ZAGREB, July 9 (Hina) - Croatia's opposition parties have continued pressures on the government demanding that it make the content of two sealed indictments of the Hague war crimes tribunal against two Croatian citizens public at an
extraordinary parliamentary session and that the parliament take a stand on Croatia's relationship to the tribunal. Democratic Centre (DC) president Mate Granic says he is expecting Parliament Speaker Zlatko Tomcic's answer about DC's request for convening an extraordinary parliamentary session or at least a closed-door session of the parliament's Committee on Internal Affairs and National Security. Granic believes Prime Minister Ivica Racan should inform deputies about the content of the indictments against two Croatian citizens at an extraordinary parliament session. "Prime Minister Racan should inform parliamentary deputies about the content of the indictments against t
ZAGREB, July 9 (Hina) - Croatia's opposition parties have continued
pressures on the government demanding that it make the content of
two sealed indictments of the Hague war crimes tribunal against two
Croatian citizens public at an extraordinary parliamentary session
and that the parliament take a stand on Croatia's relationship to
the tribunal.
Democratic Centre (DC) president Mate Granic says he is expecting
Parliament Speaker Zlatko Tomcic's answer about DC's request for
convening an extraordinary parliamentary session or at least a
closed-door session of the parliament's Committee on Internal
Affairs and National Security.
Granic believes Prime Minister Ivica Racan should inform deputies
about the content of the indictments against two Croatian citizens
at an extraordinary parliament session.
"Prime Minister Racan should inform parliamentary deputies about
the content of the indictments against the Croatian citizens so
that the DC could take a stand on a vote on confidence or non-
confidence in the government," Granic told reporters.
The Croatian prime minister has repeated on several occasions that
the ICTY regulations as well as Croatia's Constitutional Law on
Cooperation with the ICTY prohibit making the content of a sealed
indictment public.
The Croatian Christian-Democratic Union (HKDU) will request that a
referendum be organised with the referendum question being whether
the Croatian people accept the existing constitutional law on
cooperation with the Hague tribunal and what is their stand on the
hand-over of Croatian generals, HKDU president Anto Kovacevic told
reporters today.
"The indictments must be public and HKDU parliamentary deputies
will strongly oppose the hand-over of Croatian generals because
they are innocent people who defended Croatia," Kovacevic said
assessing the Racan government will fall on the issue of
cooperation with the ICTY if it hands over Croatian generals to the
Hague tribunal.
The association for the protection of Homeland War values, HONOS,
condemned the government's decision to act in line with the request
of the Hague tribunal, which demanded the surrender of the persons
from the two indictments.
Over the weekend, the media presented estimates as to the vote ratio
in parliament during the vote on confidence in the government.
According to most of these estimates, the government will not be
given a vote of no confidence because it has the necessary majority
of 76 out of 150 votes.
(hina) sb rml