ZAGREB, June 13 (Hina) - The Croatian government highly appreciates President Stjepan Mesic's efforts towards eliminating barriers preventing fugitive general Ante Gotovina from speaking to the Hague war crimes tribunal, and
reiterates that the truth about Gotovina's role in Operation Storm can be established and defended only at the tribunal, in line with its Statute and Regulations and Croatia's legislation.
ZAGREB, June 13 (Hina) - The Croatian government highly appreciates
President Stjepan Mesic's efforts towards eliminating barriers
preventing fugitive general Ante Gotovina from speaking to the
Hague war crimes tribunal, and reiterates that the truth about
Gotovina's role in Operation Storm can be established and defended
only at the tribunal, in line with its Statute and Regulations and
Croatia's legislation. #L#
In a statement released on Friday, the government said its office
for cooperation with the Hague tribunal would forward the
documentation it received from Mesic's office yesterday to the
Hague prosecutor's office in Zagreb later today.
The five documents from Mesic's office refer to the organisation of
the departure of Croatian Serbs ahead of 1995's Operation Storm and
with their content complement the documentation already forwarded
to the Hague prosecutor's office.
The rest of the documents from Mesic's office refer to Gotovina's
orders initiating disciplinary and other proceedings against a
number of Croatian troops. There are no orders among them which
might refer to the punishment or reporting of subordinates for the
perpetration of grave or war crimes.
Bearing in mind that Gotovina may have issued such orders, the
government has already referred to Croatian bodies to retrieve them
if they exist so that they may be forwarded to the Hague
prosecutor's office, read the statement.
It added the government did not wish to speculate about the
tribunal's decisions, but was bound, under Croatia's Constitution,
to fully respect them. The government hopes Mesic's initiative
would help Gotovina decide to speak to the tribunal and rid himself
of the sponsors which made him and Croatia hostages.
The statement said that from the moment the indictment against
Gotovina was filed, the government insisted on the legal aspect of
the indictment, the respect of the Hague tribunal's decisions, and
the collection of relevant evidence to prove the truth about the
Homeland War and Operation Storm.
Besides Prime Minister Ivica Racan's letter strongly disputing
parts of the indictment, the government in July 2001 forwarded the
prosecutor's office dozens of documents, and on 7 May 2002
personally gave to chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte 122 pages of
various documents, written and video records about the evacuation
of Croatian Serbs under the guidance of former rebel leaders.
(hina) ha