Croatia to act on war crimes in EU bid

Date: 30/01/03

By David Cronin

CROATIA has been told it must cooperate more in handing over indicted war criminals to the Hague-based tribunal on the former Yugoslavia as the price of joining the EU.

Ivica Racan, the Balkan state's premier, held talks with Romano Prodi, European Commission president, in Brussels on Monday (27 January).

In a statement afterwards, Prodi assured his visitor he would look favourably on Croatia's formal application for Union membership - expected to be lodged by Racan in Athens on 18 February.

But Prodi also confirmed to European Voice that he sought greater readiness from Zagreb to work with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

"Of course I raised this," he said. "And the response was positive."

Three Croatian army generals have been indicted for war crimes against Croatian Serbs during the conflict that engulfed the former Yugoslavia in 1991-95.

One of these was surrendered to the Hague in 2001, but the other two - Ante Gotovina, 47, and Janko Bobetko, 84, remain at large.

Gotovina is accused of colluding with his country's late president Franjo Tudjman in planning a massacre of Croatian Serbs in the Krajina region.

Forces under his command are alleged to have murdered at least 150 people by shooting, burning and stabbing. They also forced the deportation or displacement of up to 200,000 people to Bosnia and Serbia in August-November 1995.

Bobetko, meanwhile, is accused of involvement in the illegal killing of at least 100 Serb civilians and captured or wounded soldiers in the so-called 'Medak Pocket' of Croatia in September 1993.

His officers are reported to have tied individuals to cars and dragged them along the ground and to have mocked a woman as they burnt her to death before mutilating her body.

In the past week, doctors appointed by the Hague tribunal examined Bobetko in a Croatian hospital, where he is reported to be gravely ill.

They are due to determine shortly whether he should be transferred to the Netherlands or stay in his sickbed.

But a Croatian diplomat said Gotovina presents a bigger problem as he is on the run. "An arrest warrant has been issued and, if the Croatian police should find him, he will be arrested," the diplomat added.

"Cooperation with the tribunal is good; our government has handed over a lot of documents."

David Daly, a senior Commission official handling relations with the western Balkans, recently issued a blunt warning about any perceived dithering by Zagreb on aiding the tribunal. "We have informed the authorities that failure to cooperate fully with ICTY would jeopardise Croatia's further movement towards the European Union," he said in a letter obtained by this newspaper.

Croatia has been told it must cooperate more in handing over indicted war criminals to the Hague-based tribunal on the former Yugoslavia as the price of joining the EU.