
with the Hague tribunal. She added indictments could be challenged
only before the tribunal where the state, as an interested party,
could appear only when indictments went beyond individualised guilt.
"Unlike in previous cases, the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) is now
for cooperation with the Hague tribunal because they are in power,
which is a good lesson that such issues mustn't be used to score
political points. The only difference between the new and the earlier
cases of generals Bobetko and Gotovina lies in the fact that there are
no public demonstrations now," Pusic said.
She added that parliament should have been informed of the latest
indictments last Thursday, when some of the opposition parties
requested it.
Liberal Party (LS) leader Ivo Banac is against parliament discussing
the latest indictments and the political assessments they allegedly
contain, as well as against using the indictments for the purposes of
daily politics.
"The constitutional law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal is
clear and does not envisage the jurisdiction of domestic
institutions," he said, adding that he did not "see how any debate at
this moment could be of use to anyone".
Banac said hesitation about cooperation with the Hague tribunal would
be detrimental to Croatia at a time when it expected the European
Commission's answer to its European Union membership application.
"Raising these issues would make it more difficult for this
government, which is not something we want," said Banac.
Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) leader Zlatko Tomcic said the indictments
were a very serious issue and that he would not comment on them until
he saw them.
(Hina) ha sb