US embassy cable - 04ZAGREB598

C O N F I D E N T I A L  ZAGREB 000598 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/WCI:PROSPER, EUR/SCE:KABUMOTO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2014 
TAGS: KAWC, PREL, KJUS, HR, War Crimes 
SUBJECT: CROATIA SENDS SIX TO ICTY 
 
REF: ZAGREB 425 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Ralph Frank, reasons 1.5 (b) & (d) 
 
Summary and Comment 
------------------- 
 
1. (C) On April 5, the Government of Croatia put six new 
Bosnian-Croat ICTY indictees onto a regularly scheduled 
commercial flight to Amsterdam.  Notwithstanding a minor 
misunderstanding regarding the late notice given the GoC 
regarding one of the six, ICTY Head of Office Thomas Osorio 
describes the GoC's handling of this group and the previous 
indictments and transfers of Croatians Cermak and Markac as 
"by the book."  Osorio believes that Croatia's handling of 
these last eight indictees, along with new candor in the 
search for fugitive Ante Gotovina, marks a turning point in 
Croatia's relations with the tribunal and could bode well 
both for further constructive dialogue on Gotovina.  Osorio 
also intimated that should this dialogue remain positive, 
Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte could deliver to the UN 
Security Council a positive report on Croatian cooperation 
with the Tribunal.  END SUMMARY and COMMENT. 
 
New Indictments "by the Book" 
----------------------------- 
 
2. (C) Over the last week, the Government of Croatia 
delivered new ICTY indictments to six Bosnian Croat 
indictees.  All six ) former Herceg Bosna (HB) prime 
minister Jadranko Prlic, former Croatian Defense Council 
(HVO) commanders Slobodan Praljak and Milivoj Petkovic, 
former HB Defense Minister Bruno Stojic, fromer HVO Military 
Police commander Valentin Coric, and former head of the 
officer for missing and detained persons of HB Berislav Pusic 
-- are dual citizens of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina 
and were resident in Croatia at the time their indictments 
were delivered.  As promised, all six boarded a regularly 
scheduled commercial flight for Amsterdam the morning of 
Monday, April 5. 
 
3. (C) In a meeting with EUR/SCE Director Charles English 
April 2, the ICTY's Head of Office for Croatia, Thomas 
Osorio, described the GoC's handling of these indictments, as 
well as those of Croatians Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac 
(reftel), as "by the book."   Osorio noted that the GoC was 
tying its own hands by offering guarantees that Cermak and 
Markac would appear for trial if released from custody, thus 
creating the expectation that similar guarantees would be 
offered for the new indictees. 
 
4. (C) Osorio said the ICTY does not seek such guarantees 
when assessing pre-trial release requests, judging each case 
on three issues: whether the suspect had surrendered 
voluntarily; whether the state involved has a track record 
for cooperating on delivering suspects to the Tribunal; and 
whether the accused was fully cooperating with the court. 
Under these criteria, the Chief Prosecutor had to object to 
Cermak's and Markac's release and would likely object to the 
release of at least two of the Bosnian Croats. 
 
Turning the Corner on Cooperation? 
---------------------------------- 
 
5. (C) ICTY Chief Osorio told Director English that Croatian 
cooperation with the Tribunal is better than the official, 
ICTY public line of "so far, so good."  He said that the 
issue of cooperation on documentation requests is "completely 
behind us now."  In particular, Osorio praised the 
professional approach of Croatia's Justice Minister Vesna 
Skare-Ozbolt.  Osorio praised the role Foreign Minister 
Miomir Zuzul has played, but said he has been urging the 
Croatians to take the MFA out of the picture in handling 
relations with the Tribunal, including further indictments. 
Notwithstanding the political sensitivities in Croatia of 
each new indictment which would likely keep Prime Minister 
Ivo Sanader involved, Osorio said that the best way to 
continue to depoliticize cooperation with the Tribunal would 
be to remove the MFA from the process altogether. 
 
Time for Dialogue on Gotovina 
----------------------------- 
 
6. (C) Osorio said that Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte and 
Prime Minister Sanader had developed a whole new dialogue on 
the issue of fugitive Ante Gotovina.  Although del Ponte had 
been very cautious about engaging in such a dialogue, Osorio 
believed that the Sanader government had earned new trust 
based on its moves since assuming office, including the 
latest Article 59 report recently submitted on its efforts to 
apprehend Gotovina.  Osorio would not discuss with us the 
contents of the report, but noted that this was the first of 
such reports not to be immediately leaked to the media. 
 
Another positive step, according to Osorio, was the recent 
decision of Justice Minister Skare-Ozbolt to give new 
authority on the Gotovina issue to Mladen Bajic, the highly 
respected Chief State Prosecutor.  Osorio said that the del 
Ponte's office would be very cautious to avoid being trapped 
into developing a checklist as a basis for the GoC to claim 
it had done everything it could to find Gotovina.  However, 
he reemphasized that the Prosecutor's Office now believed it 
could engage in a genuine dialogue with the GoC on Gotovina. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
7. (C) Osorio would not come out and say this directly, but 
he did give us every indication that Chief Prosecutor del 
Ponte was moving toward delivering a positive report to the 
UN Security Council on Croatia.  He indicated that the 
evolving dialogue was moving in a direction that would "allow 
the prosecutor to say Croatia is doing everything it can do" 
to find Gotovina.  Although Osorio cautioned that he did not 
yet have the information to say the GoC was doing everything, 
he left us with the strong impression that the GoC and ICTY 
are headed in that direction. 
FRANK 
 
 
NNNN