Croatia: The European Union has held out the prospect of a start to membership talks with Croatia next week, even if Zagreb has not arrested Ante Gotovina, an indicted war crimes suspect.
Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, said yesterday that EU foreign ministers could agree to start talks with Croatia if the country showed it was co-operating with the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
"I could imagine that a situation could arise in which Croatia can prove by March 16th that its co-operation is 100 per cent, without it perhaps being possible up to that point to transfer Gotovina to The Hague," he said.
The UN chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said this week that Croatia had failed to take necessary steps to arrest Gotovina. She also accused Croatian intelligence of targeting UN war crimes investigators and hindering their work.
Gotovina is accused of command responsibility for killings and mass expulsions of Serbs in 1995 when, under cover from US air power, Croat forces drove Serb forces out of eastern Croatia's Krajina region.
All 25 EU member states have to agree before Croatia starts membership talks, and foreign ministers have ruled out opening negotiations until Zagreb co-operates fully with the tribunal.
Mr Asselborn said it was up to Zagreb to persuade the EU that it was pursuing war crimes suspects.
"The Croatian government is doing a great deal at the moment to prove its 100 per cent co-operation. But the evidence is still lacking. Gotovina has not always been regarded as a criminal and is not seen even today by many people in his country as a criminal," he said. In a letter to all EU governments, Ms del Ponte said Croatia had frozen Gotovina's financial assets but had not taken steps to arrest him.
"Despite all public and private assurances from Zagreb, Ante Gotovina remains within reach of the Croatian authorities and until such time as he is brought to The Hague, it cannot be said that Croatia is co-operating fully with the international tribunal."