ZAGREB, Feb 26 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Monday reiterated he was confident the Croatian judiciary would perform well in the case of retired general Mirko Norac, suspected of war crimes, and that there would be no
need for the Hague war crimes tribunal to intervene. Mesic was commenting on current issues in a Croatian Radio broadcast on Monday. Numerous protest rallies, staged over the Norac case, and calls for toppling the authorities did not pose a danger of a coup because "it (coup) is usually supported by a foreign power." Those who urged 'Let's march on Zagreb' and 'Let's go all the way' perhaps thought they could do something but nothing can be done by by-passing institutions in Croatia any more," Mesic said. Commenting on claims that the decision on putting Norac on trial in Croatia prepared the ground for trying former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Mesic sai
ZAGREB, Feb 26 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Monday
reiterated he was confident the Croatian judiciary would perform
well in the case of retired general Mirko Norac, suspected of war
crimes, and that there would be no need for the Hague war crimes
tribunal to intervene.
Mesic was commenting on current issues in a Croatian Radio
broadcast on Monday.
Numerous protest rallies, staged over the Norac case, and calls for
toppling the authorities did not pose a danger of a coup because "it
(coup) is usually supported by a foreign power." Those who urged
'Let's march on Zagreb' and 'Let's go all the way' perhaps thought
they could do something but nothing can be done by by-passing
institutions in Croatia any more," Mesic said.
Commenting on claims that the decision on putting Norac on trial in
Croatia prepared the ground for trying former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Mesic said the two things were not
related. "The army came from Serbia to Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina and committed crimes there, as they did in Kosovo. At
the top of the pyramid was Milosevic and it would be illogical to try
him anywhere but in The Hague," Mesic said.
Asked to clarify his statement in an interview with the Austrian
weekly Format to the fact that he was willing to apologise to the
Serbs and deal with the Tudjman legacy, Mesic explained he was ready
to apologise to every (innocent) victim. "When I say 'Tudjman
legacy' I mean the non-functioning of the law-based state, because
had it functioned, we wouldn't have so many problems today, we
wouldn't have entered the conflict with the Bosniaks and the world
would have distinguished between the aggressor and the victim
sooner," he said.
Commenting on the signing of a petition for a referendum on the
adoption of a constitutional law on the protection of Croatian
Homeland War veterans, Mesic said that "if Croatia adopted such a
law, it would no longer be a member of the United Nations." "This
would set apart one part of the population to whom neither Croatian
laws nor the provisions of the international law would apply. It
would be the adoption of a decision under which war crimes would not
be prosecuted," Mesic said.
There is a problem in Croatia that every time attempts are made to
present the country as a safe zone for foreign investments, excess
situations happen. Blocking roads cannot affirm Croatia as a
tourist destination and it inflicts immediate economic damage. The
parliament and government should be enabled to fulfil what they
promised, facilitate an increase in production, employment and
exports, the President stressed.
(hina) sb rml