Settling Down of Relations with the Hague

AIM Zagreb, December 17, 2001

"I didn't bring any indictments with me" said Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal at a press conference held after her meeting with Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Croatia (RH) Ivica Racan. This has finally put an end to numerous speculations about the reasons for her arrival to Croatia, and her statement that the Hague Tribunal has withdrawn its "demand for an interview" with General Petar Stipetic, present Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of RH, was a piece of news that the Croatian political top has received with unhidden relief. However, numerous controversies, which preceded her arrival, have still remained unsolved, same as the stand of the RH Government regarding cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. "Settling down of the situation" was the formulation used most frequently to describe the latest visit of Carla del Ponte to Zagreb.

"I want to point out that I did not bring any indictments with me and that we didn't talk about them at all. In any case, when we arraign an indictment against someone, we keep it secret until the arrest warrant is carried out", said Carla del Ponte after her meeting with Prime Minister Racan, which lasted over seven hours. "I would like to make it clear once and for all that we are not investigating the Homeland War and operations "Flash" and "Storm", but crimes committed in Croatia and people responsible for those crimes", responded del Ponte to reporters gathered in the Presidential Palace obviously attempting once again to put at ease the entire Croatian public, which has recently again raised its voice against "uncritical cooperation of the Croatian Government with the Hague Tribunal".

What did actually the Hague Chief Prosecutor and the Croatian Prime Minister talk about remained a secret and gave rise to many speculations. Prime Minister Ivica Racan informed that an agreement has been reached with the Chief Prosecutor's Office on the withdrawal of its request for General Petar Stipetic to testify and that it would be left to him to decide whether he would testify or not. However, much before this most recent visit of Carla del Ponte to Zagreb, Stipetic himself had said that he saw no obstacle to nor reason for not testifying before the Hague Tribunal.

Further on, Carla del Ponte said that "summons for the interview" were only a "continuation of General Stipetic's wish to talk with the Prosecutor and give his testimony on some crimes on which he had information".

What Prosecutor Carla del Ponte and Prime Minister Racan underlined mostly related to the place of Stipetic's testimony, i.e. that they left the choice of the date and venue of the interview to General Stipetic. They said that it was his personal decision, while Prime Minister Racan pointed out that Stipetic's testimony was "no trick nor trade". What would be the actual status of General Stipetic in this interview, both Carla del Ponte and Prime Minister Racan failed to explain. It remained unclear whether Stipetic received summons as an accused or just as a witness, so that del Ponte's statement that Stipetic was at liberty to refuse to give this interview without any consequences for himself, left enough room for further speculations about his status before the Hague Tribunal.

Also present at the talks between Carla del Ponte and Croatian Prime Minister were Goran Granic, Vice-Premier of the Croatian Government, Stjepan Ivanisevic, Justice Minister, and Orsat Miljenic, Chief of the Government's Office for Relations with the Hague Tribunal. Nevertheless, none of them wanted to disclose details of seven-hour talk. "When I invited Carla del Ponte to Zagreb, we wanted to talk to her about cooperation and remove any obstacles preventing it. We think that we have done precisely that. On behalf of the Croatian Government we expressed our strong desire to cooperate in the investigation and prosecution of crimes", said Racan repeating almost word for word, everything Goran Granic had stated after his meeting with the Hague Prosecutor six months ago. Del Ponte added that they "discussed the misunderstandings and obstacles hindering the cooperation" and that she thought they have found a solution.

Although Carla del Ponte is an unwelcome guest in Zagreb, this visit of hers brought at least some relief to the Croatian authorities. The very fact that several days before her arrival to Zagreb, the Croatian Government gave up its thirteen items whereby it defined modes and conditions for cooperating with the Hague Tribunal, speaks that Croatia understands the need to cooperate with the Hague, but still doesn't understand how to carry out that cooperation in practice. One the one hand are the Hague demands, and on the other still strong feelings of the Croatian public that the Court is unjust and that the majority of the accused are Croats which places the authorities in an unenviable position. The arrival of Carla del Ponte to Croatia, as well as conciliatory statements she and the Prime Minister issued after the meeting, should be observed more as a political message to the domestic public than as an operative meeting which resolved essential problems of cooperation between Croatia and the Hague.

On the other hand, this might affect individual members of the former HDZ authorities who, on the eve of the electoral victory of the six-member coalition last year, took and secretly moved some shorthand notes of late President Tudjman's talks from the Presidential Office to private archives. By this they wanted to hide some crimes that were planned in the top state echelons, but also to prevent these authorities, as well as the Hague Tribunal, from getting the documents that would additionally confirm their involvement in numerous war crimes or - at least - their cover up. It is now up to the Government to resolve the problem of stolen documentation that might prove crucial in throwing light on numerous events from the times about which the Hague Prosecutor is inquiring.

Undoubtedly, the highest point of del Ponte-Racan talks was putting an end to speculations about the role of General Stipetic and summons he had received to testify before the Tribunal's investigators. In the last six months, his testimony, i.e. the summons that he received from the Hague, was the source of numerous political assessments, mostly wrong ones, which in the end resulted in the Government's conclusion on the cooperation with the Hague, in the form of 13 items. At first, this document was received with much enthusiasm, primarily among members of the former regime, which have much reason to fear the Hague investigators. It turned out later that this document might be a source of new disputes between Croatia and the international community, which no one in Croatia needs. These talks made all the pressure exerted on the current authorities - from associations of the Homeland War to many former ministers and Prime Ministers over the last ten years - ridiculous, and after Carla del Ponte left Zagreb even the most bitter opponents did not have much to say against continuation of Croatia's cooperation with the Hague.

However, the negative heritage of the former authorities will follow the ruling coalition for a long time to come and a constant fear that the background of all war operations of the Croatian units might be discovered, will not be dispersed so soon. Balancing between the demands of the domestic public and pressures from the Hague, Racan and his ruling team are frequently caught in their own web of incompetence. That is why visits of the leading officials of the Hague Tribunal are becoming indispensable, mostly for the authorities which are still unable to differentiate what is good and what is bad for them. Same as they do not know what could benefit - or harm - Croatia as a whole.

Milivoj Djilas

(AIM)