The EU agreed to open membership talks with Croatia...
LUXEMBOURG (AP) -- The European Union agreed Monday to open membership talks with Croatia after Carla Del Ponte, the U.N. chief prosecutor, gave assurances the government in Zagreb was now cooperating fully in efforts to bring a war crimes suspect to trial...
Croatia soon in EU
EU agrees to open Croatia talks
The EU froze talks with Croatia in March for not cooperating with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which had indicted former Croat Gen. Ante Gotovina for atrocities against Serbs. In a statement, EU foreign ministers said they were ready to begin entry talks now that "Croatia had met the outstanding condition for the start of accession negotiations."
"Yes, it is the first time we are saying it's full cooperation," Del Ponte said. She delivered her positive report to EU foreign ministers, who were holding a review of Croatia's stalled membership bid on the sidelines of crisis talks aiming to start entry talks with Turkey. "In the light of the above, I can say that for a few weeks now, Croatia has been cooperating fully with us and is doing everything it can to locate and arrest (war crimes suspect Gen.) Ante Gotovina," Del Ponte said in her report. "If Croatia continues to work with the same resolve and intensity, I am confident that he can be transferred to The Hague soon."
The EU froze talks with Croatia in March, demanding Zagreb fully cooperate with the tribunal in handing over Gotovina, who has been on the run since a mid-2001 indictment for wartime atrocities against Serbs. Croatia's Prime Minister Ivo Sanader also held separate talks with EU officials, and said ahead of his meeting that he was confident the EU would soon restart membership talks.
Del Ponte said her positive report was "based on over 130 reports that my office received this year from the Croatian agencies involved in the tracking of Ante Gotovina, on the nearly daily communications between my office and the Croatian state attorney Mladen Bajic and on other contacts with Croatian and international sources." She refused to say, however, whether she fully supported demands by Austria that Croatia's membership bid be put back on track. "I'm not entering political decisions, I am just a prosecutor," Del Ponte said.
Her report outlined that in the first half of this year, "serious weaknesses were found in the functioning of Croatian intelligence services," adding there were "leaks of sensitive information to the media." But Del Ponte said that since May, "performance of the relevant services has significantly improved." She said "according to sources outside of the Croatian government, Gotovina is in Croatia or in Bosnia Herzegovina and there are indications that he may hide in a Franciscan monastery."
Sanader insists Gotovina has fled the country long ago, but has still stepped up a public hunt for him this year, aiming to convince the EU that it is serious in trying to hand him over to the tribunal.
President Stipe Mesic said he believes that Croatia could join the EU in 2008 but warned that hard work was still to be done... "We should not be euphoric. We have to understand that it is the first important step. Now we have to work..." he told
EU agrees to open Croatia talks
The EU froze talks with Croatia in March for not cooperating with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which had indicted former Croat Gen. Ante Gotovina for atrocities against Serbs. In a statement, EU foreign ministers said they were ready to begin entry talks now that "Croatia had met the outstanding condition for the start of accession negotiations."
"Yes, it is the first time we are saying it's full cooperation," Del Ponte said. She delivered her positive report to EU foreign ministers, who were holding a review of Croatia's stalled membership bid on the sidelines of crisis talks aiming to start entry talks with Turkey. "In the light of the above, I can say that for a few weeks now, Croatia has been cooperating fully with us and is doing everything it can to locate and arrest (war crimes suspect Gen.) Ante Gotovina," Del Ponte said in her report. "If Croatia continues to work with the same resolve and intensity, I am confident that he can be transferred to The Hague soon."
The EU froze talks with Croatia in March, demanding Zagreb fully cooperate with the tribunal in handing over Gotovina, who has been on the run since a mid-2001 indictment for wartime atrocities against Serbs. Croatia's Prime Minister Ivo Sanader also held separate talks with EU officials, and said ahead of his meeting that he was confident the EU would soon restart membership talks.
Del Ponte said her positive report was "based on over 130 reports that my office received this year from the Croatian agencies involved in the tracking of Ante Gotovina, on the nearly daily communications between my office and the Croatian state attorney Mladen Bajic and on other contacts with Croatian and international sources." She refused to say, however, whether she fully supported demands by Austria that Croatia's membership bid be put back on track. "I'm not entering political decisions, I am just a prosecutor," Del Ponte said.
Her report outlined that in the first half of this year, "serious weaknesses were found in the functioning of Croatian intelligence services," adding there were "leaks of sensitive information to the media." But Del Ponte said that since May, "performance of the relevant services has significantly improved." She said "according to sources outside of the Croatian government, Gotovina is in Croatia or in Bosnia Herzegovina and there are indications that he may hide in a Franciscan monastery."
Sanader insists Gotovina has fled the country long ago, but has still stepped up a public hunt for him this year, aiming to convince the EU that it is serious in trying to hand him over to the tribunal.
President Stipe Mesic said he believes that Croatia could join the EU in 2008 but warned that hard work was still to be done... "We should not be euphoric. We have to understand that it is the first important step. Now we have to work..." he told