ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan and the Chief Prosecutor of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, agreed at Wednesday's talks in Zagreb that
the cooperation between the ICTY and Croatia was generally good and developing well. They clarified some remaining open issues.
ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan and
the Chief Prosecutor of the Hague-based International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, agreed
at Wednesday's talks in Zagreb that the cooperation between the
ICTY and Croatia was generally good and developing well. They
clarified some remaining open issues. #L#
"We agreed that the cooperation in general is good. We also assessed
certain issues which need to be clarified and solved," Racan told a
news conference after the meeting.
Del Ponte said a very positive development of cooperation between
Croatia and the Hague tribunal had been achieved and added that
certain open issues were still awaiting solutions.
The chief prosecutor stressed that the arrest of retired General
Ante Gotovina was an important issue. She is confident in the
determination of the Croatian government to carry out the
tribunal's arrest warrant.
Del Ponte also voiced confidence that the Croatian Prime Minister
had assumed the obligation to find and arrest Gotovina.
Important steps needed to be taken are the arrest of Ratko Mladic in
Serbia, Radovan Karadzic in Bosnia and Ante Gotovina in Croatia.
"We spoke about the arrest of General Gotovina and the efforts
Croatian authorities are making to comply with the arrest warrant,"
Racan said, expressing conviction that the efficiency of organs of
authority in Croatia was improving in this instance as well.
Asked about information the ICTY was providing to Croatian
authorities about Gotovina's movements, who has been on the run for
two years now, Del Ponte said the tribunal informed Croatia as soon
as it received the information. But this information is usually out
of date and there has been no success since he has not yet been
arrested, she said.
Racan said that they also spoke about documents which Croatia
needed to present to the prosecution and "issues were clarified
well" in this area.
Asked about the tribunal's request for transcripts from the ex-
President's Office owned by the Tudjman family and the Croatian
Democratic Union party, Del Ponte only said it was true that the
ICTY was requesting certain documents from the archives of the
Croatian interior and defence ministries and the President's
Office.
She said that in this area the tribunal enjoyed the full cooperation
of Croatian authorities. But they sometimes have difficulty
recovering the documents, she said.
The tribunal believes that this can be accomplished, but more time
is needed since these documents are not in one, but several
locations and sometimes the authorities cannot locate them, the
chief prosecutor said.
Del Ponte said that she had spoken with Racan about the possibility
of national courts taking over some files of war crimes suspects
after the completion of investigations and after the prosecution
issues all indictments at the end of next year. National courts will
continue processing war crimes suspects in line with the principle
that crimes should not go unpunished.
Del Ponte estimated that in the future it would be easier for
Croatia to fully cooperate with the tribunal.
She hopes her next visit to Croatia will take place only to express
the tribunal's gratitude for full cooperation.
The talks were attended by Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic,
Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic, the head of the
government's office for cooperation with the ICTY, Frane Krnic, and
the chief state prosecutor, Mladen Bajic.
At the end of her brief visit to Croatia, Del Ponte visited the ICTY
Office in Zagreb.
For the first time, Del Ponte's visit was not related to her visits
to countries in the region. It was a single working visit to Croatia
at the invitation of the Croatian government.
The government's prognoses that relations between Croatia and the
ICTY were "entering calmer waters" and would no longer "obstruct
Croatia's drawing closer to the European Union" proved to have been
correct.
Croatia's readiness to cooperate with the tribunal, which,
according to Racan, is "the government's strategic option", was
directly confirmed by the fulfilment of requests which were
previously the subjects of criticism.
By serving the indictment on retired General Janko Bobetko, the
case has been shelved, and Ivica Rajic, who was on the run for
several years, is in the process of extradition.
Croatia's cooperation was directly confirmed by the EU Council of
Ministers by entering Croatia's application for EU membership in
due process.
Del Ponte's positive assessments will probably be reflected on the
completion of the ratification process of the Stabilisation and
Association Agreement between Croatia and the European Union in EU
members' parliaments.
(hina) lml