Mesic: I Expect Captain Dragan In Croatia

I believe he will be extradited, because Dragan Vasiljkovic has used all his options, Croatian President Mesic said.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – Croatian President Stjepan Mesic welcomed the European Union joining in the Croatian-Slovene border dispute.

- The only acceptable thing for us is for them to point out the way we can reach the solution, but not the solutions of ad hoc cases. There are international conventions which we refer to and want it to be solved that way. If Slovenia accepts such a way of solving the dispute, we are ready and accept the court`s provision in advance – Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said, commenting on Slovenia not ratifying Croatia`s NATO accession protocol.

Slovene Prime Minister Borut Pahor said on Monday that the interrupted sitting of the Slovene Parliament and the decision on ratifying NATO accession protocols for Croatia and Albania, might continue “in a sensible period”.

- We are not damaged, Albania is, but I hope the issue of the budget would be separate from the ratification issue at the sitting of the Slovene Parliament – the president pointed out.

The president also commented on the extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovic, aka Captain Dragan. Australian Federal Court in Sydney turned down his appeal against the extradition to Croatia, as he is wanted over suspicion that he committed war crimes against civilians, Croatian soldiers and prisoners as the commander of Serbian paramilitary forces in Croatia.

- I believe he will be extradited, because he has used all his options - Croatian President Mesic said

According to the Australian Extradition Law from 1988, Vasiljkovic has the opportunity to appeal three times at various court instances to the New South Wales court provision, however, according to The Age, this might be his final appeal, because he has no more money and as the paper claims, he owes 193,000 dollars to his attorneys.