US embassy cable - 04ZAGREB149

C O N F I D E N T I A L  ZAGREB 000149 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE - KABUMOTO, S/WCI-PROSPER, 
EUR/ACE-NEFIRD, INL/AAE-JHARTSHORN 
JUSTICE FOR BRENDA JOHNSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, KJUS, PREF, PREL, KAWC, HR, War Crimes, Refugee 
SUBJECT: CROATIAN JUSTICE MINISTER AFFIRMS JUDICIAL 
 
REFORMS, REFUGEE RETURNS 
 
REF: A) 03 ZAGREB 2671 B)03 ZAGREB 2642 C) 
     FRIEDMAN-EFIRD E-MAIL 1/20/04 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Ralph Frank, reasons 1.5 (b) & (d) 
 
SUMMARY and COMMENT 
------------------- 
 
1. (C) In an introductory call on new Minister of Justice 
Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Ambassador Frank welcomed the Minister's 
positive statements on cooperation with the ICTY and urged 
quick resolution of the Gotovina case.  The Ambassador 
praised achievements in reforming the State Prosecutor's 
office under Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic, and 
stressed the need for comparable judicial reforms. 
Skare-Ozbolt laid out her four-point plan for thorough 
judicial reforms and committed on refugee returns to "fully 
protect private property."  Skare-Ozbolt brings a burst of 
new energy to a lackadaisical Ministry, but will face an 
uphill battle to convince the judiciary to go along with her 
reforms.  However, our new assistance program to help improve 
local capacity to prosecute war crimes cases will benefit 
from this new momentum for change.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
ICTY Cooperation Key 
-------------------- 
 
2. (C) Ambassador Frank paid an introductory call on Minister 
of Justice Vesna Skare-Ozbolt on January 23.  Also 
participating were Assistant Minister Zdravko Stojanovic, 
PolOff Justin Friedman, and USAIDOff Chuck Howell.  The 
Ambassador welcomed the commitment of the new government to 
cooperate fully with the ICTY.  However, the U.S. was deeply 
concerned by comments in the press by Sabor President 
Vladimir Seks indicating the U.S. had not discussed the 
Gotovina case on Seks's and Foreign Minster Zuzul's recent 
visit to Washington.  The Ambassador stressed that resolution 
of the Gotovina case was an important part of the Washington 
discussions and that he had spoken to Prime Minister Sanader 
that morning about the GoC correcting any public 
misperceptions created by the Sabor President's statements. 
Skare-Ozbolt noted this comment reaffirmed her government's 
commitment to cooperate fully with the ICTY.  Later the same 
day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement 
retracting Seks's comments. 
 
Judicial Reform High Priority 
----------------------------- 
 
3. (C) Ambassador Frank praised reforms achieved by State 
Prosecutor Mladen Bajic in his office and challenged Minister 
Skare-Ozbolt to achieve similar reforms in the judiciary. 
Skare-Ozbolt agreed with the Ambassador's comment that 
judicial reforms were also necessary to improve investor 
confidence in Croatia.  She said she planned to keep in place 
existing programs to improve court performance, including the 
USAID, World Bank, EU funded municipal court automation 
program, while improving on their implementation. 
 
4. (C) Minister Skare-Ozbolt said she would implement a 
four-point plan to tackle the serious problems still facing 
the judicial sector.  First, she plans to move judicial 
training programs from the ineffective Center for Judicial 
Education and create a new Judicial Academy in cooperation 
with the Zagreb Law School.  There, prospective and current 
judges would receive additional training to encourage 
individual courts to specialize in areas such as family law 
or commercial law. 
 
5. (C) Second, to help remove the 1.5 million court case 
backlog, Minister Skare-Ozbolt will introduce legislation 
allowing cases to be transferred between courts, noting that 
sixty percent of the backlog is in the Zagreb and Split 
courts.  She also plans to create new criminal and civil 
courts as well as a land registry court for Zagreb, having 
already identified facilities to be renovated for this 
purpose. 
 
6. (C) Third, Minister Skare-Ozbolt plans to fund the hiring 
of 550 new court counselors (equivalent to U.S. clerks) who 
would help judges manage administrative matters, draft 
decisions, and even handle simple cases directly.  These 
counselors would all be bar-approved lawyers, who could use 
these positions to demonstrate their suitability to become 
judges.  Finally, some laws, including aspects of the 
criminal code changes annulled by the Constitutional Court 
(ref A), would be changed to improve court efficiency. 
 
7. (C) Minister Skare-Ozbolt also pointed to implementation 
of alternative dispute resolution legislation and better 
 
E 
 
 
training of government officials on when to use courts to 
improve the efficiency of the court system.  With these 
measures, Minister Skare-Ozbolt expects to resolve the case 
backlog in three to five years. 
 
Support Refugee Returns 
----------------------- 
 
8. (C) Ambassador Frank welcomed commitments by Prime 
Minister Sanader to promote the return of refugees to 
Croatia, noting the role of the Ministry of Justice would be 
critical in this effort.  Minister Skare-Ozbolt said she had 
considerable experience on the challenges involved from her 
previous experience working on the peaceful reintegration of 
the Slavonia region into Croatia but committed to "fully 
protect private property." 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
9. (C) Minister Skare-Ozbolt's energy, apparent commitment, 
and engagement on the issues of judicial reform and refugee 
return are a welcome change from her predecessor.  Minister 
Skare-Ozbolt also indicated that she wanted to see clinical 
legal education more widely introduced in Croatia.  While we 
sense a new energy and direction from her Ministry staff as 
well, her key challenge will be to convince deeply 
conservative judiciary and law school faculties to accept 
considerable changes to the way they do their jobs.  We have 
supported such efforts in the past with limited success, but 
have a declining ability to support new efforts as SEED 
funding dries up. 
 
10. (C) Over the last year, the GoC has made uneven progress 
in improving its ability to prosecute war crimes cases 
domestically (ref B).  Post will seek to leverage new War 
Crimes Court assistance funds (ref C) with Minister 
Skare-Ozbolt's commitment to implement court system reforms, 
as well as EU judicial education programs now in place. 
FRANK 
 
 
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