Fugitive general is Croats’ bin Laden, says president

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 03/03/05

Croatian President Stjepan Mesic' has strongly defended his country's efforts to apprehend the alleged war criminal Ante Gotovina, likening requests to find him to requests that Croatia should find Osama bin Laden.

Two weeks before the EU is supposed to make a decision on whether to launch membership talks with the western Balkan country, Mesic' told European Voice that he was convinced that the indicted general was no longer in Croatia.

"It is absolutely certain that he is not in Croatia because Croatia is the last country where he would seek refuge, everyone is looking for him," the president said.

"By the same logic we could be requested to deliver bin Laden. If he is not in Croatia he is not in Croatia."

The EU has made a decision to open membership talks conditional on Croatia's full compliance with the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY). Gotovina is wanted by the court for his role in the expulsion of 150,000 Serb civilians and the murder of at least 150 in 1995.

With enormous pressure mounting on Zagreb and the threat that EU membership talks might be delayed, Mesic' said Croatia had done all it could.

"Croatia has frozen his assets, the assets of his potential collaborators. People who co-operated with ICTY indictees and fugitives have been eliminated from the system, they are being prosecuted, measures are being taken against them, so no one can say we are not doing everything we can."

He said that "of 626 requests for co-operation with ICTY, Croatia has complied with €625 except for one person whose whereabouts we don't know anything about".

"General Gotovina not only holds a Croatian passport but he is also a French national and given that he spent quite a lot of time in Paraguay he could have Paraguayan nationality as well."

Mesic' has approved a dossier of evidence on Croatia's compliance with the court which will be sent to The Hague, Brussels and other European capitals in the coming days.

"We have compiled a document that is intended for ICTY, that contains material which explains what Croatia has done so far in order to uncover the whereabouts of General Gotovina. An abbreviated version will be sent to the president of the [European] Parliament, the president of the Commission and prime ministers and presidents of the member states."

Despite claiming that he was "confident" that talks would be launched on 17 March, Mesic' warned that nationalism and Euroscepticism could increase in Croatia if the negotiations were delayed.

Enthusiasm among Croatians for joining the EU is waning, a survey published on Wednesday (2 March) has shown.

The Eurobarometer survey showed that support for EU membership has dropped from around three-quarters of the population in early 2004 to around half by the end of the year.

Mesic' warned that a refusal to start accession talks would send to Croatia's neighbours the message that "it does not pay to fight for EU standards, given that Croatia is the country that has done the most in this respect".

But European and US diplomats are concerned that failure to capture Gotovina would send the wrong message to other countries in the region, such as Serbia or Bosnia, which are also being asked to comply with ICTY.

Mesic' rejected any comparison. "I think we should put an end to this practice of comparing Croatia to any other country in the former Yugoslavia," he said.

"Croatia did not have concentration camps on foreign territory, Serbia did."

ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte is expected to deliver her verdict on Croatia's co-operation soon, a view seen as critical to the EU's decision.

Croatian President Stjepan Mesic has strongly defended his country's efforts to apprehend the alleged war criminal Ante Gotovina, likening requests to find him to requests that Croatia should find Osama bin Laden. The EU has made a decision to open membership talks, originally scheduled for March 2005, conditional on Croatia's full compliance with the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY). Gotovina is wanted by the court for his role in the expulsion of 150,000 Serb civilians and the murder of at least 150 in 1995.