Sanader, Mesic and Del Ponte at Brijuni

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that he will discuss relations and co-operation of Croatia and ICTY with the Hague prosecutor.

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader travelled on Friday morning to Brijuni island where he will meet chief Hague prosecutor Carla del Ponte, together with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.

Del Ponte participated in the regional conference of state attorneys at Brijuni, dedicated to issues of criminal proceedings of war crime perpetrators before home courts.

Prime Minister Sanader told journalists upon his arrival in Fazana that he will discuss in principle relations on the co-operation between Croatia and The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) with the Hague prosecutor. According to him, he will repeat what he said a few days ago before the Croatian public how the government will give necessary guarantees if the defence of general Ante Gotovina requests it, in order for the general to be temporarily released from The Hague Tribunal custody.

-I will express the government’s position once more to the Hague prosecutor, that if the defence of general Ante Gotovina requests his release until the trial starts, the Croatian government will give guarantees for this plan. I will repeat this once again to prosecutor Del Ponte, although, of course, she does not decide on this or the government, bit the Court Council- Sanader pointed out.

Talking of the announced departure of Carla Del Ponte from duty of the chief Hague prosecutor, Sanader said that he did not if this was her farewell visit to Croatia, because, as he said, “it seems that her mandate will be prolonged for several months”.

-Regardless of this and regardless of who The Hague Tribunal chief prosecutor is, there are Constitutional obligations in Croatia, i.e. obligations according to the Constitution for co-operation. At the same time, it is a fact that all of us in Croatia are orientated on functioning of the law-based state - Sanader said, adding that this means if “someone was charged, they must come out and bring out their arguments”.

-Our standing point is a presumption of independence and in this sense, Croatia will co-operate. But, I repeat, neither the prosecution nor anyone else can say what happened and reach the final verdict in the court process because this can exclusive be done by the court council- pointed out Prime Minister Sanader. He added that when it comes to the truth about the Croatian Homeland War, everyone knows Croatia was a victim of aggression, that it was attacked, that it defended itself and won in this imposed war.

-We are extremely proud of this. We have no issues before anyone and before the entire world because nobody apart from us will write the Croatian history- Sanader said.

Upon addressing the conference participants at Brijuni, the Hague prosecutor pointed out good results when it comes to the co-operation with The Hague Tribunal and region state attorney’s offices.