ZAGREB, March 7 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, on Thursday said she was going to ask the European Union to exert pressure on Croatia to extradite an indictee, General Ante Gotovina.
ZAGREB, March 7 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's Chief
Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, on Thursday said she was going to ask
the European Union to exert pressure on Croatia to extradite an
indictee, General Ante Gotovina. #L#
In Brussels where she met Javier Solana, the EU high representative
for foreign and security policy, and Chris Patten, the European
Commission's External Relations Commissioner, del Ponte said that
the tribunal's officials knew that Gotovina was from time to time
residing in Herzegovina and that they knew the name of a hotel where
he usually stayed, and in this context she accused the Croatian
police of a lack of cooperation, i.e. their failure to nab him while
this retired general passed the border.
Del Ponte, whose statement was quoted by the Croatian Television's
flagship news programme last night, added that she had arrived in
Brussels to ask of the EU to exert pressure on Croatia.
Javier Solana said the EU would continue to treat cooperation of the
five south-eastern European countries, covered by the
Stabilisation and Association Process, with the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yuggolsavia (ICTY) as a pre-
condition for closer ties between the said countries and the EU.
Earlier on Thursday the Croatian government refuted objections
that Zagreb did not cooperate with the tribunal, and invited its
Chief Prosecutor to visit Zagreb.
"The government has decided that singling out Croatia for non-
cooperation with the tribunal is unnecessary, we see no reason for
that and dismiss such objections as unfounded," said Deputy Prime
Minister Goran Granic after the government's session. He added that
del Ponte might arrive in Croatia until the end of this month.
Carla del Ponte criticised harshly authorities of Serbia and
Montenegro for a lack of the political willingness to hand over key
indictees. She asserted that Belgrade knew about movements of
Bosnian Serb war-time leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
She stressed that she was expecting to have results now, adding that
she was tired of demanding the apprehension of Mladic, Karadzic and
other high-profile war criminals.
(hina) ms