CROATIA: Croatia moved a step closer to EU membership yesterday when the chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said it was now co-operating fully in the hunt for renegade general Ante Gotovina.
The recommendation by Ms del Ponte to EU foreign ministers removes one of the last remaining obstacles to the start of Croatia's accession talks with the EU.
The EU put these talks on hold in March this year when it ruled that Croatia was not co-operating fully with the war crimes tribunal in the search for Gen Gotovina.
In her report to the ministers, Ms del Ponte said that for a few weeks now Croatia had been co-operating fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
"Croatia has been co-operating fully with us and is doing everything it can to locate and arrest Ante Gotovina. If Croatia continues to work with the same resolve and intensity, I am confident that he can be transferred to The Hague soon."
The report also highlighted the performance of the Croatian intelligence services had significantly improved since May and there had been no leaks of confidential tribunal documents that could be attributed to the Croatian authorities.
Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader said yesterday he would work closely with the prosecutor whatever the decision of the foreign ministers on opening accession negotiations.
He said it was up to them to make a decision on the timing of the talks.
The report on Croatia's co-operation with the tribunal had been delayed earlier yesterday as the British presidency sought to deliberately separate the talks over the Turkish and Croatian accession negotiations. Austria, which had stubbornly opposed the start of accession talks with Turkey, had several times pressed for talks with Croatia to go ahead if Turkey was given the green light for the start of accession negotiations.
The report to ministers reaffirmed criticism of the Vatican, which Ms del Ponte has accused of failing to offer assistance to the war crimes tribunal.
"My visit to the Vatican on July 1st only confirmed the lack of willingness by the Holy See to co-operate with the tribunal," she said in the report.
The war crimes tribunal has received indications that Gen Gotovina may be hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia. The Vatican has denied the claim by the tribunal.
Gen Gotovina has been on the run since 2001 when he was indicted by the war crimes tribunal. Prosecutors want to put him on trial for his role in Operation Storm, a 1995 offensive during which Croatian forces recaptured the Serbian-controlled enclave of Knin. About 150 Serbian civilians were killed during the offensive and hundreds of others are still missing.
Ms del Ponte based her report on over 130 reports that her office had received this year from the Croatian agencies involved in tracking Gen Gotovina.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers agreed a deal for the transfer of air passenger data between the EU and Canada. The agreement will transfer selected passenger data to the Canadian authorities to help identify passengers who could be a security threat on airlines flying from the EU to Canada.
Ministers also called for the start of a formal process at the UN to work towards concluding an international treaty on the arms trade "to establish common standards for the global trade in conventional arms".