CROATIA'S LOWER HOUSE DEBATES BILL ON COOPERATION WITH ICTY

ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - The Legislative Committee of the Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives on Tuesday discussed a constitutional bill on cooperation with the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) but failed to put it to the vote due to a lack of quorum. Responding to remarks by some deputies that extradition of Croatian citizens would be in violation of the Constitution, Justice Minister Miroslav Separovic said that the government's position on the issue was that Croatian citizens would not be extradited to another country but handed over to an international organization. Separovic supported an amendment proposed by a member of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) according to which it would be possible to appeal to the Croatian Constitutional Court against a ruling on handover to the Hague-based tribunal because under the Croatian Constitution human rights protection falls within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court. (hina) vm jn 161724 MET apr 96