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Croatia's Cooperation With the UN War Crimes Tribunal

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A Timeline of Developments


Agence France Presse
July 16, 2001

1996


April 1: Tihomir Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat general accused by the ICTY of war crimes in Bosnia when he was commander of Croatian forces there, hands himself over to the Hague.

April 19: The Croatian parliament votes through a law on the surrendering its citizens accused of war crimes to the ICTY.

September 13: The ICTY confirms the indictment of Bosnian Croat General Ivica Rajic, for war crimes, saying that Croatia was directly involved in the Bosnia conflict.

1997

January 17: ICTY criticises Zagreb for a lack of cooperation in handing war criminals to The Hague.

February 14: ICTY orders Croatia to release documents concerning Blaskic. Croatia refuses, unleashing a legal battle over the right of judges to insist that a sovereign state or one of its ministers hand over documents or appear before court representatives.

April 28: Croat Zlatko Aleksovski, a former chief of the Croatian army internment camp in Bosnia (HVO) at Kaonik, is transferred to The Hague. The transfer, hailed as the first stage in Croatia's cooperation with the ICTY, was the result of strong, particularly financial, pressure by the West.

June 24: The United States announces that it wants to delay the unblocking of a 30-million-dollar World Bank loan to Croatia. Croatia accuses the ICTY of partiality and of applying "unacceptable" pressure.

October 6: Zagreb sends 10 Bosnian Croats to The Hague, including Dario Kordic, the political and military chief of the HVO in the Lasva valley in Central Bosnia.

December 28: An aide to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman says that Zagreb could suspend cooperation with the ICTY if it charges Croatian generals who fought during the 1991-95 conflict with Serbia.

1999

August 9: Croatia hands over war crimes suspect Vinko Martinovic, a Bosnian Croat, to the ICTY.

August 25: The ICTY criticises Zagreb for refusing to recognise its jurisdiction over suspected war crimes during two Croatian offensives in 1995 to reconquer territory taken by Serb secessionists and to hand over Mladen Naletilic, alias "Tuta".

Naletilic is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict between the 1993-94 conflict between Croats and Muslims (1993-94) in the region of Mostar in southern Bosnia.

September 2: Croatia authorises the transfer of Mladen Naletilic. The handover is delayed for health reasons.

2000

February 7: Croatia's new president Stipe Mesic promises to cooperate with the ICTY.

March 3: Blaskic is condemned to 45 years in prison by the ICTY, which criticises the role played by Zagreb and nationalist acts by Tudjman in the conflict. The same day Mesic implicitly puts the whole responsibility for Croatia's role on the conflict on the shoulders of Tudjman.

March 21: Mladen Naletilic is transferred to The Hague.

April 15: Croatia's parliament adopts a declaration recognising the jurisdiction of the ICTY for eventual war crimes committed in the 1991-95 Serbo-Croat conflict.

December 11: Prime Minister Ivica Racan admits the existence of problems between Croatia and the ICTY after the government said that it would not accept any further charges against generals linked with reclaiming Croat territory in 1995.

The Racan government is accused by war veterans of being too conciliatory towards the ICTY.

2001

January 15: The ICTY says that all the obstacles to cooperation between the tribunal and Croatia have been lifted.

July 6: The ICTY's Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte confirms in Zagreb that two sealed indictments have been sent to the Croat authorities.

July 7: Zagreb says that it will transfer to The Hague war crimes suspects. The Croatian press identifies them as Rahim Ademi and Ante Gotovina, who are regarded as nationalist "heroes". They are suspected of being responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Serb civilians during the conflict between Croatia and ethnic Serbs.

Zagreb's decision prompts a political conflict and the resignation of four members of the government.

July 13: Zagreb confirms that Rahim Ademi is one of the two war crimes suspects, which the ICTY has asked to be transferred.


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