ZAGREB MONDAY MORNING ZAGREB, Sept 21 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's representatives will hand over a warrant for the arrest and extradition of retired general Janko Bobetko to the Croatian government's office for cooperation
with the tribunal on Monday morning in Zagreb, said a spokeswoman for the tribunal's prosecution on Saturday.
ZAGREB, Sept 21 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's
representatives will hand over a warrant for the arrest and
extradition of retired general Janko Bobetko to the Croatian
government's office for cooperation with the tribunal on Monday
morning in Zagreb, said a spokeswoman for the tribunal's
prosecution on Saturday. #L#
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) on Friday announced it was planning to forward, later that
day, the additional warrant, which specifies that Croatian
authorities are asked to arrest the indicted general, but the
tribunal was said that the working hours were over and that during
the weekend neither the president of the council for cooperation
with the ICTY, Goran Granic, nor the head of the government's office
for cooperation with that tribunal, Orsat Miljenic, would be able
to receive the document, spokeswoman Florence Hartmann told Hina.
The head of the government's office, Miljenic, confirmed that the
government had not yet received the second warrant.
"We have received nothing", he said on Saturday.
Hartmann said the Hague-based tribunal was expecting of Zagreb to
act in accordance with the forwarded warrant within the shortest
time term possible.
The rules of the tribunal say that this procedure should be carried
out within the sensible time term.
The procedure for the conduct in line with the tribunal's warrant is
defined by Croatia's legislature which does not specify
deadlines.
Vice Premier Goran Granic, who is the head of the above-mentioned
council, said on Friday that the Bobetko indictment was not in
compliance with Croatia's Constitution, given that the tribunal
indicts him for the persecution of the Serb population, which is
unacceptable, as Bobetko ensured the implementation of a
legitimate operation aimed at the protection of the country's
constitutional order.
Spokeswoman Hartmann on Saturday said that no government or state
could with its stand negate the indictment.
"It (indictment) can be denied only during court process before the
international tribunal," she asserted.
On Friday evening the tribunal announced that the Bobetko
indictment was unsealed. The document accuses this 83-year-old
Croatian general of war crimes committed in the Medak Pocket in
September 1993.
Earlier on Friday, the Croatian government sent the warrant for
Bobetko's arrest back to the tribunal in The Hague, as the warrant
demanded of the ICTY prosecution and not of Zagreb to apprehend this
war-time Croatian army chief-of-staff.
The new warrant, that was forwarded also to the media on Friday, is
addressed to the Croatian government which was asked to apprehend
Bobetko.
(hina) ms