Croats sought for war crimes talks


Del Ponte wants suspects handed over

ZAGREB, Croatia -- The chief U.N. war crimes chief prosecutor says Croatia's army chief has offered to talk about his role in the 1991-95 war of independence from Yugoslavia.

Carla Del Ponte said she was withdrawing an invitation for General Petar Stipetic to be interviewed. This was widely seen as implying that he was a potential suspect and not a witness, causing enormous political controversy in the country.

It even threatened the government of Prime Minister Ivica Racan as some parties in his six-party coalition said they would withdraw their support for cooperation with the tribunal if Stipetic were indicted for war crimes.

Stipetic is widely regarded as a professional soldier whose name has not been linked by the media or human rights groups with any of the atrocities committed during the war.

"We will withdraw our invitation and will let Gen. Stipetic himself decide if he will be interviewed or not," Del Ponte said after a day-long discussion that Racan described as difficult but fruitful.

"We withdraw our invitation because our invitation followed an expression of Gen. Stipetic (of readiness) to be interviewed," Del Ponte said.

She made clear that the letter her office sent to the government last month asking to talk to Stipetic was a mere formalisation of his own request.

Belgrade visit

Croatian officials had never mentioned this aspect of the issue, maintaining that the initiative came from The Hague tribunal. A senior Croatian official said the government was pleased with two points that Del Ponte made, both of which would help it sell cooperation with the tribunal domestically.

Del Ponte said she had not brought any indictments with her, as had been speculated for weeks ahead of her visit, and added that her office was not investigating two key Croatian army offensives against rebel Serbs in 1995.

"We do not investigate Operations Storm and Flash; we are investigating war crimes (and) individual responsibilities," Del Ponte said.

Racan's government made clear it would not accept any "criminalisation" of the war, that is branding of entire actions, seen in Croatia as legal military operations, as cynical ethnic cleansing campaigns.

Del Ponte also plans a trip to Belgrade on January 23 but Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica will not meet her, a senior official of his party said on Monday.

The deputy president of Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia described the tribunal as a political court and said Del Ponte did not have the stature to expect a meeting with the president as a matter of course, according to local media.

"Mr. Kostunica can receive presidents of state, prime ministers and Madame Del Ponte is neither one nor the other. She is not even a foreign minister of a country or an ambassador who brings accreditations," Aleksandar Popovic told B92 radio.

Del Ponte expects Kostunica to meet her, but Popovic said: "Mr. Kostunica's day has 24 hours and Madame Del Ponte is not high enough in some hierarchy for Mr Kostunica to receive her."

Kostunica has said he would not hand over former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the tribunal. He has said Milosevic should stand trial in Yugoslavia.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.